On Monday, Penn State’s Board of Trustees confirmed a proposed naming of “West Shore Field at Beaver Stadium” to honor a $50 million gift from West Shore Home. The Facilities and Academic Unit Naming Committee approved a 15-year contract to name the field, which would run through 2039.

The motion passed at the full board by a 22-8 vote, with Ted Brown, Suzan Collins, Daniel Delligatti, Barry Fenchak, Anthony Lubrano, Matt McGloin, Jay Paterno, and Brandon Short voting against the motion.

West Shore Home will make biannual payments to finance the field naming. Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft told the committee that the investment was frontloaded to pay for Beaver Stadium’s $700 million renovations.

Kraft told the Board of Trustees that, to his knowledge, West Shore Home’s gift was the most valuable athletic facility naming gift in the country.

West Shore Home, a home remodeling business based out of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, has partnered with Penn State in the past. The company inked running back Nick Singleton to a multi-year NIL deal in 2022, and its owner, B.J. Werzyn, is a member of Penn State’s Class of 1999.

Trustee Anthony Lubrano waxed poetic on Joe Paterno in protest of the naming of the field to anything other than “Paterno Field at Beaver Stadium,” which he proposed just over a year prior. That motion to name the field came forth at a February 2024 Board of Trustees meeting at which Lubrano proposed the name change before retracting it after a statement from Jay Paterno.

“This is a very sad and sobering day for Penn State,” Lubrano said on Monday. “Today, for many of us, the music dies. Today, the Penn State we know and love is no more, because to we’re about to commit the ultimate betrayal, fitting, given that Catholics around the world are celebrating the Lenten season. The only question we should ask is, who will play Judas for a few silver pieces?”

Lubrano said naming the field after Joe Paterno, Penn State’s former head football coach, would raise hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions for the university. Lubrano and former Penn State football player Brandon Short were the only no-votes in the finance and investment committee.

Lubrano then made another lecture to the full board about Joe Paterno’s speech to the board after the 1983 season in which Joe Paterno called on the board to better invest in education. Lubrano then proposed an amendment to the resolution to create “Joe and Sue Paterno Day” on a date to be determined. The amendment was not added given that it did not follow proper protocol.

Fenchak spoke during the full board session and said that there would be futher naming options that could better improve the university’s finances and honor Penn State’s legacy. Fenchak said that naming the field would lose those opportunities.

“This is what we have in front of us,” Kraft responded while shrugging this shoulders.

Brown said that naming the field after Joe and Sue Paterno would raise $260 million and asked that some trustees have a chance to raise $100 million for the field to honor the Paternos themselves.

McGloin, who played for Paterno, said that it was past time for Penn State to honor its former coach.

“By not giving him the honor he deserves, you’re trying to eliminate the past and everything he’s done,” McGloin said on Joe Paterno. “What’s happening now might look like a successful move, but I don’t believe it’s a very honorable move… There shouldn’t be a price for our identity here at Penn State.”

Trustee Naren Gursahaney said that there was a way to honor the Paterno family without naming the field after Joe and Sue Paterno. He also said naming the field after them would be too small, given that Joe Paterno was more than just a football coach to many.

The sale of Beaver Stadium’s naming right has been a topic of conversation for several years as Penn State seeks new forms of revenue. Kraft told StateCollege.com in 2024 that he was “open to everything” regarding Beaver Stadium naming rights. President Neeli Bendapudi told a group of student journalists a few months later that she was interested in finding new sources of revenue regarding Beaver Stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center’s naming rights.