Albertsons Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the Western United States, located on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. It is the home of the Boise State Broncos of the Pac-12 Conference. Known as Bronco Stadium for its first 44 seasons, it was renamed in May 2014 when Albertsons, a chain of grocery stores founded by Boise area resident Joe Albertson, purchased the naming rights.
Opened in 1970, it was also a track & field stadium and hosted the NCAA track & field championships twice, in 1994 and 1999. The stadium was used extensively for local high school football for decades until August 2012, when games were transferred a few blocks northeast to the new Dona Larsen Park, which is also the new home venue of Boise State's track & field team.
Albertsons Stadium is widely known for its unusual blue playing surface, installed in 1986, while Boise State was in the Big Sky Conference. It was the first non-green playing surface (outside of painted end zones) in football history and remained the only one among NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools for almost 20 years. It is one of only three non-green playing surfaces in the FBS, along with the Eastern Michigan Eagles' Rynearson Stadium and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers' Brooks Stadium.
Since 1997, it has hosted the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (known as the Humanitarian Bowl and the MPC Computers Bowl prior to 2011), which is the longest-running outdoor bowl game in a cold-weather venue.
Location Albertsons Stadium is located at the east end of the BSU campus, bordered by Broadway Avenue to the east, University Drive to the south, and the Boise River to the north. The playing field is aligned north-south at an elevation of above sea level.
History Albertsons Stadium is the first venue to hold its name. However, when it was Bronco Stadium, it was the fourth venue and second of the same name at Boise State; the three on-campus stadiums were built in 1940, 1950, and 1970, respectively.Bronco Sports.com – football – 2011 media guide (p.114-176) – p. 176 – accessed 9 November 2011
Public School Field
During its first years at its original campus, BJC football was played at "Public School Field," the home field of Boise High School, located three blocks north-northeast of today's Albertsons Stadium. The site was the home of East Junior High School from 1953 to 2009; it was demolished and rebuilt further down Warm Springs Avenue, and the previous area became Dona Larsen Park in 2012.
College Field After the college moved to its present campus in 1940, "College Field" opened in September 1940 with lights and a seating capacity of 1,000. Also called "Chaffee Field", it was used through 1949 for junior college football (photo – 1940s). In the 1950s, it became the baseball field, aligned southeast, until right field was displaced by the construction of the Student Union Building, which opened in 1967. The baseball field migrated slightly east, then north, with a new northeast alignment and home plate at (). It was eliminated in 1980 by the construction of the BSU Pavilion and the relocation of the tennis courts. (Baseball was dropped by both BSU and Idaho following the 1980 season; the Broncos played home games at Borah Field during their final season.)
Bronco Stadium (I) The first "Bronco Stadium" was built in three months in 1950 at the east end of campus, with wooden grandstands, a natural grass playing field, lights, and a cinder running track; seating capacity was 10,000. It was in approximately the same location as the present stadium, but aligned northwest to southeast. (photo – 1964) The 45° offset was designed to keep the mid-afternoon sun of mid-October out of the players' eyes (but put it into the eyes of half of the spectators).
From the 1920s through 1968, the University of Idaho Vandals of Moscow usually played one home game per season in Boise, often against schools from Oregon or Utah.CFB data warehouse – Idaho results – 1965–69 – accessed 24 April 2010 Boise State joined the Big Sky in 1970, and Idaho discontinued its practice of scheduling home games in Boise, sometimes referred to as "southern homecoming." (Idaho did use the new Bronco Stadium for a "home" game in 1971, but it was against Boise State in the first football game ever played between the schools. Idaho's new stadium on campus in Moscow was behind schedule, so the university rented Bronco Stadium for its opening game. The underdog "visitors" of Boise State built a 28–7 lead at halftime and won handily 42–14 and a rivalry game was born.)
The Boise College football program upgraded from junior college to four-year status in 1968 and competed as an NAIA independent for two seasons. The school became Boise State College in 1969 and the Broncos were accepted into the NCAA in October. A month later the school was voted into the Big Sky Conference, effective fall 1970. Following the 1969 football season, the first Bronco Stadium was razed in November and the new concrete stadium was ready for play in less than ten months.
Bronco Stadium (II) Boise State began NCAA competition in 1970 in the College Division (became Division II in 1973) in a brand new venue. The first game at the new Bronco Stadium was on September 11, a 49–14 victory over Chico State. The $2.2 million concrete stadium opened with a seating capacity of 14,500 and a green AstroTurf playing field, configured in the traditional north–south direction, and an all-weather running track. For its first five seasons, the stadium consisted of two sideline grandstands, the west side having an upper deck and the press box.(photo – 1971) Boise State became a charter member of Division II when the NCAA reorganized the former College Division in 1973.
Following the 1974 season, the school's first as Boise State University, an upper deck was added to the east side (photo – 1971) – (photo −1975), adding 5,500 seats as well as symmetry to the stadium. The permanent seating capacity grew to 20,000 for its Bronco Stadium's sixth season in 1975, with up to 2,600 temporary seats available in the north end zone seating for bigger games. The original green artificial turf was replaced with the same in 1978 as the Big Sky and the Broncos moved up to the newly formed Division I-AA. (photo – mid 1980s) With the largest seating capacity in the conference, Boise State led the Big Sky in attendance; the conference's highest-attended games were when BSU hosted Idaho (even-numbered years), followed by Idaho State at Boise (odd-numbered years in the 1980s). The Broncos moved to the Big West and Division I-A in 1996, which resulted in another stadium expansion. The two-tier grandstands were extended around the corners of the south end zone, raising the permanent seating capacity to 30,000 in 1997. The latest stadium expansion was completed in time for the 2008 season, with the addition of the Stueckle Sky Club press box, luxury suites, loge boxes, and club seating; raising the capacity to 32,000. In the summer of 2009, 1,500 additional bleacher seats were added to the south end zone to bring capacity up to 33,500. Prior to the 2012 season, expanded bleacher sections were added to the north and south end zones, expanding capacity to a total of 36,387.
The current attendance record is 37,711, set against Washington State on September 28, 2024.
Lyle Smith Field During its 11th season, the playing field at Bronco Stadium was named Lyle Smith Field during the I-AA national championship season of 1980. Ceremonies during halftime of the 14–3 victory over Nevada on November 8 marked the event. It honors Lyle H. Smith, the head coach from 1947 to 1967 and athletic director from 1968 to 1981, overseeing BSU's rise from the junior college ranks to Division I-AA champions in 1980.BSU gameday program – Boise State vs. Nevada, Reno – November 8, 1980 – A Tribute to Lyle Smith, p. 8
Smith led Boise, as BJC, to multiple post-season bowls, including the 1958 national junior college championship, and compiled an overall record of (), which included five undefeated seasons and 16 conference titles. He was also the baseball coach for 17 seasons and served as basketball coach for a season at the school. Smith hired Tony Knap to replace himself as football coach in 1968, and Jim Criner to replace Knap in 1976.
Basque Soccer Friendly In 2015, the stadium played host to a soccer friendly on July 18, named the Basque Soccer Friendly, between Athletic Bilbao of La Liga vs Club Tijuana of Liga MX. To accommodate the game, a natural grass surface was laid on top of the famous blue turf to conform to La Liga rules. It was the first time since 1985 that the stadium featured a green surface for any sporting event. Before a crowd of 21,948, Athletic Bilbao won 2–0.
Blue artificial turf
Albertsons Stadium is best known for its distinctive blue playing surface, which was the only non-green football playing surface among Division I FBS programs from Boise State's entry in 1996 until Eastern Michigan installed a gray surface at Rynearson Stadium in 2014.
The best-known nickname for the surface is "Smurf Turf." Players refer to it simply as "The Blue." Chris Berman of ESPN has also called Boise's turf "The Blue Plastic Tundra", a joking reference to "the frozen tundra" of Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
After 16 seasons of the Broncos playing on standard green AstroTurf, athletic director Gene Bleymaier devised the idea of installing blue turf, reasoning that if BSU would be spending $750,000 on a new surface, it should not be yet another green field, and that a blue field might provide some national notoriety for the school, then a member of the Big Sky Conference. Bleymaier gained the support of BSU president John Keiser, and on September 13, 1986, Bronco Stadium introduced its unique playing surface to the world with a 74–0 victory over Division II Humboldt State. (BSU was 4–2 at home in 1986, but managed just one road victoryCFB data warehouse – Boise State – 1985–89 – accessed 9 November 2011 and posted its first losing record in four decades, resulting in the resignation of fourth-year head coach Lyle Setencich.)
BSU replaced the first blue AstroTurf with the same in 1995, then with blue Astroplay (a grass-like synthetic surface that is more forgiving than traditional AstroTurf) in 2002. The AstroPlay field lasted just six seasons and was replaced in the summer of 2008 with blue FieldTurf surface. Following fan complaints that the reflection and glare from the field caused it to appear a dull and uneven shade of blue, FieldTurf Tarkett agreed to replace the field free of charge. The fifth blue turf was installed in the summer of 2010.
The unique blue turf has spawned several myths. The most prevalent is that the NCAA subsequently banned playing surface colors other than green but allowed Albertsons Stadium's field to remain blue under a grandfather clause. In reality, the NCAA has never adopted such a rule. Any school may color its playing surface (or any part of the surface, such as the end zones) any color that it wishes. Since 1986, other schools have installed non-green football fields, including the University of New Haven (blue) and Eastern Washington University (red). On April 1, 2011, the University of Central Arkansas announced that it would install a purple-and-grey striped field for Estes Stadium. In 2012, Lindenwood University in Belleville, Illinois played its first football season on a home field with alternating maroon-and-gray stripes. The blue turf at Boise State remained the only non-green field used by a Division I FBS program until June 2014, when Eastern Michigan announced that it would install a gray FieldTurf surface at Rynearson Stadium in time for the 2014 season.