Penn State officials hope increasing parking fees at Beaver Stadium will make life easier for tailgaters, but some football fans say it's just another expense that makes it more difficult to keep their traditional game day routines.
Parking passes bought on game day will now cost twice as much as they did in 2009 -- $40 for cars, $80 for RVs and $120 for buses, Associate Athletic Director Greg Myford said.
Single-game advance passes for RV drivers doubled to $40, an increase from the $20 price in 2009.
Myford said the increases reflect the size of an RV, which takes up four car spaces that cost $10 a piece.
The Day of Game change isn't an effort to generate additional revenue, Myford said. In fact, he said, there's a possibility of no revenue increase for the Athletic Department if more people choose the cheaper option and purchase their passes ahead of time.
"The best-case scenario for us is that we don't realize any additional revenue," Myford said. "We realize a benefit in how we're able to move fans in off the roads and in off the parking lot with a smoother operation."
Deputy Director of Penn State Police Tyrone Parham helps direct the thousands of cars that flock to Penn State parking lots at home games. Advance permits make a big difference when it comes to controlling the traffic, he said.
"People are able to put that permit on at home," Parham said. "Based on all those [permit] colors we're able to put them in the right lanes and they know where to go -- so it's pretty nice when it works, but it doesn't always work when people don't have a permit."
A faithful blue-and-white tailgater, Jason Mattia, Class of 2003, said he used to buy game day passes but recently started buying in advance. Still, he said this doesn't seem to be a matter of traffic control.
"The bigger traffic jam is from people not knowing where to go and people going places Penn State police might not want them to go," he said.
As they've done with other rising football expenses, fans will probably take this price increase with a grain of salt, Mattia said.
"There's a large percentage of Penn State alumni who are always going to buy regardless of the quality on the field or the price of the tickets," he said. "We're not a fairweather fan base."
But other alumni aren't so optimistic about the changes.
Sue Wilson, a founding member of "The Ultimate PSU Tailgate" -- one of the university's biggest private tailgates -- said that during the 30 years she's been a game day regular, prices have steadily increased.
Now she's wondering whether the cost of a Penn State football experience is too much.
Whereas Wilson, Class of 1971, used to expect a crowd of about 300 at the group tailgates she organizes, she said some recent games have only had a turnout one half or one third of that size.
"This year is going to have an even greater impact," she said. "Everyone thinks that with the economy with what it is, it's not really the time to be increasing prices."
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