BOISE- The payout for a bowl game is huge.
This time around, the Western Athletic Conference will get $4.5 million after the game. Boise State will get $3 million.
And the impact that the money and exposure will make in southern Idaho is great.
We'll get to that three million dollars in a second, but first let’s take the Bronco Shop for example. It was open Sunday night until
midnight. And since the announcement, Fiesta Bowl shirts have been flying off the shelves.
All money made here goes to BSU scholarships, and when the football teams play in bowls like the Fiesta, sales get crazy.
It was a game to remember the last time the Broncos went to the Fiesta Bowl -- the Statue of Liberty play -- the proposal.
A football game that meant more than just another win for Boise State, its president, students and staff.
"In so many ways this university, its reputation is enhanced by our going to the Fiesta Bowl," said Dr. Bob Kustra.
Kustra said to take enrollment for an example. Following one of college football's best games (and biggest upsets) on national TV, the mid-size university saw its status elevated.
“I have talked with faculty who are here now, who we recruited after the Fiesta Bowl, and they say ‘yeah, I didn't know much about you guys until I saw the Fiesta Bowl and I learned more and I decided I wanted to come here’," Kustra said.
It's the game and the 30-second clips featuring the school that run during the telecast that peak interest.
After the game, enrollment applications went up in 2007 by nine percent, and by fall the university had made history with 19,000 attending the school.
"Money and prestige and notoriety and visibility and that could worth even more than the dollars,” said Gene Bleymeier, the athletic director for Boise State.
The WAC received $6 million for its game against Oklahoma. The money was split with all the conference teams, but Boise State received the lion's share -- $4.2 million. One million was used to pay Fiesta Bowl bills. The rest was spread around campus.
Academic scholarships were started and building projects like the Stueckle Sky Center were seeded.
"We are here for the common good and we can't do it without the academic side,” Bleymeier said. “We need the academic side to continue to grow and improve and anything that we can do to make that happen is good for the university."
Athletics and academics - a combination some say don't always get equal billing. But those who lead Boise State say they go hand and glove. And whether you support football or physics, in the end a trip to Phoenix means great advances for the entire school.
"We are proud of our college of engineering and our college of education and we are proud of our football team and when you put them all together that is a winning prescription," Kustra said.
In December 2006 leading up to the Fiesta Bowl, the university sold $752,000 in merchandise.
The best month before that was December 2004 when the Broncos were headed to the Liberty Bowl -- sales then were $359,000.
And as mentioned -- sales on shirts, hats, any Bronco paraphernalia purchased at campus facilities goes back to the university and serves as a major revenue booster for BSU.
Fiesta Bowl tickets have already gone on sale.
More than two thousand of them were sold in the first 20 minutes online.
That leaves roughly 15,000 remaining tickets.
“They're definitely going quickly,” said Anita Guerricabeitia at the BSU ticket office. “Season ticket holders have until Tuesday night at midnight.... and then they will go on sale to the general public first thing Wednesday morning."
Game tickets are $150 a piece.
