Penn State

Location

University Park, PA, United States

Capacity

106,572

Opened

1960

Time zone

UTC -05:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Beaver Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania, United States, on the campus of Pennsylvania State University. It has been home to the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten Conference since 1960, though some parts of the stadium date back to 1909. It was also the site of university commencements until 1984. The stadium, as well as its predecessors, is named after James A. Beaver who was a former governor of Pennsylvania (1887–91), president of the university's board of trustees, and native of nearby Millerstown, Pennsylvania. Beaver Stadium has an official seating capacity of 106,572, making it currently the second largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere and the third largest in the world. Beaver Stadium is widely known as one of the toughest venues for opposing teams in collegiate athletics. In 2008, Beaver Stadium was recognized as having the best student section in the country for the second consecutive year. In 2016, Beaver Stadium was voted the number-one football stadium in college football in a USA Today poll, garnering over 41 percent of the vote In March 2019, USA Today conducted another poll asking voters to decide the best stadium in the United States during "Bracket Madness", which coincided with the 2019 NCAA Basketball Tournament. Hundreds of thousands of fans voted for their favorites throughout the week. In the championship matchup, Beaver Stadium beat Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse to claim the title of Ultimate Stadium. Beaver Stadium was the first to have its interior included in Google Street View.