Next year when James Franklin leads the Nittany Lions out of the tunnel at Beaver Stadium, he’ll be leading them onto “West Shore Home Field.”
On Monday, the Penn State Board of Trustees approved the sale of the naming rights to the field at Beaver Stadium for $50 million over 15 years. This is the first time that the field will have sponsored naming rights.
The deal with West Shore Home is reportedly front-loaded to help finance this offseason’s renovations to Beaver Stadium, part of a $750 million project that saw the press box come down days after the Nittany Lions defeated SMU in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
B.J. Werzyn, founder of West Shore Home, is a 1999 Penn State graduate who has been heavily involved in the athletic department's NIL efforts. The Mechanicsburg, PA-based home insurance company has been featured prominently through advertising efforts with the Nittany Lions but now will become synonymous with the stadium that has stood in Happy Valley since 1960.
It may come as a shock to Penn State fans, and the new name will take some getting used to, but this is the new reality of the NIL era. If a team refuses to capitalize on a $50 million deal, it’s not doing everything it can to win a national championship. What money is saved during Beaver Stadium’s renovations can go into the program in other ways, either through NIL deals or lucrative coaching contracts like the one signed by new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles this offseason.
Tradition is great, but everything has a price. Penn State was smart not to change the name of the stadium and now gets the best of both worlds with this sponsorship deal. From athletic director Pat Kraft on down, Penn State is all in to win a football national championship, and this decision is further proof.