Tailgaters planning to park outside Beaver Stadium this football season should prepare their wallets for a parking fee increase.
Effective tomorrow, drivers purchasing their parking permit the day of the game will be charged $20, up $15 from last year. Prepaid tickets will not be changed from last year's price of $10 a game. Mark Bodenschatz, an associate athletic director, said the increase in parking permits was enacted in part to encourage fans to pre-purchase their tickets.
"We are trying to get folks to pre-purchase, and therefore have the sticker in their car window."
Bodenschatz said the extra fees would be put into general Penn State ticket revenues.
"Penn State supports 29 varsity sports as well as four club sports, and those are supported generally through revenues that are made through a variety of means, one of the largest being football games and parking," he said.
Katie Damato (junior-hotel, restaurant and institutional management) expressed disappointment and predicted the same from her parents, both 1978 Penn State alumni who she said have had season tickets on and off since graduation.
"I think it's a little bit outrageous," she said. "[My parents] complained when it was $15, so they won't be happy now that it's $20."
Commonwealth campus students who drive up for the games will also have to deal with the extra fees.
Garrett Guinivan (sophomore-turfgrass science), a student at the Penn State Berks campus, said paying the extra money will be a nuisance.
"It's not a big deal; it's just a hassle for us," he said. "It's another $5 we have to spend on top of everything else."
For Guinivan, "everything else" includes gas to fill his truck's tank, as well as tailgate equipment like canopies and grills.
Still, neither Guinivan nor Damato said the parking fee would deter them or their parents from parking in the stadium lots in the future.
