I said I wasn’t sure if I would be doing this post every week. And I’m still not sure.
But I have a severe case of content brain right now and you seemed to enjoy the post last week about things I noticed around Beaver Stadium so once again…
Did you notice:
• The gameday presentation and operation was the smoothest it’s been all season — which usually happens by the time we reach the third home game of the season. The Oregon game will be the stadium crew’s grandest show.
• Last week, I remarked on how the closed captions were hit or miss on the scoreboard. This week, there was a noticeable improvement there. They were on the scoreboard for the entirety of the game more or less and was especially appreciated given how much the officials needed to talk to the crowd.
• Is Penn State testing out a new song while (or when) Penn State drives down the field? It sure sounded like it. “Seven Nation Army,” which Penn State famously brought to the States, was still sprinkled in. But when Penn State set forth and strung together a few drives on the afternoon, the chorus “Freed From Desire” by GALA played. You can listen to the song here. It also appears that Penn State may be once again importing this song from European soccer and darts. This is something to keep an eye on.
• About five people texted me the second Penn State announced that attendance figure of 109,516 with great skepticism, and truth be told, I’m right there with you. I usually don’t question the attendance in the stadium because I do think Penn State – unlike UCLA – tells the truth for the most part. But that 109,516 number sure seemed high. There were pockets of the north and south decks, as well as bits of the student section, empty. I would presume that number counts ticket sold from the student section always plus non-student tickets scanned but it felt surprising given the empty seats in the top deck.
For context, that’s the 16th largest crowd at Beaver Stadium since the 2017 season. Additionally, that’s the second-largest crowd against a non-Power Four opponent Penn State’s played since 2017. Only last season’s Kent State game was ahead of this year’s Villanova game – by 10 people. The 2025 attendance was also roughly ~4,000 more than when Penn State played the Wildcats in 2021.
(Quick note: We’ve added an attendance column to Steve’s Penn State Football Spreadsheet here.)
• You’re not crazy. Yesterday’s game took a while. It was the longest game Penn State has played this season by 22 minutes. It seems like FS1 has 3:05 TV timeouts for the most part while BTN and CBS has ones below three minutes.
• On a halftime walk – semi-steeped in frustration and semi-steeped on a quest for a chicken basket to match my shirt (which you can buy here) – I found a new-to-me food area behind the temporary bleachers in the northeast corner. Not only did it prove reliable in my chicken basket quest, but I also found what I believe is the only grab-and-go area with soda. I’m not sure why it can’t be found in other parts of the stadium, though. I have added that food area to our Beaver Stadium Food Finder.
• I paid attention to the ads being shown on the ribbon boards in my attempt to distract my mind from thoughts about the performance on the field. (And I hope you did too. More on that later this week.) But one in particular caught my attention. Who hurt the CMO at Ethical Energy?
• There was one note related to a stadium not called West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium. Ohio State stole a page – once again – from Penn State’s gameday crew with their first attempt at a Helmet Stripe game. The actual horseshoe parts of Ohio Stadium were asked to wear gray and the student section created the stripe. I’ll let you be the judge of how it went.
What did you notice? What’s the best part of the gameday experience? What’s the worst part? Shoot me a note at darian@stuffsomerssays.com and we might chat about it on this week’s podcast.
If you’ve enjoyed this content, please subscribe to Stuff Somers Says With Steve on YouTube. Or join our newsletter by entering your email below.
