It’s not cheap to be a Penn State football fan, and even if you’re doing it as inexpensively as possible it easily costs couple hundred dollars per person each season.
If you’re really invested, or just realistic, it can add up to even more — surpassing $1,670 per season for that one person.
In the buildup to the Oregon game, which will feature the most expensive single-game, resale tickets at Beaver Stadium this season — that’s about $395 for the cheapest resale seat according to Ticketmaster earlier this week — here’s a look at what it costs to be a Penn State fan.
Tickets
Let’s start with one of the most expensive parts of being a fan, and a necessity for many who consider themselves a fan: tickets.
The cost for a Penn State season football ticket ranged from $469 to $1,156 for the 2025 season. On the low end were tickets in the no-contribution zone of the north upper deck (sections NAU, NBU, NCU) of Beaver Stadium. The most expensive, non-club seat season tickets were along the sidelines (sections WD, WE, WF and ED, EE, EF). That high price is the result of a $556 face value ticket and a $600 contribution to the Nittany Lion Club.
Basically, face value for a ticket starts at $70 and goes up for about $85 as part of a season ticket passage, and nobody who considers themselves a fan plans to go to just one game.
So, let’s put the cost for tickets for our one person at $150, allowing entry into two games or a single ticket to a game with some meaning.
Gameday
There’s no value in the tickets unless you travel to Happy Valley, and that means gas, parking, maybe lodging and, of course, food, whether our person invests in a tailgate or just leans into concession offerings.
Let’s start with the easily quantifiable: gameday parking is $145 in stadium lots. You can get into on-campus parking decks for $40. And, if you’re willing to walk from downtown State College, it can be even less — maybe even free if you find a neighborhood side street. You just have to be prepared to walk from however far it is to get the cheapest price. Of course, if you’re bringing an RV to campus, it’ll cost more. (Our prospective fan is not driving an RV.)
People drive from all over the country to get to Penn State for games, and they’re driving all kinds of vehicles that get different gas mileage, so pinning down a cost estimate for gas is elusive and unscientific, at best. Let’s go with $75, which is clearly on the low end, for the purposes of this story.
Likewise, tailgating can range from subs and chips to much more involved options. There could be alcohol or not, and it’s more cost-effective to do things for a bigger group than as an individual. A couple subs and some chips, maybe $25? Something more involved? Maybe $50 for our one person.
We can just leave it there, knowing that’s the really low end, because if they try a $9 hot dog, $13-plus slice of pizza or $16-plus chicken basket in the stadium, cost will rise significantly. Oh, a beer in the stadium, that’s $15.
So maybe our $50 per person food cost is more than fair.
Along with that, someone might buy a shirt, a sweatshirt or some other item. That’s not everybody, but for our math maybe it’s another $50.
Of course, not everyone makes a day trip to the game. Maybe they rented that RV, and costs certainly add up there for the weekend. Maybe they’re investing in a two-night minimum at a hotel. Maybe they found a nearby Airbnb or VRBO.
With so many options, putting a number on it can be hard, and many fans do not stay overnight. So … maybe $400 for weekend lodging — and that’s on the low end. You can sometimes find places that are reasonably priced and close to town, but many hosts (hotels or home rentals) require a two-night minimum and if you’re close to town, $400 for two nights would be a bargain. If you’re in Altoona or Lock Haven or farther away, the price is less, but then you’re not really in Happy Valley.
Adding up options for gameday and understanding it might be high week to week for some, let’s make the total $700. And we’ll call that the total for two games … also understanding that’s high for some and more than fair for others.
Finally, for the purposes of this story, we’re only focused on home games. So, travel costs are not a factor.
Information
Whether our fictional fan attends games in person or not, access to information is important. To catch games on TV, a cable subscription matters (that’s $75 a month, on the low end).
That’s just for internet access. Adding cable to the monthly bill might push it to $150 a month in our clearly conservative estimate. (And we’ll limit the outlay to five months for football season for the purposes of this story.)
With that, our fan is probably set to watch games.
Still, our fan is dedicated, and that means a need for more information and insight — and an investment in at least one of the several pay sites that cover Penn State — Lions 247 ($12.99/month), On3 ($11.99/month. Or maybe it’s a subscription to Penn State Athletics’ recently launched ROAR+ endeavor ($15/month).
The fan might have a subscription to their local news outlet or even follow a writer on Substack ($8/month). Many options exist, meaning many options to spend some money.
As a result, settling on a number for Information can be elusive and a highly personal thing. But, for the purposes here, and combining cable/streaming with other subscriptions, let’s go with $800 during football season.
Bargain Hunting
If you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably thinking you can be a fan without spending so much money. And that’s certainly true.
You enjoy Penn State football, but you don’t need to go to a game support the team. If you want to see the stadium in person, you’ll do it once a season for one of the uncompetitive, nonconference games. Tickets for FIU a couple weeks ago were available as cheap as $6.11 on the resale market, after all.
Not planning to go to a game in person? Games on Fox, a traditional broadcast network, can be picked up with an antenna. Yep, an old school version or even one of the indoor ones that connect to a smart TV will work.
Or, if you live in Pennsylvania, you can probably listen on traditional radio with Penn State network affiliates across the state. It’s free, too.
If you have a streaming service, say YouTube TV, you can turn it on and off just for football season. You can also go to a local bar or restaurant to watch games, or maybe a friend is hosting a viewing party.
You can shun subscriptions and still get information. Weekly news conferences from coach James Franklin are available on the official Penn State Athletics YouTube channel. So, you’d have straight-from the-source information.
Finally, they were not mentioned above as an information option, but it’s worth nothing when bargain hunting … our fictional fan could save money by not donating to the collective that supports Penn State Athletics. After all, if you’re trying to save money, it would be unwise to give to something that adds extra support for football players already getting paid well with scholarships, pay-for-play opportunities and much more.
That’s another story for another day, though.
After all, spending $1,670 for one person’s enjoyment of football season is enough to think about.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Game Ticket | $150 |
| Parking | $145 |
| Food | $50 |
| Merch | $50 |
| Gas | $75 |
| Lodging | $400 |
| Information | $800 |
| Total | $1,670* |
Did we miss something? Overestimate or overlook a cost? What are your suggestions about cost-effective approaches to being a Penn State fan? What are your thoughts about the value of the investment for you? Let us know.
darian@stuffsomers.says.com, steve@stuffsomerssays.com
*-A somewhat speculative, unscientific estimate for one fan to attend two games in person and follow the Nittany Lion football team during the 2025 season.
