STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — As SMU’s football team and staff gathered on Dec. 8 to watch the College Football Playoff bracket reveal, the announcement of the Mustangs’ first-round opponent was quickly met by the realization that this trip won’t be like others this season.
SMU fans traveling from Dallas are bound to find what many opposing fan bases already know about Penn State. Catching a game on one of college football’s most geographically isolated campuses is not an easy or inexpensive trip. With congested game day traffic patterns, a regional airport with plenty of its own quirks and limited hotel inventory, this place is different, especially for visiting families and fans.
“I saw Penn State on the screen and it took me about 15, 20 minutes to realize we’re probably gonna have to go with two planes for this thing,” said Josh Nash, SMU’s senior director of football operations. “I definitely see what Coach (James) Franklin is talking about now.”
This fall, as Penn State traveled to USC and Big Ten newcomers UCLA and Washington came to State College, the runway at the State College Regional Airport became a storyline. When football teams want to fly non-stop with their equipment or want to treat it like a bowl trip and bring a larger-than-usual travel party there are limitations with this airport. It can’t accommodate the largest planes, which are what many football teams use for longer trips or marquee games.
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It’s why Penn State bussed with a police escort for 1.5 hours to Harrisburg International Airport to fly on a larger plane to USC. SMU will bring two smaller planes into State College on Friday, Nash said. SMU’s equipment will be driven from Dallas.
It’s unusual for SMU to travel to an away game in two planes, but all things considered, the football folks were reminded during their site visit to Penn State last week they still have some of the easier logistics to navigate. The visiting locker room is spacious enough and far from the worst they’ve seen, Nash said. Their hotel the night before the game checks all the boxes with space for meetings and meals.
“The College Football Playoff has done an incredible job of securing the things you need ahead of time, but more than anything, it’s tough for our fans to get to and more importantly for us, our players’ families it’s been really tough,” Nash said.
Families for both the home and away teams were each awarded a $3,000 travel stipend for each round of the College Football Playoff, The Athletic confirmed. It’s similar to how the four-team Playoff was handled and how the NCAA handles Final Four travel. Families must attend the game to be reimbursed.
SMU, like all visiting teams in these first-round games, was allotted 3,500 tickets. Around 85 players have family members who plan to make the trip, many of whom plan to fly and stay in either Harrisburg or Pittsburgh and drive to State College the morning of the game, Nash said.
Booking flights with less than two weeks’ notice while dealing with surging holiday prices and limited hotel inventory has made this challenging. SMU-Penn State is the least expensive first-round Playoff game ticket, but sky-high lodging prices and one small airport within 95 miles of Penn State’s campus could still make this the most expensive first-round trip for parents and fans.
While Indiana-Notre Dame is the most expensive game ticket, the hotels in South Bend with an average cost of $440 per night are less expensive than State College ($653). Unlike other Playoff host sites like Austin, Texas and Columbus, Ohio, the surrounding areas of State College aren’t flush with hotels, let alone ones under $250 per night.
Cost breakdown
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
|
Roundtrip flight from Dallas to State College, Pa. |
$1,661 |
|
Avg. cost of remaining hotel rooms in State College |
$1,306 ($653/night with a two-night minimum) |
|
Rental car |
$218 |
|
Parking at Beaver Stadium |
$106 |
|
Game ticket |
$66.35 (cheapest available resale, including taxes and fees) |
|
Total |
$3,357.35 |
* Costs via Priceline
Fans flying from Dallas to State College could conservatively spend at least $2,500 on airfare and lodging. United added a direct flight from Dallas to State College for the game. It was introduced last week at $1,200 round trip and is now $1,661 per person.
Major airports in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are both roughly a three-hour drive from State College. The closest city with ample hotels is Harrisburg, which is 90 minutes away. Even places like Altoona, 40 minutes from State College, have hotels priced at $309-plus per night for the weekend, which is more than some hotels in Austin or downtown Columbus. Look for Penn State and SMU fans to end up in Harrisburg or Hershey with hotels priced around $100 per night because they’ve been priced out of State College. That could mean a 5:30 or 6 a.m. wakeup call to drive to Beaver Stadium where tailgate lots open at 7 a.m. Saturday.
What’s made this particular weekend even more challenging is Penn State’s winter graduation. It was moved from Saturday to Sunday last spring, but many kept their hotel reservations to fulfill the two-night requirement.
“You have one of the world’s largest football stadiums and we’re in kind of a rural area,” said Eric Engelbarts, executive director of the Happy Valley Sports and Entertainment Alliance. “You’ll have a mix of parents who have booked graduation hotels months in advance that probably got a decent rate or a typical rate for winter graduation and then you got those who it’s last minute, we just found out we’re gonna be in State College and now we need accommodations. … I was talking to one property and they were like yeah, I sold 70 percent of my (hotel) inventory for graduation.”
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In the summer, the College Football Playoff secured hotels for every visiting team in the first-round games. In State College, hotel rooms for marquee weekends like home football games and graduation are typically booked a year in advance. Centre County, where Penn State is located, has roughly 2,700 hotel rooms with plans to add as many as 600 more rooms in the next two years, said Fritz Smith, President and CEO of the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau. The addition of more rooms coincides with HVAB wanting to bring more events to the area throughout the year, whether it’s concerts, brew expos and, of course, to provide more rooms for home football weekends.
Most of the year and during weekdays there isn’t a need for more rooms. But, on weekends like this where many want to file into the 107,000-seat Beaver Stadium for the school’s first-ever appearance in the College Football Playoff, the cheapest part of the entire weekend will be the game ticket.
Face-value tickets are as cheap as $100 plus taxes and fees ($123.70). They’re still readily available. Many re-sale tickets have plunged well below face value on StubHub and Ticketmaster. One could get into this game for less than it will cost to park outside Beaver Stadium ($106).
A limited number of hotel rooms remain in State College with prices ranging from $427 to $999 per night plus tax with two-night minimums. Airbnb and VRBO properties in and around State College, some of which are owned for the sole purpose of being rented out for football weekends, were nearly fully booked for this weekend as far back as August.
“Airbnbs in this market really affect affordable housing,” Engelbarts said. “We have individuals that come in, buy up these properties and maybe they have a student that stays at these properties that goes through school, but when the student graduates they kind of hang on to these things because it could be considered an investment because of the return that you get when we’re hosting a football game. You’re making your mortgage basically over six or seven weekends.”
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A high-end football weekend in State College — like the Ohio State game this year or against Michigan last year — has a $20 million economic impact on the state of Pennsylvania, Smith said. While most of that money is poured into State College bars, restaurants and hotels, the economic impact extends to the entire state. Fans might stop at restaurants and gas stations on their way back to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or elsewhere. Even a low-end football weekend has an impact on the state of roughly $13 to $14 million, Smith said.
Within the coming weeks, Engelbarts and Smith will parse through data from this weekend to determine the average price per night for a hotel room and just how much of an impact this perfect storm of graduation and a Playoff game had on the local economy.
“Anytime we can get an extra game out of it, I hear the cash register ringing,” Smith said.
As for fans of both teams, they’re left trying to figure out whether to spend thousands of dollars this weekend or potentially wait for a flight to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31.
(Photo: Matthew O’Haren / Imagn Images)