UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Beaver Stadium is getting a facelift for the weekend and by the looks of the massive stage sitting in the end zone opposite the student section, the makeover is nearing completion.
Saturday's Happy Valley Jam, the daylong country music concert headlined by Blake Shelton who takes the stage around 9 p.m., is the first-ever concert in the 107,000-seat home of the Nittany Lions. But, don't expect Saturday's crowd, or setup, to be confused with the congested traffic patterns and elbow-to-elbow seating that most experience during a football game at Beaver Stadium.
"The capacity was 70,000, but I don't think any of us, maybe in our wildest dreams had hoped to get there," Phil Esten, Penn State's Deputy Director of Athletics and Chief Operating Official told DKPittsburghSports.com. "Reasonably, we expect it to be somewhere in the 30,000-40,000-range. Not having ever hosted a concert in Beaver Stadium we just didn't know what the response would be. We thought if we could eclipse that 30,000 mark we'd be really happy with that and we feel pretty good about that right now."
It's one way Penn State is trying to use Beaver Stadium more than a handful of times per year and, in turn, athletics is trying to make a profit off the show. Basis Entertainment President and CEO Gary DeWaard, who has seen these stadium shows through before, smiled Thursday afternoon when asked how many tickets need to be sold or what benchmark needs to be hit for this concert to be considered a success.
"It's already going to be a success," DeWaard said Thursday night. "Just based on the pre-sales and the numbers now, it's already a success and the expectation of more fans still buying tickets and day of show we expect a good turnout because the weather is supposed to be good."
He said he's unsure how many people will attend, other than to say there will be "tens of thousands" in attendance.
Esten said it's been a learning process and one that will continue up and through the concert. Esten said there was a large spike in interest in ticket sales when the concert was first announced during the game against Iowa last football season, and then he said within the past two weeks that interest has picked up again in ticket sales.
Still, a crowd of 30,000-40,000 inside a gigantic stadium might look a little strange come Saturday night. With the potential for many rows of vacant bleachers, plus a capacity of approximately 7,000 on the field, which would mean about 23,000 or so in the bleachers (assuming Penn State hits at least 30,000 tickets sold) could make for a much more intimate show than expected in a place that's used to seeing crowds of 100,000-plus.
One has to wonder if the anticipated crowd size would've been different had Penn State tried to secure a bigger headliner (Bruce Springsteen, U2, Kenny Chesney, etc.)
It's unclear what number of tickets sold Penn State needs to hit for this event to be worth it financially. Certainly, there's a large difference between 30,000 tickets sold and that lofty number of 70,000.
"It's hard to say everything that we've learned until we've gone through it, but the ebbs and flow of ticket sales are different for concerts than they are for a football game," Esten said. "Working with promoters is different than working with teams or conferences. All of that has different nuances to it."
Unlike home football games, beer will be available throughout the venue, that is for those willing to pay standard concert prices for alcohol, which per the signs plastered in the stadium Thursday night will run $8 per beer. Much like concerts in the Bryce Jordan Center, Penn State will issue wristbands to try and monitor alcohol sales.
Fans can tailgate in the afternoon and plenty of tickets are still available. For a show that had ticket prices initially announced at $33-$211 as of Thursday night on StubHub tickets were available for as low as $45.
Still, with State College wrapping up the annual 4th Fest just days ago and with ArtsFest taking over the town next week, it's unclear how many people will be willing to make the drive to Happy Valley for Shelton, Chris Young, Big & Rich and a pair of newcomers. It's sounding like it could be a difficult sell.
For those who do attend, CMT will shoot their weekly Hot20 countdown from the concert, which will give more exposure to the event and to Beaver Stadium. And, before Shelton takes the stage Saturday night, to a crowd of who knows how many, the artist will be in the mid-state in Hummelstown at 5 p.m., signing bottles of Smithworks Vodka at a spirits store.
"The resources that are generated here we'll be able to reinvest back into our student athletes to create conditions for success for our student athletes, but also to provide quality entertainment and an opportunity for our fans and our community to come together," Esten said.