Associated Press file photo

Driving into State College along U.S. Route 322, it’s easy to see the love the local community has for the Penn State Nittany Lions — with seemingly every roadside porch adorned with some article of Beaver Blue regalia. But the Nittany Lions’ influence can be felt in less obvious ways, spanning far beyond State College, driving an estimated $1 billion in annual economic activity across the region, according to Dave Gerdes.

As vice president of sales and marketing for the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau — Centre County’s dedicated tourism promotion agency — Gerdes knows how critical this money is for businesses in central Pennsylvania.

This $1 billion sustains hotels, bars, restaurants, dozens of local businesses and more than 4,500 jobs across the region, according to a 2022 study prepared for the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau by Econsult Solutions Inc.

More than 5 million people will visit Centre County in 2024, according to Gerdes’ estimation, with much of this travel, directly or indirectly, affected by the gravity of Penn State.

Saturday’s contest with the Ohio State Buckeyes is easily the biggest game of the year for the Nittany Lions and brings the biggest influx of tourists and fans to the region.

After an expansion in seating capacity from a sizable renovation project in 2001, Beaver Stadium can now hold 106,572 attendees, making it the second-largest stadium in the country and among the largest on earth, according to Penn State.

“It’s not unusual to see many more visitors than can fit inside the stadium,” Gerdes said, especially during a premier Big Ten Conference matchup.

According to the bureau’s estimates, up to 200,000 people can fit the parking lots and tailgate fields surrounding the stadium, meaning that Beaver Stadium and its immediate area can have more than 300,000 total attendees during a home game.

Of course that number is not composed entirely of traveling fans, Gerdes said, since 5,000 seats are held for the opposing team’s fans, 30,000 seats are reserved for students and a sizable portion of the remaining 71,000 goes to local Nittany Lions supporters.

More than 890,000 people attended Nittany Lions home games in the 2022 season, according to the study.

Despite a sharp decline during the pandemic, total season attendance at Beaver Stadium has trended upward since 2015, according to PSU data.

Even a conservative gameday turnout would overwhelm local hotel capacity, Gerdes said.

Centre County currently has about 2,500 hotel rooms and about 500 temporary rental units offered by companies like Airbnb and Vrbo.

While six major hotel projects are currently underway in Centre County, they will not be able to satisfy the remaining home game travel demand, Gerdes said, meaning it is essential for the surrounding region to cover some of the shortfall in necessary hotel capacity.

Hotels full of fans

In the days leading up to kickoff, hotels from Altoona to Lock Haven, and from Clearfield to Lewistown fill up with traveling fans, who often reserve rooms up to a year in advance.

According to Explore Altoona Executive Director Mark Ickes, during the last Nittany Lions home game against the UCLA Bruins on Oct. 5, total hotel revenue in Blair County increased by 55% for the weekend.

Altoona is an increasingly popular option for Penn State tourists, which is aided by local hotel availability and easy access to Interstate 99, which runs right to Beaver Stadium in State College.

During the first four home game weekends in 2024, the Altoona hotel market performed 4% better than the State College hotel market in total hotel revenue compared to last year, according to Ickes.

Efforts to increase Blair County’s regional profile over the past decade has made the area a more popular travel destination throughout the year, not just on home game weekends, Ickes said via email.

“Explore Altoona has traditionally placed a full-page print ad, and related social media, in Town and Gown’s Penn State Football Annual featuring the number of hotel rooms in Blair County and the vast variety of restaurants, eateries and brewpubs,” Ickes said.

The value of tourism revenue is evident in the hospitality industry.

“It’s huge, especially that (Ohio State Buckeyes) game,” Holiday Inn Express & Suites Altoona general manager Heather Macharola said. “We normally sell out for these big games.”

According to Macharola, dedicated fans will often book their hotel stays a full year in advance of opening day, to ensure they get the best rates and rooms.

Setting rates for the seven home game weekends is a very big deal, Macharola said, since these weekends are a key source of fourth quarter revenue for many local hotels.

“Our budget from August through November depends on what games there are,” Macharola said.

Many people will opt to stay at hotels farther away from the stadium to save money, she said.

Some hotels close to Beaver Stadium charge $600 to $1,200 a night for top-tier game weekends like the “Whiteout,” while hotels in nearby towns such as Altoona or Lock Haven typically charge about $300 to $600 a night, Macharola said.

Local residents can take advantage of this demand in different ways.

A handful of State College residents will rent their homes on Airbnb, specifically on home game weekends, and stay in a hotel overnight in a nearby town to capitalize on the demand for rooms near the stadium, Macharola said.

Even if the hotel charges them several hundred dollars a night, they usually come out of the weekend with a net profit since the rental rates in State College are at a premium during that brief window, she said.

Because of this widespread benefit, home game tourism can financially bolster towns up to an hour away from State College.

“It’s trickle down and trickle out,” Macharola said.

PSU game schedule a factor

Many hoteliers in the area will watch for the moment the Big Ten releases the fall football schedule, in order to see which games are slated for home and away.

Home games against nationally ranked teams like the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Indiana Hoosiers draw a larger crowd — and more tourist spending — than lower-ranked opponents like the Rutgers Scarlet Knights or the Purdue Boilermakers, Macharola said.

If a marquee matchup like the Michigan Wolverines game is set in Ann Arbor instead of State College, local businesses can lose out on a substantial chunk of change, Macharola said.

“If (a big matchup like Michigan or Ohio State) is away, it’s a huge game not to have in our area,” she said.

Another factor is the kickoff time for each game, Macharola said.

Noon-kickoff games typically incur less visitor spending than games set later in the evening, she said, since fans are more inclined to drive home after the game instead of staying in their hotel an extra night.

Extending a guest’s itinerary an additional day is one of the key ways to encourage more spending on local businesses, Macharola said.

If they stay an extra day before or after game day, they have more time to check out the restaurants and other businesses in the area.

But this game-day tourism can be a double-edged sword.

According to Macharola, some businesses, such as wedding and event venues like the Blair County Convention Center, are unable to operate normally due to the limited hotel capacity during home game weekends.

Since hotel rooms are either completely booked, or exceedingly expensive during the football season, local event planners have to work around the Nittany Lions’ schedule.

“We’re all ‘We are Penn State’ whether you want to be or not,” Macharola said.

In Lock Haven, Best Western general manager Heather Harper experiences a similar phenomenon.

“We’re a smaller property, but we have our football regulars that book all the games every year as soon as they open up,” Harper said.

These 20 or so families have been regular fixtures at Best Western for years, she said, with most of them coming back every year during her 16-year tenure as general manager.

About 40 minutes away from Beaver Stadium, Lock Haven is a convenient drive for many attendees who do not want to brave the traffic in downtown State College on game day, Harper said.

“All the weekends in the fall are in high demand, the end of August to early November are all under our ‘Special event rate’ per night,” she said.

Since Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania is a few blocks away from the hotel, Harper said that Best Western also accommodates a substantial amount of bookings for people attending events at Lock Haven University throughout the fall.

“A lot of our rooms (for fall weekends) are booked a year in advance,” Harper said, “so if they miss out they miss out, but they usually don’t. They’re on top of it.”

Fans ‘strongly loyal’

Holiday Inn Express & Suites Clearfield general manager Doreen DeSantis said that she makes an effort to decorate ahead of home game weekends, hanging up Penn State banners in the lobby and encouraging her staff to wear their blue gear in a show of support.

“We’re always booked through home game weekends,” DeSantis said. “We have a lot of local fans that have stayed with us for many years.”

These fans are “strongly loyal” to the Nittany Lions, and try to catch the majority of the seven home games during the regular season, she said.

In addition to Penn State supporters from Clearfield County, DeSantis said that the Holiday Inn also hosts a number of traveling fans from colleges in the midwest, such as Ohio State, when they have a game in State College.

“If it’s a big team from out west, we usually have more guests staying with us than if it’s a team closer by like Rutgers,” DeSantis said.

According to DeSantis, her hotel typically is made up of about 75% Penn State fans and 25% away team fans for big games.

Most home game weekends the Holiday Inn is fully sold out, she said, but it varies based on the opposing team and from year to year.

“This year has been a little slower than in years past,” DeSantis said, “but I’m not sure if that’s because of the (game) schedule or our current economic climate.”

This has led to an approximate 10% decline in overall revenue for the fall season compared to previous years, DeSantis said.

To make up for this decrease in bookings, DeSantis said that the Holiday Inn has adjusted its nightly rate for in-demand weekends to cover the dip in revenue.

“It takes a lot, but rates are driven by demand. Over the last couple years rates have increased as bookings have decreased,” DeSantis said.

Economic benefit felt all year

Home games, understandably, draw an influx of direct visitor spending during the days leading up to kickoff, but the economic benefit is felt year round.

According to Gerdes, “boomerang residents” are individuals who either grew up in State College and eventually left, or alumni who moved back permanently after seeing how the town has grown in their absence.

These boomerang residents have driven a small but noticeable population increase in Centre County, Gerdes said, and are a budding market for local businesses.

According to the U.S. Census data, Centre County grew from 135,758 residents in 2000, to 153,990 in 2010. The population now stands at about 158,172, according to the latest poll taken in 2020.

Centre County is one of the only rural counties in Pennsylvania expected to grow in the next five years, Gerdes said.

“We had a lot of people move back during (the pandemic),” Gerdes said. “It’s a low cost of living, a very pretty area and it’s a good area to raise kids and a family.”

Gerdes said that he moved back to State College from San Diego, California, six years ago after growing tired of the “rat race.”

According to Gerdes, the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau does not need to spend money marketing home game weekends in State College, since Penn State and its football program have an innate draw.

Instead, Gerdes said, the tourism promotion agency works to capitalize on the spotlight given to State College during the football season to promote business across Centre County.

“(National media attention) is priceless, that free exposure, the social media marketing in November alone would cost a marketing agency millions and millions of dollars to buy,” Gerdes said.

A standout Big Ten matchup is a prime opportunity to use this spotlight, Gerdes said, since even more people will tune in to the game broadcast.

“Chances are on Nov. 12, there will be no larger event in the world than what will be happening in Happy Valley,” he said.

Converting the temporary boost of tourism and revenue into sustainable, year round economic growth for the area is the name of the game for the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau.

“Tourism is the sharp end of the spear for economic development,” Gerdes said, since many people who first came to Centre County as tourists return for subsequent visits or even a permanent relocation.

According to Gerdes, no one moves to a new town without first visiting the area, so enthusiastically conveying the value of the region as a whole to visitors in State College is a core goal of the bureau.

‘It all starts with a visit,” he said.

While small businesses often feel the most immediate benefit from home-game tourist spending, it also contributes to regional businesses’ bottom line.

“Like any major event near Sheetz locations, sales at our stores around Beaver Stadium see a significant boost on game days and game weekends,” said Sheetz public affairs manager Nick Ruffner.

“We’re proud to serve people on the go and we know that for both Penn State football fans and fans of visiting teams, their priority is getting in and out quickly to head to the game,” Ruffner said.

Cooperation abounds

The consistency of the economic activity driven by home games is due in large part to the cooperation and active planning between the members of the regional business community, Gerdes said.

According to Greg Scott, president/CEO of the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County, the more than 100,000 fans who come to State College during home game weekends drive essential tourism dollars into the local economy.

“I can’t overstate the positive economic impact that Penn State Football home games bring to our region,” Scott said in a statement.

Beyond the immediate economic benefit, this surge of tourism also shines a spotlight on the area, highlighting State College on a national level.

The ESPN football punditry show College GameDay Built by The Home Depot will be hosted from State College on Nov. 1, which will boost the media attention on the game and the region as a whole.

“Tourism plays a critical role in our local economy, and these weekends give us the chance to showcase all that our region offers to visitors who return year after year,” Scott said.

This takes constant cooperation with partners in the community.

While their focus is limited to businesses in town, the Downtown State College Improvement District works “hand in hand” with the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau to maximize its members’ economic opportunity during home game weekends, according to retail and commercial business advocate Kendra Kielbasa.

“Our goal, along with (Happy Valley Adventure Bureau), is when people come to State College for big events we can then show them other things to do in the area,” Kielbasa said.

Exposing visitors to the variety of available attractions, restaurants, stores and outdoor recreation activities beyond just State College helps distribute the financial boon from home games across a broader area.

In 2022, the home game tourists spent an average of $200 per person across the duration of their visit, according to the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau Econsult study.

According to the study, which was cited by Kielbasa, home games brought in about $87 million in economic activity to Centre County in 2022.

This total includes food, lodging, retail and transportation costs.

“We certainly benefit from that, we have businesses that rely on that financially that sustains them all year,” Kielbasa said.

‘Happy to see people’

The businesses that do the best during home game weekends are ones that offer a product or service directly tied to the university, like licensed merchandise vendors, she said.

Other businesses that offer more specialized services unrelated to Penn State, like tattoo studios or hair salons, do worse on home game weekends, she noted.

This discrepancy is due to the fact that many of the customers of these businesses are not willing to fight the traffic and crowds of people downtown on game day, so they stay home instead.

“Not many people keep Saturday appointments on (home game) weekends,” Kielbasa said.

A noon kickoff time is also a depressant on local business activity, since many fans travel to Beaver Stadium directly from their hotels, instead of getting lunch or buying merchandise downtown before an evening game, Kielbasa said.

Some businesses have trouble staffing shifts on Saturday mornings, which means that visitors for noon games may have increased difficulty receiving prompt service at restaurants in town before kickoff, Kielbasa said. Conversely, Saturday night shifts are easier for staffing.

Night games also increase the odds that visitors will stay an extra day in town, which boosts spending on Sundays following a Saturday game, she said.

One of the “unique features” of State College is its proximity to the University Park campus, Kielbasa said, which allows game attendees to easily walk from the stadium to downtown, without having to drive and repark.

Centre Area Transportation Authority offers expanded bus service routes on home game weekends, which helps get people to and from the stadium and downtown businesses, she noted.

“We’re happy to see all these people come to town,” Kielbasa said, “and we’re looking forward to a win this weekend.”

Mirror Staff Writer Conner Goetz is at 814-946-7535.