Football VIDEO: AD Patrick Kraft talks Rose Bowl, Beaver Stadium and more

[Richie O]

NittanyNation - NN TV: Patrick Kraft talks Rose Bowl, Beaver Stadium and more

Penn State Athletic Director Patrick Kraft talks with the media ahead of the football team's upcoming Rose Bowl game.

pennstate.rivals.com

 

[marshall23]

Summary: PSU has an Athletic Director. Finally!

 

[Psugo823]

Wow. I love this guy.

 

[MacNit07]

Summary: PSU has an Athletic Director. Finally!

Krafty!

 

[psu00]

Sounds like there’s finally someone in charge who’s looking into issues and trying to be active rather than just reactive or coasting along.

At one point he said there was a roof that leaked (forget where) and I sort of got the impression he was implying ‘what the hell- why wasn’t this fixed?’ Maybe I read too much into it but it seems like he was talking about multiple areas that need addressed that weren’t properly dealt with in the past. The 19 studies on the Beav was another ‘wth’ moment like why are we throwing money out the window with study after study that never leads to anything?

He appears to not have the indecisive or passive approach that was present in the past. Time will tell.

 

[Ian]

Six months and counting. No way he has figured out the maze that PSU is. It’s a complete rabbit hole and a game that PSU will always chase. They (he) has to come up with something different that is sustainable and try to be cutting edge. Be a leader and not a follower. There is an answer instead spending millions on study after study. Sounds like government. Only the consultants and lawyers get rich.

The Athletic complex is brimming with other possibilities that can only enhance the PSU experience and should be completely explored instead of rushing to a very expensive band aid approach. Bottom line is send us money for this. Send us money for NIL. He needs so much money but when will it end?

 

[PSU20]

The last AD sat on her ass and collected a fat paycheck for 7-8 years, now she is gone with a hefty retirement. "19 feasibility studies" completed on renovating the stadium, yet nothing has been done beyond that. Total waste of money thrown away. The stadium is a complete disgrace, notwithstanding the Press Box, where the can't even clean the windows.

Both LSU and Oklahoma put 180 million into their facilities a year or two ago. You think they sat around for 15-20 years to complete these upgrades! PSU stadium upgrades remind me of a Govt Project; the NYC skating rink immediately comes to mind. They fooled around for 10 years and nothing was getting done except ripping off the city by the union contractors. Trump came in and complete the project in "3 months" for free!!!

 

[Psugo823]

"The board will decide"...wasn't exactly the answer I was hoping for.

Otherwise, it's an improvement but a trained monkey would have also been an improvement.

 

[psu00]

The other issue that I wish someone would have asked is are these non football improvements really financially worth it?

I get that everyone wants stellar facilities in every single sport but when only 25 people are showing up for women's softball games (for example) and they are losing lots of money yearly, do we really need to dump millions of $$ into a new facility?

They asked this with regard to the stadium but at what point are you throwing away good money after bad?

 

[The Spin Meister]

Like the way he talks….like a human being instead of a life long bureaucrat/politician type.

 

[junior1]

Six months and counting. No way he has figured out the maze that PSU is. It’s a complete rabbit hole and a game that PSU will always chase. They (he) has to come up with something different that is sustainable and try to be cutting edge. Be a leader and not a follower. There is an answer instead spending millions on study after study. Sounds like government. Only the consultants and lawyers get rich.

The Athletic complex is brimming with other possibilities that can only enhance the PSU experience and should be completely explored instead of rushing to a very expensive band aid approach. Bottom line is send us money for this. Send us money for NIL. He needs so much money but when will it end?

He's got a big job ahead of him. I'm sure there are some big money donors out there that could step up and help fund facility improvements. But for the average Joe, PSU sort of beats you down at every turn with requests for money. The University sits on $billions in their endowment and still asks for more. It wasn't too long ago when the athletic dept was fund raising and the University was engaged in yet another endowment fund raising effort.
While I know it runs counter to the current thought, the athletic department cannot support all the sports in its portfolio at the same time raise money for facility improvements. It's time for some hard, but necessary decisions, on which activities to drop. I may be wrong and maybe the university will step up with interest free loans for athletics, but if the past is any indicator of the future, we're in for more of the same...just send money!

 

[stf110]

The other issue that I wish someone would have asked is are these non football improvements really financially worth it?

I get that everyone wants stellar facilities in every single sport but when only 25 people are showing up for women's softball games (for example) and they are losing lots of money yearly, do we really need to dump millions of $$ into a new facility?

They asked this with regard to the stadium but at what point are you throwing away good money after bad?

Yes yes you do. Unless you don't want to be good in any of those other sports and also have social medial threads lambasting PSU for horrid facilities for women's sports like how the NCAA had for the Women's Final Four last year.

 

[Obliviax]

The last AD sat on her ass and collected a fat paycheck for 7-8 years, now she is gone with a hefty retirement. "19 feasibility studies" completed on renovating the stadium, yet nothing has been done beyond that. Total waste of money thrown away. The stadium is a complete disgrace, notwithstanding the Press Box, where the can't even clean the windows.

Both LSU and Oklahoma put 180 million into their facilities a year or two ago. You think they sat around for 15-20 years to complete these upgrades! PSU stadium upgrades remind me of a Govt Project; the NYC skating rink immediately comes to mind. They fooled around for 10 years and nothing was getting done except ripping off the city by the union contractors. Trump came in and complete the project in "3 months" for free!!!

I am not a huge fan of hers but let's be fair. For the first couple of years she had to deal with the aftermath of the JS scandal. Then we had a worldwide pandemic (real or perceived). I can understand how things may have gotten delayed outside of her control.