Sure, Beaver Stadium hasn’t been #107kstrong this year, but it’s getting a lot closer than in recent years.

Penn State has sold an average of 7,110 more tickets per game in 2014 than it did in 2013, resulting in a very nearly six-digit average of 99,806 tickets per game (the total attendance is 299,419). And yesterday, Penn State announced that the Whiteout against Ohio State on Oct. 25 is sold out. 

Against Northwestern, Penn State saw 102,910 fans, its highest total for a day game since 2011 against Nebraska, which was also its last non-Whiteout to sell out. And with more than 100,000 tickets already sold for the game against Maryland on Nov. 1, Penn State is guaranteed to at least triple its number of six-digit home games from both 2013 and 2012, where only Michigan and Ohio State drew sell-outs.

The current 2014 attendance is the highest since 2011, when Penn State drew 101,427 fans per game, but the Ohio State game would push the 2014 average to a few hundred tickets above the 2011 total if 107,000 fans do, in fact, fill Beaver Stadium.

The sanctions’ effect on attendance is finally waning noticeably. If James Franklin’s recruiting classes turn out like they should, these numbers should only get better. Let’s just hope we don’t have many more Northwesterns so they don’t go in the other direction.