Inside Penn State's Temporary Seating Plan for Beaver Stadium in 2025

Penn State needed a seating solution while Beaver Stadium undergoes its $700 million renovation. It hired InProduction to build more than 9,000 temporary seats.

A general view of the temporary seating on the west side of Penn State's Beaver Stadium. | Phillip Glaeser/InProduction

When Penn State committed to its three-year, $700-million plan to renovate Beaver Stadium, two sections of the calendar loomed over the project. How would Penn State stage the 2025 and 2026 football seasons without substantially diminishing capacity, revenue and the fan experience?

Penn State identified temporary seating as the solution and contracted with InProduction, whose seating and hospitality structures fans have used to watch golf tournaments, F1 races, college football and Tom Brady's last season.

Within six weeks of this summer, InProduction installed, secured and tested about 9,500 temporary seats at Beaver Stadium, which goes live again Aug. 30 when the Nittany Lions host Nevada. So even after its upper deck was demolished, Beaver Stadium will have a capacity of 106,304 for the 2025 season. That's just 268 fewer seats than the stadium's 2024 capacity of 106,572.

Of course, officials at Penn State and InProduction understand why fans might feel a bit skittish about sitting on bleachers perched atop a 66-foot concrete platform. For InProduction, though, the Beaver Stadium project proved pretty routine. It just happened to take place inside the nation's second-largest stadium before the most-anticipated Nittany Lions' football season since 1999.

"It's a beautiful, historic location, so I guess that part makes it a bit unique," Phillip Glaeser, InProduction's director of marketing, said in an interview. "But for the actual work, this is kind of our bread and better. We do it all the time."

In addition to the temporary seating, Beaver Stadium also will test-drive mobile modules called Spacecubes, which InProduction brought from Australia for their first U.S. use. In all, Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft said Beaver Stadium is "ready to go" for 2025 and shouldn't feel or sound much different despite the temporary setting.

"The building, and the most hostile and exciting environment in all of sports, will be ready," Kraft said. "Our fans are going to be ready to rock and roll when we kick off for Nevada. That was very important to me and our team, that we did not want anything to get in the way of the greatest environment in all sports."

The logistics behind Penn State's temporary seating plan

Construction work continues at Penn State football's Beaver Stadium in early August 2025. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Penn State is in what Kraft termed the "second quarter" of the $700 million Beaver Stadium renovation scheduled for completion in 2027. During the first quarter, Penn State demolished the press box and upper-deck seating on the venue's west side and began building the "super-structure," as Kraft called it, that will house the new West Tower.

So far, construction crews have poured more than 6,600 cubic yards of concrete and turned 3,200 tons of steel into the tower's framework. Once completed, the west tower will house two hospitality clubs, 15 exeutive suites and nearly 19,000 new club and bleacher seats. It will top out above 190 feet, Kraft said.

"The footprint is massive," Kraft said. "It is a big, big, big, big building."

Which won't be completed until the 2027 season (Kraft said the project is on time and on budget). Since Penn State was unwilling to sacrifice about 10 percent of seating capacity this season, it hired InProduction to solve the problem.

"Would we rather there be 10,000 less people in the stadium for a year? That's always the question," Glaeser said. "A lot of colleges are having this problem, and how do you bridge the gap? You can't build a stadium in seven or eight months, so what do you do? This is the method they figured out. You tear down a portion [of the stadium], you build it up to a percentage and then you go from there. This is the new kind of model in modern revamping of historic college stadiums."

InProduction advertises itself as the "leading provider of temporary seating, staging, structures, and scenic production for the United States events industry." Glaeser said the company performs more than 1,000 installations per year. Among them: the famous stadium-seating environment at the 16th hole of the WM Phoenix Open, F1 races in Las Vegas and Texas, and event space for the NFL Draft.

When Tom Brady played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, InProduction installed temporary seating at Raymond James Stadium to handle extra ticket demand. InProduction also has built temporary football stadiums at Northwestern and the University of Hawaii and constructed temporary seating during Florida State's renovation of Doak Campbell Stadium.

"If you've got a flat-ish spot — it doesn't even have to be flat, just flat-ish — we'll figure out a way to put seats there," Glaeser said.

Construction is underway at Penn State's Beaver Stadium during March 2025. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Once Penn State completed the initial work on the west-side structure, InProduction arrived. The company spent about six weeks installing 7,900 aluminum temporary seats on the west side of Beaver Stadium. The biggest logistical hurdle, Glaeser said, was lifting materials atop the platform. After that, the construction process was routine.

"It's a big project, and they're working through a lot of moving logistical parts," Glaeser said. "Our part has gone really, really well. It's gone as we expected. I think fans will be very pleasantly surprised when they're up there. It will feel just like the rest of the stadium."

'The structure is safe'

FTB REELS - West Side Temporary Bleachers pic.twitter.com/WrM85Nq3mi

— For The Blogy (@fortheblogy) August 9, 2025

Some fans who watched the installation in real-time initially were nervous. The stands looked unmoored and floaty. Would a November gust carry them into central Pennsylvania? Kraft saw the memes (and For The Blogy's clever video above) and laughed along with everyone. He also sought to reassure fans sitting up there.

"The structure is safe," Kraft said. "It is safe."

Glaeser has attended games at Beaver Stadium and marveled at the sound and vibrations when "Zombie Nation" plays. He called those moments "epic" and said fans in the temporary bleachers will enjoy them just as they have in the past.

"I don't know if you've ever seen videos of the 16th hole [at the WM Phoenix Open]," Glaeser said. "You've got 25,000 people losing their minds. This will be the same."

Glaeser said that third-party inspectors approved the seating structures, and Kraft said that the temporary bleachers will be inspected before and after games. While scaffolding will be visible underneath the bleachers, Glaeser said the experience won't otherwise be different than sitting in the concrete seats on Beaver Stadium's east side.

"I think one of the big misconceptions about temporary seating is that they're not built to the same standards as everything else," Glaeser said. "The reality is, there's no code for temporary. It's engineered the exact same way a traditional seat bolted to concrete would be engineered. It's set up to handle a massive pounds-per-square-foot [load]. It also has got a huge safety factor. ... I walked it this week. It feels every bit as rigid as concrete."

For added public assurance, Penn State sent some linemen from the football team into Beaver Stadium to make a video stressing the bleachers' stability.

The temporary seating at Beaver Stadium is: LINEMAN APPROVED ✔️💯 #WeAre x @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/nT8JWG5Pp2

— Penn State Athletics (@GoPSUsports) August 19, 2025

Finding new spaces and new solutions

What’s new at Beaver Stadium?

Meet us at Gate F for the Bud Light Backyard, the perfect spot to kick back before kickoff! 👏#WeAre pic.twitter.com/MyLpHC9lib

— Penn State Athletics (@GoPSUsports) August 20, 2025

Penn State approved the renovation in part to position Beaver Stadium as a year-round entertainment destination. With athletic expenses rising, Penn State also wants Beaver Stadium to generate more revenue. That begins this season.

While assessing the west side's temporary seating, Penn State officials looked at two empty concourses in Beaver Stadium's northeast and southeast corners. As Penn State coach James Franklin said, "That was wasted space forever." Now, it won't be.

InProduction also installed two grandstands in those corners, bringing the temporary seating total to about 9,500, Glaeser said. As a result, Beaver Stadium's capacity will remain largely the same in 2025.

"[Penn State] came to us and said, 'Where else can we add some more seats?'" Glaeser said. "Which is very common. Every stadium has a corner that's maybe underutilized."

Beaver Stadium also will mark the U.S. debut of the Spacecube, an Australian import that InProduction is deploying at Penn State. The modular boxes — which snap together like Legos, Glaeser said — will house the broadcast booths on the stadium's west side. Penn State also will use them in hospitality spaces, including the new "Bud Light Backyard" outside Beaver Stadium's Gate F.

It's likely InProduction will stick around State College for a while. Penn State plans to demolish the lower bowl of Beaver Stadium's west side after the 2025 season and will need temporary seating in 2026. Glaeser said he couldn't comment on future contracts but called Penn State forward-thinking in its approach to Beaver Stadium.

"Penn State seems to be at the forefront of wanting to try new things," Glaeser said. "'How can we give a better experience to our fans, and how can we provide unique experiences?' So I suspect we'll be a part of the Penn State athletic story for a long time. They've been a really good partner for us, and I think we've been a really good partner for them."