Experience with Children at Beaver Stadium?

They were older, but it was a fun experience. It would be a better experience at a non-marquee game – less crowded, less tension, and less aggrevation if you have to leave at half time. I am taking my guys to Indiana State. Main problem is a noon start can be very hot/sunny.

I doubt if you could sneak kids through, but you could probably scalp the cheapest tickets you can get and just have the kids sit on your lap. Depending on the game, you could probably get them for significantly less than face value.

They will be on your lap so you can scalp. Also, if they get too fussy during, please take them to the concourse area, your neighbors will appreciate. I never took anyone under 3 so I don’t have much experience. Have seen a few. Put cotton or earplugs of somekind in their ears, it is very loud for a youngster. Best of luck, you are really going to have your hands full. My kids and grandkids have always been fun at the games and pretty well behaved. No more crying when you drive by the Happy Valley sign (smiley face sign in McAlevy’s Fort). Has worked for years. Have fun

He was three and it was too much for him. I mean not screaming death too much, but mostly too much. Get seats that are low, hauling twins to the upper deck will be really tough. Watch taking them when the weather is too hot too.

Basicly, it was stunning to me how many little things you forget. That 1/2 mile your parked from the stadium is a lot longer when your carrying a kid. Shit, I forget to bring bottled water along and now I’m bumming it off a tailgate. Crap, the tailgate is on the wrong side of the stadium. Damn, he really doesn’t understand football and he wants to play Spider-man. We finally made it our seays….DADDY I HAVE TO GO POOP!!!!

Between the heat and all the people we got through a half. And he did have fun, mostly running around on the concourse of the North End Zone. I would say that the ushers were pretty reasonable about letting us loiter around in the walkways and portals.

Of course, the picture of us overlooking the stadium is priceless. It was expensive, and trying, and worth it. But I wouldn’t say it was a ton of fun.

I took my son to senior Day in 2006. He was 5 at the time, but he still talks about getting to see Poz for his last game at Beaver Stadium. And he tailgated like a champ. He sucked down 3 or 4 donuts, grilled stickies, and a bowl of chili. Again, big difference between a 5 year old and 18 month old, but it was an awesome experience. The bathroom experience is definitely a challenge, Bring plenty of Purell.

Night before the 1st game. It’s free and 1st come 1st serve seats. It’s got everything a game has : Nittany Lion, Cheerleaders, Dance Team, Players, JoePa and usually a guest speaker or two. Then usually fireworks afterward. It’s pretty cool and gives the kids a good stadium experience. This way, when they are done before the end of the 1st quarter then next afternoon, you feel like you got a little bit more for your money.

Scalping tickets is always easy for the 1st game — I’ve never paid more than $25, and those are for real seats so I’m sure you could get for less for a kid that will be on your lap.

It was cool, because back then, I thought there were 5 downs (not 4) and would usually fall asleep in my parents lap around the 2nd quarter (Sentimental, right?).
The first thing I really remember was Adam Taliferro walking out of the stadium, or Clinton Portis ripping PSU. It certainly is a good experience though

-Also, Big Ten rules mandate that every human have a ticket now. It’s not so much a PSU thing as it is a Big Ten rule.

with another one due before football starts .. and the two year old already getting fight songs and chants down (got the roar first ha!) .. it will get tricky, as you’ve all pointed out. But the memories will make up for it .. even if I’m the only one that remembers. Very good pointers here, going to have to check out the Eve before.

I have no advice, but if I did have kids, I would have brought them in from the infant stage.

Have both been going since they were born, minus a hiatus from 2003-2005 (And I didn’t read through the above posts so I apologize if any of this is redundant).

On getting kids past a ticket scanner — every “body” in the stadium needs a ticket, regardless of size or age. We’ve been in the suites, club seats and regular seats. And I can’t begin to fathom how you could hide even the smallest baby and get in a gate given the increased security since 2001.

The first thing I learned was to mentally give up my need to watch the game and focus instead on watching what they wanted to watch. And you are right about the ramps, walkways, and your “however long they last” comment. Back in the old days with our daughter we would even cruise outside the stadium and come back in. She seemed to handle hanging out in the seats alot better. And she was OK on the benches (more on that later). Our son never lasted an entire quarter when he was one and two before he had to move. Even walking the stadium wouldn’t do it so my wife and I took turns deciding who had to bag the game and go out to the parking lots with him. Which was the reason we dropped season tix for awhile (not to mention game tix were easy to come by in the “dark” years). But then one game we got tickets in the upper deck of the south endzone with “real” seats. And the kids were hooked – no more benches. They sat and watched the entire game — at the end of which my wife and I looked at one another and the light bulb went off — we hadn’t both seen the end of a game together in years. So we bought season tix in the south upper deck in 2006 and the kids love it. They each have their own seat, their own “space” and even stay after the games because it takes so long to get down the ramp, you might as well watch the band show. I even told Myford I thought they left money on the table with the STEP program by not making the rows below the walkway in the south upper into $400 seats. We would have paid it to move down.

Another thing — which should be a given, is we really cut down alcohol intake before the game.

At 18 months you should know what “supplies” you need to have with you to survive for 3 hours — diapers, etc. Take the minimum of what you need and you can improvise. I can tell you the family bathroom in the south upper deck is outfitted fairly well for changing. If you take a squirt/sport bottle top from a Deer Park water bottle into the game you can get it on the aquafina bottles in the stadium so you don’t have to worry about the kids dribbling water. Saves you having to lug in bottles or sippy cups. All the bathrooms still have paper towels — which can also be a huge help in a pinch. And I always grab a handful of napkins for my pockets when we hit the concession stand on the way to the seats.

And as far as the bench seats go — most of the older fans seem to enjoy seeing a young kid coming in. As long as they don’t puke, cry or have diaper stench, the long-timers know the kid won’t take up his/her full 19" so that’s more room for them.

That’s the brain dump… enjoy!

I’m a little late to the train on this one but let me echo some of the key points we picked up…

Make peace with missing half the game… but consider making it the first half – you get to see the end of the game, other people might have left and its easier to get down through the student section at the end of the game and get cool pictures with the cheerleaders/lion. Plus you’re not fighting the crowd to get in with your baby crap.

Minimize the baby crap… diapers in cargo shorts pockets with wipes in a ziploc bag… take the minimum and don’t worry. A single toy or even a pom pom makes life go pretty smoothly too.

Find shade… We moved our season tickets to under the north deck just to be in the shade this year. The sun was our worst enemy last season – it just sucked the life out of the little people.

Old man Eulers will still give you crap – especially if you have kickers but remember its all worth it

And even then, we’ll probably have a second, smaller tot, which just resets the clock.

My dad took my brother and me to games when we were in the 4-6 range, I think. We had to go to the bathroom so often that my father wrote the NLC and said something along the lines of “my kids have a bladder problem”. When the tickets arrived the following year, we were in section EJ, row AA. Dad immediately thought, “Jesus, they put us in the handicap section!”. They didn’t. Row AA was basically the top of the lower bowl of section EJ, where they just crammed in an additional row before the upper bowl started. And it was right next to a bathroom.

I have taken my 3 kids (now 6/8/10) to various games but feel like just now they are starting to get it and enjoy themselves. We have been to every BW game for the past 6-7 years with one or more kids, they have the carnival and it doesn’t really matter how much of the game you actually watch. You also have much more elbow room for fussy kids to run around and actually enjoy themselves.
The biggest issues I have dealt with over the years have been the weather (we made it to this years BW game) and drunk people who don’t really care about you or your kid. My honest advice is wait a few years and spend the 100$ on a good baby sitter so you can enjoy yourself. I have had kids in diapers/strollers to games and can say it was painful, but that is just me.
Another suggestion if you want to expose them to PSU early is to take them to some lesser sports like soccer, gymnastics, or volleyball. My kids have enjoyed those as much as any FB game. But my kids favorite activity at PSU thus far has been letting them run around in the stacks, luckily they have outgrown that stage.

Taken from my seats in WAU