Kibbie Dome | |
 Aerial view from southwest in 2024 | |
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| Former names | Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center (1974–2023) Idaho Stadium (1971–1974) |
|---|---|
| Address | S. Rayburn Street |
| Location | University of Idaho Moscow, Idaho, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 46°43′34″N117°01′01″W / 46.726°N 117.017°W /46.726; -117.017 |
| Elevation | 2,610 ft (795 m)AMSL |
| Owner | University of Idaho |
| Operator | University of Idaho |
| Capacity | Football: 15,250 (2011–present) 16,000 (1971–2010) Basketball: 7,000 (Cowan Spectrum) |
| Record attendance | 19,878 vs.Boise State on November 18,1989 11,800 – (basketball) vs.Montana on February 12,1983 |
| Surface | Matrix Turf (2017–present) RealGrass Pro (2007–2016) AstroTurf (1990–2006) Tartan Turf (1972–1989) Natural grass (1971) |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | February 1971 |
| Opened | September 27, 1975; 50 years ago (1975-09-27) October 9, 1971 (1971-10-09)(outdoor) 54 years ago as new "Idaho Stadium" |
| Construction cost | $7.84 million[1] ($45.8 million in 2024[2]) |
| Architect | Gene E. Cline of CSHQA[3][4][5] Boise, Idaho |
| Main contractors | Emerick Construction Co.[3][4][5] Portland, Oregon |
| Tenants | |
| Idaho Vandals(NCAA) (1971–present) | |
TheP1FCU Kibbie Dome, known simply as theKibbie Dome and formerly named theKibbie-ASUI Activity Center, is a multi-purpose indoor athleticstadium on the campus of theUniversity of Idaho inMoscow, Idaho. It is the home of theIdaho Vandals of theBig Sky Conference for four sports (football,tennis, indoortrack and field,soccer).Basketball was played in the venue until the autumn2021 opening of the adjacentIdaho Central Credit Union Arena (ICCU Arena).[6]
The Kibbie Dome opened 54 years ago as an outdoorconcrete football stadium in October1971,[7] built on the same site of the demolished woodenNeale Stadium. Following the1974 season, a barrel-arched roof and vertical end walls were added and the stadium re-opened as an enclosed facility in September 1975.[6]
With 16,000 permanent seats,[8] the Kibbie Dome was the second smallest home stadium for inDivision I FBS (formerly Division I-A) from 1997 to 2017. In 2018, Idaho football rejoined the Big Sky inFCS.
From February2001 until the opening of ICCU Arena in autumn2021,[9][10] the Kibbie Dome was reconfigured for basketball games and was referred to as theCowan Spectrum, seating 7,000.
Potlatch No. 1 Financial Credit Union, acredit union based inLewiston, acquirednaming rights to the stadium in June 2023 in a ten-year deal for $5 million as part of a broader partnership with the university.[11][12]
Theelevation of the playing surface is 2,610 feet (795 m) abovesea level.
The stadium was built in stages and took several years to complete.[6] Originally, the new football stadium was to be outdoors and seat over 23,000 spectators, with an adjacent 10,000-seat indoor arena for basketball. The Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), known since 1988 as theBig West Conference, had been launched in 1969 and Idaho was attempting to join, but political wrangling in the state legislature and subsequent budget cuts caused a change in the scope of the stadium project. This ensured that Idaho could not make the move to the PCAA; the Vandals remained in theBig Sky Conference with the other state schools,Idaho State and new memberBoise State.[13] Idaho eventually joined the Big West in 1996.
The revised plan was for a smaller capacity football stadium, to be enclosed to allow use as a basketball arena (and indoor track and tennis as well). This multi-purpose concept had been recently used at Idaho State inPocatello, whereICCU Dome had opened as the Minidome in 1970.
Construction on the concrete grandstands started in February 1971,[14] after a fire destroyed the previously condemned woodenNeale Stadium in November1969.[15] The stadium, which opened in1937, had been condemned in August 1969 due to soil erosion beneath the grandstands. The Vandal football team played its limited home schedule for the next two seasons atWSU'sRogers Field in nearbyPullman.
After a fire significantly damaged Rogers Field's south grandstand in April 1970, WSU moved all of its1970 and1971 home games toJoe Albi Stadium inSpokane, but the Vandals remained at Rogers in Pullman for four "home" games in1970. The Vandals' game with WSU on September 19 in Spokane was dubbed the"Displaced Bowl"[16]. A lopsided44–16 win for the Cougars, it was WSU's only victory in a stretch of 22 games.
Back in Moscow, weather-related construction delays in the spring put the new "Idaho Stadium" a month behindschedule.[17][18][19] The Vandals played their first two "home" games in1971 well away from campus, in Boise for the opener and Spokane two weeks later.[17] Uncompleted, the stadium debuted on October 9 with a40–3 victory overIdaho Statebefore 14,200;it was the first football game on campus in nearlythree years.[20] The Vandals went8–3 in 1971, which included a school-record eight-game winning streak, and won theBig Sky title. For its first four seasons(1971–74), the stadium was outdoors andwithout lights.[21][22] In the summer of1972, aTartan Turf field was installed over a four-inch (10 cm) asphaltbed,[23] with a roll-up mechanism behind the west end zone; the one-piece field was the first in the world.[24][25] In November1974, approval was finally granted by the board of regents to enclosethe stadium.[26][27]The arched roof and vertical end walls were completed in time for the1975 season's home opener on September 27, a deflating29–14 loss to Idaho State in frontof 14,079.[28]
The enclosed stadium was renamed that year for William H. Kibbie, a construction executive fromSalt Lake City and a primary benefactor of the project; he contributed $300,000 in 1974 to initiate the funding drive.[14][26][29][30] Bill Kibbie (1918–1988),[31] originally ofBellevue inBlaine County, was aUI student for less than a month in 1936 when he withdrew due to hisfather's illness.[32][33] He entered the construction business, then served as aB-24 pilot inWorld War II, and eventually founded JELCO in 1957,[34] later EMKO, a major contracting company inUtah.[30][35] The acronym "ASUI" is for the "Associated Students of the University of Idaho", which functions as thestudent government.
When the university announced it would enclose its football stadium, the fledgling Trus Joist Company ofBoise bid on and won the project. Whilesteel andaluminum were the products of the day for domes and large unsupported buildings, Trus Joist saw the UI stadium as a chance to demonstrate the strength, durability, and economy of their engineered wood products.[6][36] From the final design to the end of construction, the enclosure project took just ten months and $1 million to complete. In 1976, the Kibbie Dome roof won the "Structural Engineering Achievement Award" from theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers.[37] TJ International, the successor to Trus Joist, was acquired byWeyerhaeuserin late 1999.[38][39][40]
Following the first indoor football season, the asphalt base underneath the field was covered withTartanpolyurethane in January 1976.[23][41][42][43] The first basketball game was played on January 21,[44] and the inaugural Vandal Invitational indoor track meet was held three days later.[45][46][47][48]
The Kibbie Dome's roof spans 400 feet (120 m) from sideline-to-sideline, and its maximum height is 150 feet (45 m) above the hashmarks. (TheICCU Dome, completed in 1970 on the campus ofIdaho State University inPocatello, has an opposite geometry: its arched roof spans thelength of the football field, rather than its width, resulting in a very low roof at the end lines and goal posts.)
Soon after completion in 1975, problems arose with the roof's exterior. The 4.5-acre (1.8 ha) outer surface ofHypalon and underlying polyurethane foam were improperly applied and a second attempt to seal the roof with Diathon in the late 1970s did not succeed. Leaks were occurring andwood rot was a potential problem by 1980. Aninfrared scan of the roof in the spring of 1981 showed that half of it was moist and the insulating foam was in poor condition.[4][5] Various stopgap measures were taken to stop the leaks in 1981.[49][50][51][52][53][54] After an extended period of finger-pointing and threatened legal action,[55] an out-of-court settlement was reached; a new superstructure with a composite roof was built over the original.[56] Completed in the fall of1982, coinciding with the completion of the East End Addition, the second roof shielded the first and solved the problem.[57][58][59] A by-product of the settlement was the exposure of many safety issues with the venue.[60]
Up until 2011 the Kibbie Dome officially sat 16,000 spectators for football. By the end of Idaho's tenure inDivision I FBS (formerly Division I-A) in the2017 season, it was the second-smallest FBS venue. A record crowd of 19,878 was recorded for the eighth consecutiverivalry game victory overBoise State in November1989, during the schools' I-AABig Sky era. The football field runs an unorthodox east–west, but even with the new translucent upper end walls (2009 and2011), sun location is not a major visibility issue.
For two and a half seasons,1999 to2001, the Vandals usedWSU'sMartin Stadium in nearbyPullman as its home field, as Idaho transitioned back toDivision I-A fromDivision I-AA. WhenDennis Erickson returned as head coach in2006, there was talk of adding a second deck to the Kibbie Dome to increase the football seating to 25,000, and building a new basketball arena. In February 2007, the state board of education appropriated funds to study expansion possibilities. On December 6, the board approved funding to begin design work for $52 million in improvements, including an expansion to 20,000 seats, lowering the elevation of the playing field, and other various safety and spectator improvements.[61] However, the capacity was ultimately never expanded beyond 16,000.
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When not used for football, the formerAstroTurf football field was rolled up in about an hour to reveal 93,000 square feet (2.1 acres; 0.86 hectares) of polyurethane tartan surface, used for indoor tennis and track & field. The five-lane track is 317 yards (290 m) in length, and nine tennis courts are lined on its infield. Basketball and volleyball courts are also lined on the tartan infield. The AstroTurf was spooled onto a large field-width reel at the base of the west wall.
In1990, the original synthetic turf (3M Tartan Turf)[1] of1972 was replaced after 18 seasons, which included three years outdoors.[62] At this time, thegoal posts were modified and attached to the walls, eliminating the conventional center support post.[6][63] In 2007, the AstroTurf was replaced with RealGrass Pro, a next-generation infilled synthetic turf similar toFieldTurf.[64] Unlike the carpet-like AstroTurf, the infilled synthetic turf is not easily rolled up in a continuous reel, and must be removed in sections. The turf sections are five yards (4.6 m) in width, running from sideline to sideline, attached to each other withvelcro. Other stadiums with RealGrass Pro includeTexas Stadium (the former home of theDallas Cowboys), and theAlamodome inSan Antonio.
Life and safety upgrades to the Kibbie Dome began in the spring of2009. The west wall was replaced with a non-combustible construction assembly;translucent plastic panels on the upper half andopaque metal siding on the lower. Concurrent with the end-wall replacement, a range of interior life safety work took place: field level exiting in the new west wall, addition of handrails in the seating aisles, provision of the required smoke exhaust systems; and other life safety and code mitigation improvements. The second phase of the project was completed in2011 with the replacement of the east wall. A premium seating area (Bud & June Ford Clubroom) was established in 2011 in the former press box area above the south grandstand; a new press box was constructed above the north grandstand.
Prior to the2022 season, a newLED lighting package was installed.
The stadium has also served as the home of the Vandal basketball teams, providing increasedseating capacity over the venerableMemorial Gym (built in1928), a block to the east. The basketball court is positioned at midfield on the south sideline, in front of the press box and the south grandstand, with temporary seating on the north, east, and west. The first basketball game was played 49 years ago againstWSU on January 21,1976, commemorated with an alumni game which included Vandal greatGus Johnson.[44][65][66] The main court was originally smooth tartan rubber, poured directly onto the pavement floor, resulting in a very hard and unforgiving surface, but resulted in a tremendous home court advantage under head coachDon Monson in the early 1980s. After nine seasons, it was replaced with a conventional hardwood floor in the fall of1984, acquired from theUniversity of Arizona inTucson.[67]During basketball games, the converted Kibbie Dome was referred to as theCowan Spectrum, named forBob andJan Cowan, who financed the final basketball configuration, from 2000 until basketball moved to the new ICCU Arena. Since February2001,[9][10] the basketball layout was separated from the rest of the stadium by massive black curtains to give the court a more intimate "stadium-within-a-stadium" feel, with a reducedseating capacity of 7,000. Temporary OES scoreboards were placed over the north and south stands during games.
From January1980 to February1983, the Vandals won 43 consecutive home games. A Big Sky record attendance of 11,800 witnessed the streak end againstMontana.[68]
The venue hosted threeBig Sky Conference men's basketball tournaments (by winning the regular season title), in1981,1982, and1993. (The Vandals departed theBig Sky for theBig West in 1996, then to theWAC in 2005 before returning its non-football sports to the Big Sky in 2014, and football in2018.)
In October 2021, Idaho opened the newIdaho Central Credit Union Arena, north of the west end of the Kibbie Dome, to house men's and women's basketball.[69][70] The first game in the new arena was a men's exhibition againstNAIA memberEvergreen State on October 29.[71] The first regular-season game was a men's game againstLong Beach State, coached by Don Monson's sonDan, himself a former Vandals football player.[72]
Since its enclosure in 1975, the Kibbie Dome has undergone several significant additions. The East End Addition was completed in the fall of1982, providing the entire athletic department with locker rooms, offices, a weight room, athletic training facility, and equipment room. The formal dedication and open house for the $3.9 million addition was held in late October.[73] Until the addition, the football and basketball teams, both Vandals and visitors, dressed in the Memorial Gym and made the lengthy walk (or run) west to the Kibbie Dome, often in rain or snow. This had been the practice for UI football for over 40 years, since the opening ofNeale Stadium in 1937. Bill Kibbie also made a significant donation for this project in 1979.[74]
In April 2004, the facilities were again enhanced with the addition of the 8,000-square-foot (740 m2) Vandal Athletic Center, designed byOpsis Architecture, home to the Norm and Becky Iverson Speed and Strength Center; the renovation of the men's and women's basketball, football, and volleyball locker rooms, and the addition of a state-of-the-art hydrotherapy pool (ARC).[75]
August2005 saw the installation of infilled SprinTurf on the former natural grass practice field east of the Kibbie Dome. The days of "off-limits" were eliminated, as UI students acquired state-of-the-art playing fields available for year-round use. A field that previously had just 300 usable hours annually as an "intercollegiate athletics only" field (primarily for natural turf varsity football practice), is now available for up to 2,000 hours per year. The project was funded through the Kibbie Dome turf replacement fund; the $1.2 million SprinTurf project included lighting and fencing.The two 75-yard (69 m) fields are adequate for team practice for football (and soccer, lacrosse, rugby, and other sports) as well as for intramural competition, but short enough to have two fields in the space available. Each field is a full half-field (with end zone & goal post) plus an additional 15 yards (14 m) beyond the 50-yard line. An unmarked 10-yard (9 m) median separates the two fields; the total length, with end zones, is 160 yards (146 m) and runs north–south. The former natural turf fields were lined as a regulation football field running north–south, with a half field at the north end running east–west. An added benefit of the synthetic surface is an estimated $50,000 annual savings in field maintenance costs.[76]
The fields were renovated in2021 with the installation of a newAstroTurf RootZone 3D3 playing surface, as well as a Brock Pad PowerBase Pro.[77]
On the west side of the Kibbie Dome is theDan O'Brien outdoor track & field stadium, which hosted its first meet in 1972,[78] and was renamed in1996 for theOlympic gold medalist, three-timeworld champion, and formerworld record holder in thedecathlon. A concrete grandstand at the finish area (southeast corner) has a seating capacity of 1,000. The first all-weather surface lasted less than a decade and was replaced in 1980.[79][80] The facility underwent a major renovation in 2011 to host the 2012 WAC outdoor championships.[81] South of the Dome is theuniversity's 18-hole golf course, a challenging track due to its rollingPalouse terrain. A par-72 course with terraced fairways and significant changes in elevation, its back tees measure 6,637 yards (6,069 m), with a course rating of 72.3, and a 128 slope rating.[82] The course opened in 1937 with nine holes, then expanded from 1968–70, with the present clubhouse opening in 1969.[83] To the east is theMemorial Gymnasium (1928), theswim center and thephysical education building (both 1970), and six outdoortennis courts. Four additional tennis courts are on the east side of campus, at the southeast corner of the Administration Lawn. As noted earlier, ICCU Arena is immediately to the north of the Dome.
About a half-mile north (800 m) of the Dome are expansive natural grass intramural fields, west of the Wallace dormitories. Included here is the women'ssoccer field, in the far northwest corner bounded by Perimeter Road. Towards the center isGuy WicksArchived March 17, 2012, at theWayback Machine Field, the baseball field since the late 1960s. (Baseball was dropped as a varsity sport after the 1980 season,[84] after more than 80 seasons, but continues as a club sport.)
The facility has a capacity of more than 16,000.
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