Maybe Penn State Should Consider Freezing Football Ticket Prices for 2027

Penn State could earn some goodwill by offering long-term fans some short-term relief.

Penn State Nittany Lions athletic director Pat Kraft (right) speaks with head coach Matt Campbell (left) following the game against the Marshall Thundering Herd at Beaver Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It is very well publicized that Penn State is in the midst of raising ticket prices and seat-donation requirements for nearly every location in Beaver Stadium, all of this kicking in for the 2027 and 2028 seasons. Pricing beyond that is to be determined.

But what if Penn State didn’t raise ticket prices next year?

No, I’m not saying forever. The $700 million budget for stadium renovations won’t pay for itself, and there’s the reality that ticket revenue is one of the most important factors to the athletic department’s financial stability. 

Penn State raked in just over $50 million in ticket revenue during the 2024-25 fiscal year, with about $44.3 million of that coming from football. That figure will almost certainly balloon following these pending increases. For better or worse, college athletics is a nine-figure arms race funded mostly by five-figure people.

It’s also true that the human ATMs — who drive to State College, rent hotel rooms, buy tickets, pay for parking, get asked for NIL donations and simply hope to have enough to eat when it’s all said and done — eventually will start to say no. And eventually will start to stay home.

Perhaps this would be a different question if things were going well for Matt Campbell’s team, which is 3-2 entering Saturday's White Out game against USC. Going to see a college football game is, for better or worse, a luxury event, and paying top dollar to see a top-dollar team is not a unique phenomenon.

But this Penn State football team isn’t particularly good, and no small portion of that fact is a result of the same people asking you to pick up the bill. Sure, you might have agreed with firing James Franklin last year, and you might have seen the value in hiring Matt Campbell. But you didn’t actually do either of those things.

You also didn’t let many of Franklin’s staff members stay on under interim coach Terry Smith, knowing they were always going to make the trip to Virginia Tech, even while still part of Penn State’s recruiting messaging. 

You didn’t launch another iteration of a fan-to-player-access NIL venture with mixed results. You didn’t hire Campbell late in the recruiting cycle after seemingly gaining no traction with any other coach of note other than BYU’s Kalani Sitake, who would have been a sell to those not deep into college football.

And if Penn State ends up wishing it hadn’t done some or any of these things, it won’t actually be your fault.

A gesture of goodwill, perhaps?

Fireworks burst over Beaver Stadium as the Penn State Nittany Lions take the field prior to the 2025 White Out game against the Washington Huskies. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

So never raise prices? No, that's not going to happen, and Penn State fans can’t want one thing and not pay their part of the economic contract that is college athletics. Want a good program? You’ve gotta help foot the bill. For better or worse, that’s the agreement now.

But something most people don’t realize is that athletic giving, in the world of the super wealthy, is a prolonged affair. When Penn State reports philanthropic contribution figures each year, it’s cash in hand, not cash promised down the road. 

When a family gives Penn State a few million dollars to build something, it usually doesn’t show up all at once. Donations often render over the course of a few years. Even Terry and Kim Pegula’s gift to build Pegula Ice Arena was spread out over multiple years.

All of this is to say that Penn State is very much in the business of talking about money it doesn’t quite have yet. Athletic departments all over the country are. And in many cases they’re borrowing against future revenue, so your money isn’t the dollar being given to a contractor in the first place. Waiting a year might impact debt servicing, but it’s not turning the lights off.

It is also true that the world ain’t getting any cheaper. Penn State football will need to pay for things, and the athletic department will need to pay for things. But that doesn’t make it your problem to solve.

It’s a moment that will never come, but what if Penn State simply kicked the can one more year down the road on the season-ticket price hikes? What if Penn State said, you know, we’re not delivering the product we’re making you pay for. So while we can’t stay away from increasing prices forever, we’ll put this on pause as an act of good faith, and check back with us next October.

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