Nampa voters: Time to pay up or shut up over Ford Idaho Center | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Nampa has spent $23M subsidizing the Ford Idaho Center over 20 years.
- CWI seeks to acquire the center to support campus growth and student programs.
- City Council will vote on whether to retain or convey the center to CWI.
I’ve been to the Ford Idaho Center dozens of times, for concerts, the Nampa Boys & Girls Club annual gala, the Snake River Stampede and many gun shows. As a reporter, I’ve covered high school graduations, and basketball and wrestling state championships there.
A lot goes on at the Idaho Center.
Only problem is it’s a money-loser.
The city of Nampa, which owns the arena complex, has spent $23 million on it over the past 20 years. But without that city funding, the Idaho Center loses money, to the tune of anywhere from $90,000 all the way up to $2.8 million each year.
On top of that, there’s an estimated $18 million to $25 million in deferred maintenance costs.
No wonder the city of Nampa wants to unload it.
“The question is, with our tight budgets that are getting tighter and tighter, how do you continue to steward that asset,” Mayor Debbie Kling told me in an interview. “By letting it decay and not funding the improvements to the facility, that is not stewardship, and it’s important to me to be thinking about the next generation and what we hand off to them. So that’s why this is all under consideration.”
Part of what’s under consideration is the city of Nampa “conveying” the Idaho Center to the College of Western Idaho.
In many ways, the transfer of ownership to CWI makes sense.
Future College of Western Idaho growth
Transferring ownership of the Idaho Center to CWI would double the size of the college’s Nampa campus, from 100 acres to nearly 200 acres, providing space for growth for the fast-growing community college that was formed just 16 years ago and now has 31,000 students.
CWI President Gordon Jones points out there’s no other community college that has grown to 31,000 students so quickly, but he said he’s envisioning when CWI is 40,000 or 50,000 students.
In the face of such rapid growth, Jones said he doesn’t want the college to be forced to limit enrollment because there isn’t enough physical space.
“We want to be able to be proud of our 100% acceptance rate, and to do that, we have to have facilities and the space that can do that,” Jones said in an interview with the Statesman editorial board.
Further, adding another 100 acres of space adjacent to the CWI campus offers opportunities to create learning and internship opportunities and an expansion of academic programs, such as event management, hospitality, early childhood education, agriculture and veterinary technician — all of which could take place on the Idaho Center grounds.
If the college were to offer sports in the future, the center could offer space for basketball and rodeo teams, for instance.
Jones points out that six out of eight of Idaho’s public colleges and universities have venues like the Idaho Center.
Without the Idaho Center, CWI would be limited in its growth and its ability to respond to workforce demands, putting it at a strategic disadvantage to other schools competing for students. Jones said he also foresees generating potential revenue through land leasing to create additional revenue streams without raising tuition.
“I sit between (Interstate) 84 and Star, and I am watching these areas just fill in, for-sale sign after for-sale sign, and (growth) is measured in months,” he said in the interview. “I don’t see it slowing down. So it’s a mandate, I would argue, as an institution, to be prepared to meet those needs, otherwise you become behind and you become in a deficit environment.”
Jones instills a great deal of confidence in the deal. He’s a well-respected figure in Idaho, having come from Harvard to be the founding dean of the College of Innovation and Design at Boise State University and later the CWI president.
He speaks passionately not just about this deal but about higher education in general and the College of Western Idaho specifically.
“Leadership is not for the timid at heart, because you do have to subject yourself to that scrutiny,” Jones said. “I believe this is going to be in the best interest of Idahoans and our ability to provide affordable, empowering education for all.”
One compelling argument for me is that the Idaho Center is more than just a city of Nampa amenity; it serves the whole Treasure Valley. The only government agency that spans all of Ada and Canyon counties is the College of Western Idaho district.
“The Ford Idaho Center is an incredible asset to our community and is used by the entire Treasure Valley,” Kling said. “Our intent is to identify a way to continue to have it function as it has, but remain a vital asset, and the other thing is to increase the utilization of the facility, and a conveyance to CWI creates greater opportunity to utilize the facility.”
Perhaps most importantly, conveying it to the College of Western Idaho would ensure that it stays in public hands. If the city of Nampa were to sell it, a developer could turn it into condos or warehouses, and we’d all lose a treasured public amenity.
“This is a once-in-forever moment,” Jones said. “If we were to move outside of public ownership, it’s not coming back. It will be something else.”
Risks and downsides
But there are many downsides and risks to the college.
Having spent six years as the editor of the Idaho Press in Nampa, I know that the Idaho Center has been a financial albatross around the city’s neck practically since it first opened.
Each year, the city spends about $11 million to $12 million on the arena, and has seen a return of operating revenue of about $10 million.
Nampa taxpayers, a notoriously frugal lot, have complained for years about the property not breaking even and have pressured city officials to get it off the Nampa taxpayer teat.
Would CWI fare any better?
Jones thinks so.
Without giving too many details, Jones said he would be able to negotiate a better deal with the Oak View Group, the private company that manages the Idaho Center.
In addition, he said the CWI board would be more nimble and be more focused, saying that city councils have too many competing interests, such as sewer, water, fire and police.
He points to the speed with which the college, under his leadership, has boldly moved forward on a public-private partnership to develop its 10-acre campus in the west end of Boise.
“Look at what we’ve gotten done,” he said. “We have a Boise campus that’s about to be breaking ground. It has very clear direction, it’s going to happen. Permits are through. You’ve got three new buildings, $150 million of construction. It’s all got solid financing with it.”
The college has lived up to, if not exceeded, its financial promises since voters approved the community college district 16 years ago.
The College of Western Idaho has an annual budget of $94 million, with $13 million of that coming from property taxes.
The tax levy rate of the College of Western Idaho is $8.52 per $100,000 of taxable property value, which remains well below the $11 per $100,000 that organizers promised back in 2007, when the community college district was approved by voters.
Not only do taxpayers get a great value, so do students. The cost to attend CWI is a ridiculously low $156 per credit hour.
Deferred maintenance at the Idaho Center
What about the $18 million to $25 million in deferred maintenance that needs to be done?
Jones said sponsors, partners and donors will step up.
That makes sense, especially donors and business partners.
Colleges and universities have capital campaigns all the time, and they’re usually successful. The Boise State University Foundation, for example, has raised $453 million in a $500 million fundraising campaign, including $102 million in the last year alone. The University of Idaho this year surpassed its $500 million campaign goal.
Raising $25 million in a capital campaign probably wouldn’t be much of a stretch for CWI. But it’s a tool that’s just not available to a city.
CWI can also tap into the state’s Permanent Building Fund, something the city can’t do.
I still have my doubts and concerns whether CWI can make a go of it when the city of Nampa could not, in which case, the transfer of the Idaho Center turns a Nampa city taxpayer problem into a problem for every taxpayer in Ada and Canyon counties.
That said, in the end, I do believe that CWI has a better chance of succeeding, and the addition of the Idaho Center sets up CWI for success for decades to come.
Final alternative for Nampa taxpayers
I’m sensitive to the argument that the good taxpayers of Nampa have paid $23 million for the Idaho Center over the past 20 years, and it’s hardly fair to them to now just “give away” the center to someone else.
But I’ll point out that the taxpayers who have been funding the Idaho Center for the past 20 years would still own it.
The people who pay Nampa taxes also pay College of Western Idaho taxes. The college isn’t some private nonprofit organization; it’s a government agency that also includes the city of Nampa. So conveying the Idaho Center to CWI simply means that everyone in Ada and Canyon counties would own it — including the citizens of Nampa.
But Nampa taxpayers do have a reasonable right to make this call.
And that’s what Nampa City Council members are expected to decide Monday night.
Council members are scheduled to decide whether to put a levy override question on the November ballot, essentially asking Nampa voters to increase the amount of taxes levied on their property to pay for the maintenance of the Idaho Center.
The amount of the levy and whether it would be a permanent or temporary levy would determine whether approval requires a simple majority, 60% or two-thirds majority.
So it’s time for Nampa taxpayers to make a decision: Pay up or shut up.
The vote, if council members put it on the ballot, will ask Nampa taxpayers if they want to keep the Idaho Center, with the understanding that the city likely will continue to lose money on the deal every year.
If the voters approve, we have our answer.
If the voters decline, we also have our answer. At which point, the city should convey the Idaho Center to CWI.
One thing that’s clear is that the city of Nampa can’t just continue limping along like it has been. That carries the risk of a competitor opening a nice, brand-spanking-new venue and putting the Idaho Center out of business.
The Idaho Center needs to be upgraded and updated.
“I hope people understand that the thought process that we're going through is because we value this asset,” Kling said. “Our rodeo is important, our horse park is important, the state tournaments are important. All of that is important to the city and to the citizens of Nampa.”
Let the Nampa voters decide their fate.
This story was originally published August 15, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
