BRONCO STADIUM

'Bronco Stadium' is an outdoor athletic stadium in Boise, Idaho, on the campus of Boise State University. It is primarily used for football, and is the home field of the BSU Broncos. Since 1997, the Humanitarian Bowl has been held at the stadium. It holds the distinction of being the longest-running outdoor bowl game in a cold-weather venue.
Bronco Stadium has hosted the NCAA track & field championships twice, in 1994 and 1999.
The stadium is located at the east end of the university's campus, bordered by Broadway Avenue on the east and the Boise River to the north. The elevation of the playing field is 2695 feet (821 m) above sea level.
Bronco Stadium is best known for its distinctive '''blue''' playing surface, the only non-green football playing surface in the NCAA and one of only two in the nation (the other being Barrow High School in Barrow, Alaska, also being blue). It is known as the "Smurf Turf" to some fans because of the blue field.

Contents

History

Attendance Record

The Blue Turf

Blue turf myths

Future expansion

Home Dominance

References

External link

History

Ground was broken in 1969 to replace the original Bronco Stadium, a small facility built in 1950. The new concrete stadium opened in September 1970 with a seating capacity of 14,500 at a cost of $2.2 million. The original playing field was green Astroturf, replaced in 1978 with the same. The field runs in the traditional north-south direction. For its first five seasons, the stadium consisted of two sideline grandstands, the west having an upper deck and the press box.
Following the 1974 season, an upper deck was added to the east side, adding 5,500 seats (and symmetry) to the stadium. The permanent seating capacity grew to 20,000, with up to 2,600 temporary seats brought in for bigger games. Bronco Stadium was expanded again in 1997, extending the stadium around the corners of the south end zone, raising the capacity to 30,000.[1]

Attendance Record

Bronco Stadium's current attendance record is 30,950, achieved on September 10, 2004, against Oregon State.

The Blue Turf

In 1986, after sixteen seasons of playing on standard green Astroturf, Bronco Stadium replaced it with the '''blue''' synthetic surface (often referred to as “Smurf Turf”) for which it is best known. It was replaced with the same in 1995, as a part of a two-year major stadium expansion which brought the seating capacity to 30,000 seats, as BSU transitioned to Division I-A status (from Division I-AA's Big Sky Conference).
By 1997 the sideline grandstands had been extended to wrap around the corners of the south end zone, along the orange-colored Ed Jacoby Track. Also added were the Allen Noble Hall of Fame Gallery and the Larry and Marianne Williams Plaza to the southwest corner. Both are attached to the Nicholson-Yanke Athletic Center, an original part of the stadium, as is the Fedrizzi Fitness Center Annex (1988/2004) and the Bronco Football Complex (2000). Since the running track is still in use, the end zone seats remain temporary. The Astroturf was replaced during the summer of 2002 with blue AstroPlay, a more forgiving athletic field surface.

Blue turf myths

There are many myths about the blue turf. Two of the most prevalent are:

★ There is an NCAA rule banning turf colors other than green, but BSU's field is allowed to remain blue under a "grandfather clause".

★
★ The NCAA has no such rule; any school may paint its field any color other than green if it wishes. Though painting the end zones is common, and schools have wide latitude in how to do so (for example, Neyland Stadium has its end zones painted in its distinctive orange and white checkerboard scheme), only BSU has chosen a non-green color for the field itself.

★ Mistaking it for water, birds have flown into the blue turf.

★
★ This has never been confirmed. In 2007, Broncos coach Chris Petersen claimed to have found a dead duck on the field, though it is unclear whether or not the duck had mistaken the turf for water.^[1]

Future expansion

As the Boise State football program saw a rise to prominence in the early 2000s, Bronco Stadium became increasingly insufficient. The school is planning to build a new 3-story complex on the stadium's west side that would feature levels for a new press box, luxury suites, lounges, and club seating (in descending order). Another plan is to complete the stadium's horseshoe in the south end zone and round the corners in the north end zone while leaving it open so the stadium will still have the view of the Boise Foothills. With the additions, Bronco Stadium's capacity is expected to increase to around 50,000. The first of the planned additions, the press box, was approved funding in January 2007. The plans were announced around the time the University announced plans to build a new indoor practice facility. The practice facility, which officially opened in February 2006, is known as the Cavin-Williams Sports Complex and is located just outside of the north end of Bronco Stadium. The press box facility began construction on February 11, 2007, and is expected to be completed before the 2008 football season.

Home Dominance

During Boise State's recent streak of conference championships, Bronco Stadium has proved to be a tough place for opponents to play at. The Broncos are 52-2 at home since the 1999 season with the only losses being to Washington State in 2001 and Boston College in the 2005 MPC Computers Bowl. The Broncos are 49-1 in regular season home games since 1999.

References

1. "Boise State is making new friends"

External link

★ Bronco Sports.com - history of Bronco Stadium