Crowds at Boise State football games? What local leaders say about economic reopening
How will the city of Boise recover from the financial strain of COVID-19? Will Boise State University students return to campus this fall? And will there be crowds of Broncos fans at Boise State football games this fall?
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said Monday that for now, there are “so many unknowns” that make it hard to provide answers.
Boise State University President Marlene Tromp and John Colgrove, president of Albertsons Companies’ Intermountain Division, also spoke in the news teleconference.
Tromp said Boise State is planning to announce what the fall semester may look like on Monday, May 25. The university has been working with a doctor of public health to formulate plans. That expert used to work on military bases to prevent the spread of illness, which Tromp said was a “great parallel to a college campus where you have people living in shared living spaces.”
The university recognizes the role it plays in the community, she said, both for Idaho students and for the more than 29% of students who are from out of state.
As for what football may look like this fall? Tromp said university officials are looking forward to “hearing from the NCAA soon.”
“We have some feeling they might, because each state is so different, tell states they have to follow their own state guidelines, so right now we’re waiting for guidance and we’re looking for ways to help our athletes be safe,” Tromp said. The first priority, she said, is keeping students and the community safe.
It’s not clear if crowds would be allowed at those games yet. McLean’s reopening plan for the city details five stages, the final of which cannot be reached until a COVID-19 vaccine is available. Before that, McLean has said larger group sizes may still be restricted to a maximum of 250 people, up from 50 people in Stage 3. (The city is in Stage 2, as is the state of Idaho.)
McLean said Monday that officials thought it prudent to not allow gatherings of unlimited size but that specific calls on group sizes would be made closer to that time.
“We’ll be looking at what’s happening with the spread of the virus, how the hospitals are doing, what’s happening on the university campus and in businesses around the community, and then making calls on what group sizes look like and how we move forward,” she said.
McLean will continue to work with members of her economic recovery task force to make more decisions on how to best move forward from an economic stance as well, she said.
The group will help ensure the city is “effectively leveraging our resources” to help the economy grow, McLean said. Asked what the task force’s goal is, McLean said she wanted it to serve as a foundation to hold the city accountable for recovery and long-term growth.
The task force includes Tromp and Colgrove, as well as:
- Lisa Grow, president of Idaho Power
- Andy Scoggin, CEO of Scoggin Capital Investment and a board member for the Idaho State Board of Education
- Daniel Malarkey, senior fellow for the Sightline Institute
- Skip Oppenehimer, CEO of Oppenheimer Companies
- Michael Satz, associate professor of law at the University of Idaho
- Marcela Escobari, a senior fellow of global economy and development at the Brookings Institute
- Alexander Toeldte, a board member at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival
- Bill Avey, vice president of HP Inc.
- Melanie Rubocki, partner at Perkins Coie
- Karen Bilowith, CEO of the Idaho Community Foundation.
This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 3:55 PM.
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