Yahoo Finance Boise State athletics is on a fundraising roll. See how much fiscal year 2024 produced
The Boise State athletic department raised $20.8 million in donations and commitments in fiscal year 2024, the university announced Thursday.
It’s the third consecutive fiscal year the department surpassed $20 million, following record-setting amounts in fiscal year 2022 ($24.1 million) and 2023 ($26.1 million).
“We are so grateful for the ongoing investment from Bronco Nation,” Athletic Director Jeramiah Dickey said in a statement. “Our thanks to the members of the Lyle Smith Society, Bronco Athletic Association, season-ticket holders and one-time gift donors, who believe in the vision to position every Bronco sport program for long and short-term success.”
FY 2024 was highlighted by a 12% growth in donors and 24 new Lyle Smith Society members, raising the total to 250. Membership in the Lyle Smith Society begins with a minimum pledge of $50,000 over five years or an annual donation of more than $50,000. The group, named after former football coach and AD Lyle Smith, has raised more than $30 million since its inception in 2020.
Membership requirements originally began with a minimum pledge of $25,000 over five years or an annual donation of more than $25,000, but those numbers were raised in 2022.
Boise State also received three new $1 million donations, all from anonymous donors. One was designated for use by the football program, another was for capital projects that directly affect women’s sports and the third was earmarked for future capital projects, according to Boise State.
The athletic department has received 14 donations of at least $1 million from 10 different individuals, families or corporations since Dickey was hired in 2021. The department also got a one-time $750,000 donation that funded the installation of new LED lights in Albertsons Stadium.
“Bronco Nation, your support empowered the 350+ Bronco student-athletes to bring home eight team and individual conference championships, secure the best combined total attendance in the Mountain West Conference, post the department’s best cumulative grade point average in school history (spring 2024), and complete 50 different facility and capital projects,” Dickey said in a statement.
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The most notable facilities project underway at Boise State is the renovation of the north end of Albertsons Stadium. The school announced in May that construction is expected to begin in early 2025 and work is expected to be done before the start of the 2026 season.
The $65 million project will add approximately 1,600 seats and feature 12 field-level suites, 44 loge boxes, 148 ledge seats and 882 club seats with all-inclusive food and beverage amenities on game days. It also includes club and terrace spaces, a training table and nutrition center for all student-athletes, a new football recruiting lounge and a new locker room for visiting teams. Additional restrooms, mobile concession kiosks, an open-air sports bar and lounge area, and wider concourses are also planned.
A portion of the renovation is being funded by a $5 million gift given by the Miller family in December 2022 — the largest one-time donation in program history. The gift broke a record set by a $4.5 million donation given by Melaleuca, a health product manufacturer based in Idaho Falls, in March 2022. That money funded the construction of a 6,000-square-foot video board in the south end of the stadium.
In June 2022, Boise State got $1.8 million from Agribeef, a beef producer headquartered in Boise, to upgrade the video board in the stadium’s north end.
Dickey is nearing the end of the five-year contract he signed in 2021. It’s scheduled to expire in December 2025, and he has yet to be offered a contract extension.
