Could Boise see a 100,000-square-foot sports facility? What a new report says
Downtown Boise could use an expanded Boise Centre and a multipurpose indoor sports complex, according to a new report.
The Greater Boise Auditorium District, which is funded mostly by a 5% tax on hotel stays, hired a consultant to study what will bring more visitors to the area.
Boise doesn’t have buildings like exhibit halls and midsized performing arts spaces, the report said. Hotels are often mostly occupied, a good sign, though when conventions come to town it makes it hard to reserve large blocks of rooms, according to the report.
“An expanded Boise Centre would relieve capacity pressures, reduce lost business, and capture larger events,” Johnson Consulting wrote in the report. “While a sports complex would … generate regional tourism while simultaneously meeting some local recreation needs. Together, these investments are projected to drive significant new visitation, hotel demand, and tax revenues, while also improving amenities for residents.”
The Boise Centre’s calendar is basically full, according to the report.
“The reality is, is there’s only so many dates on the calendar,” said Johnson Consulting Project Manager John Fleming at an event Thursday to discuss the findings.
The Boise Centre lost out on 431 events in fiscal year 2024. Just over 40% of those were convention or conference events. That means those events are the area with the most growth potential, according to the report.
Almost a quarter of the lost events each year, on average, are caused by too few available dates. More and more of the lost events are also because of the Boise Centre’s size and limitations, according to the report.
“The former trend indicates that the size of events considering Boise is beginning to outstrip the Boise Centre’s facility capacity,” the report said. “If Boise does not address these space limitations, it risks ceding opportunities to competitors like Spokane, which can accommodate larger conventions.”
The auditorium district last studied economic-development options about a decade ago, according to previous Statesman reporting.
In between the two studies, the Treasure Valley’s population and wealth grew quickly, according to the new report. Incomes and population are expected to continue rising, the report said.
There’s also a lack of sports facilities, which means the auditorium district can make “an aggressive entrance” into that market, the report said. Its authors recommended a 100,000-square-foot facility that could hold 10 basketball courts simultaneously.
For expanding the Boise Centre, the report recommended adding 160,000 square feet of function space to the existing 63,000 square feet. Most of that would come from an exhibit hall.
The report said a local-use event space, a performing arts center or a baseball stadium would be feasible, but that they weren’t top priorities or ideal for the auditorium district to take on.
As it is, the auditorium district doesn’t have enough money to take on and build the projects, the report said.
As part of a question and answer session, several audience members said they’d like some sort of performing arts capacity. The local arts community is in alignment, said Cody Lund, executive director of Boise Centre and the auditorium district, at the event Thursday.
“We want to do this right,” Lund said.
This story was originally published October 17, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
