BOISE, Idaho — As Boise State University climbed the ranks of the college football landscape as a Division I-AA school, university leaders had a truly bold plan for what was then Bronco Stadium, one that would even lure the NFL into the Gem State.
In a KTVB special report from 1990, legendary former head coach Lyle Smith reminisced about the early days of Bronco football and then-athletic director Gene Bleymaier discussed his grand vision for Bronco Stadium.
When what was then-Boise Junior College, the football program started off at a 300-seat facility at the site where the first Student Union Building would later be built on.
"The press box was something to behold," Smith recalled in 1990. "The wind blew and it would shake and people didn't much like to be in it. But it was a turf field, of course, and we had a wooden fence to enclose the field. There were some great football games out there."
The plan for Bronco Stadium would fully enclose the bowl, just in the upper bowl on the north side of the stadium, and both the lower and upper bowls on the south side would be enclosed, with facilities just outside the stadium.
A fully built-out Bronco Stadium would still include the track around the field, which kept the lower bowl from wrapping around the field completely.
At the time, Bleymaier planned on adding skyboxes to first the east side of the stadium, then the west side. It would be 18 years later until the Stueckle Sky Center was opened on the west side of the stadium in 2008.
"Our plan right now is to enlarge the south end of the stadium as quickly as possible. What we're looking at now is constructing luxury boxes on top of the stadium on the west side to begin with and then eventually on the east side as a means of helping to finance the addition of the stadium." Bleymaier said.
In 1990, Bronco Stadium had a capacity of about 23,500, so the project would have added more than 16,000 total seats. University officials did not state an estimated cost for the project in 1990 but said fundraising efforts were increasing each year and it would be "very, very doable."
"It would certainly open up the doors, I think, for possibilities of a preseason professional football game and it would also allow us to bring in bigger name schools to compete against," Bleymaier said.
Currently, there are no plans to finish Bleymaier's vision of skyboxes on both sides, the university announced plans in early 2020 to renovate the east side of the stadium. However, the plans only added premium seats and a new student center and they were quickly thrown to the wayside after the COVID-19 pandemic began and caused the university to cut its budget.
In 2013, Bleymaier, still as athletic director, announced plans to add 20,000 seats and remove the track field from the stadium. The track was removed but the ambitious plan once again never came to fruition.
When Boise State made its pitch to the Big 12 Conference in 2016, then-Boise State President Bob Kustra sent renderings of a fully-enclosed Bronco Stadium, with a seating capacity of 48,000 and skyboxes on both sides.
With college football conference realignment taking center stage once again in 2021 and likely into the next couple of seasons, Boise State may likely again point to dreams of an enclosed football stadium as the future for the program.
However, it remains to be seen if current athletic director Jeramiah Dickey can fulfill a dream 30 years in the making.
"I say this -- unrealistic expectations produce epic results. Everything is possible," Dickey said in a one-on-one interview with KTVB's Jay Tust last month. Watch the full 30-minute interview with Dickey here.
The Blue at Bronco Stadium wasn't installed until 1986 but the then-and-now slider photo below shows how the stadium has grown in the last 35 years.
Editor's Note: The video above originally aired in 1990. Watch the video above for the full special report.
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