BOISE, Idaho — Bronco fans are making their way back to "the blue" this Saturday for the first home game of the season. BSU will face Portland State at 6:45 p.m.
"There's definitely an excitement and a buzz in the downtown area," Kasey Allen, co-owner of STIL Ice Cream, told KTVB Tuesday.
Hundreds of Lime scooters end up near the stadium
The community may have noticed the large group of electric scooters and bikes that end up near Albertsons Stadium on game days.
Out of curiosity, KTVB asked Lime for trip stats in the area.
The company has a full fleet of 1,600 scooters and bikes in Boise. Jeff Cody, Lime's Operation Coordinator in Boise, estimates that about half of its vehicles will make their way to Albertsons Stadium.
He added that there's about a quarter-mile of parking along the greenbelt that tends to fill up with Lime vehicles.
"We had 6K trips October 7th, 2023, during homecoming," Cody said via email Tuesday about the downtown area. "We should definitely expect ridership to increase on game days."
Lime will be tracking trips from downtown to the stadium this Saturday, he said.
Businesses feel a volume increase on game days too
Many downtown businesses are getting prepared for the fluctuation in volume expected during football season.
"Fans just flood," the Bronco Shop assistant director, Ally Cronin, said. "It can be astronomical to us."
The Bronco Shop is flipping the store to "white forward" -- for this week's color theme.
"Then it switches all over again for next week," she said. And they'll stock the floor differently, according to the game day color.
Cronin said many people stop in to get their Bronco swag on the day of the game because the BSU Shuttle stops right out front of the shop. On a typical off-season day, the shop might reach $1,000 in sales, but on a game day, sales can reach 10 to 40 times that amount.
The foot traffic is not just from BSU fans on game days, either.
"We see a good influx, especially from those out of town, folks who are here to support the visiting team." Allen said. "We definitely are, you know, looking at the game day schedule and kind of preparing how much ice cream to have on hand."
On game days, it's best to expect more people trying to get a bite all at the same time.
"Game day weekends definitely help drive people into downtown Boise," Allen added.
For people expecting to stay overnight, Kelly Dickson, General Manager of the Hyatt Place Hotel, said it's best to plan ahead.
"We get anywhere from three months out to the night of... the only thing that makes it hard is if the hotel is sold out or getting sold out," he said.
Games like BSU versus Brigham Young University, or the University of Wyoming are expected to sell out, he said.
"Those teams will travel better, and we definitely see the pick-up in demand for those," he said.
The Game Day will look different this year
In previous years, the game day shuttle that takes people from downtown to Albertsons Stadium has been operated by specific bus companies.
Last year, the Valley Regional Transit ran the shuttle and used their own buses. Before that, it was a transportation company in Caldwell.
"We need to run a fully accessible program, and Boise State was the only option that could provide that," Jenn Hensley, the executive director for the Downtown Boise Association (DBA) told KTVB about the change.
For this year BSU will operate the game day shuttle, which means less seats available. The Boise State shuttles are much smaller than a regular sized bus.
Hensley said the shuttle will be operating at about half capacity compared to last year.
The shuttle schedule and locations can be found on the DBA website.