Centre County Athletics Impacts: By the Numbers

Pictured Above: 2024 Pennsylvania Middle School Basketball Championships were awarded the Champions of Economic Impact in Sports Tourism Award for the Mid Market 2024 by Sports Destination Management

By Colin Ward, STATE COLLEGE, PA — As of Friday, Jan. 31, we are 211 days out from the start of the next Penn State Football season. There’s no doubt local businesses, hotels and homeowners are elated about what that means for Centre County.

An EConsult Solutions study, submitted to Happy Valley Sports and Entertainment Alliance in 2022, found that Penn State football brings in $87 million dollars annually in visitor spending and economic impact. The money supported more than 930 jobs with $26.3 million in employee compensation.

In 2024 this number is even higher due to the home playoff game Beaver Stadium hosted in December.

A large part of the said spending is lodging of the visitors. In 2022, the Penn State football games attracted about 890,500 attendees. The number is expected to be around 107,000 higher in 2024.