Barbour updates master plan timeline

Given the breadth of Penn State’s master plan for athletics facilities, Sandy Barbour isn’t sweating a slight delay.

Expected to release the plan to the public at the end of the summer or in early September, a proposal for improvements to be made to Beaver Stadium and many of Penn State’s other athletic venues, Barbour revealed in December the issue with its release. Speaking to Steve Jones on the Penn State Sports Network’s weekly coaches radio show, the Nittany Lion director of athletics said she expected a January release of the information to the public.

“I'm really excited about it. It's important to us, it's important across the board, but also let's remember it's a 20-year plan. We have a couple of things that frankly, we're not tweaking, we're just providing some more options… to make sure that we have some wiggle room in it,” said Barbour. “So we got to September and we were very close to being ready and then we decided that the plan itself needed some flexibility and some options around, in particular, two projects, two of the elements to the master plan.

“So that's going to take us a little bit longer, so we're looking at sometime in January. Because it's 20 years, we felt it was much more important that we get it right than we get it out there fast.”

Detailing that the plan and its projects are expected to be implemented in the span of the next 20 years, Barbour went on to explain the ramifications for the facilities themselves as the campus matures well beyond the renovation plans. Said Barbour, “We're going to fundraise from this, we're going to recruit from this, we're going to plan a lot of other things, a lot of other programmatic elements from a departmental standpoint around this, so we want to get it right.”

Though Barbour did not discuss any new specifics for the plans of Beaver Stadium, having previously said capacity would decrease from its current figure of roughly 107,000 while remaining north of 100,000 seats, she did say that the fan experience is the primary motivator behind those plans in development.

“As we know, it's different facility by facility, but for instance, Beaver Stadium is all about the fan experience and all about the comfort of our fans because the student-athlete piece of that has already been taken care of,” said Barbour. “Our team operates out of there one day a week. That one is all about our fans.”

Despite recent aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and its wide-ranging damage to the football program and the overall health of the athletic department, Barbour had no hesitation in praising the organization’s current wellness. Acknowledging the exceptional culture of focus on student-athletes, led by a strong set of quality coaches and administrators all in place before her arrival, the trajectory moving forward is one Barbour said she takes great pride in.

“I think that we are getting healthier and healthier,” said Barbour. “We were challenged financially at the time and we still are. We were challenged financially because of some of the fines, because of the reduction in revenue. That has all started to come back.”

Coming out of Saturday night's Big Ten Championship for the football program, Barbour explained her pride in the accomplishments of the team and its coaches in reaching such great heights this season.

"This is really special," said Barbour. "Saturday night was the realization that this team was either going to be in the national semifinal or we were going to the Grandaddy of them all, and for that to be the reward for these young men, this coaching staff, and frankly this community, it's really special. It really is.

"The Rose Bowl, it’s an icon in college athletics and college football."