When thinking of sports in Boise, Idaho, the first thing that comes to mind for most is the iconic blue "Smurf Turf" of Boise State, but as of this year, there's a new sport in town as head coach Nate Miller is leading Athletic Club Boise in USL League One. It's only their first season of existence, but the club have already set multiple USL and USL League One records around attendance and season ticket deposits right out of the gate, with more than 6,700 deposits before a ball was even kicked and 7,211 coming out to the club's home opener on April 4 against Spokane Velocity.
But, as they prepare to face Portland Hearts of Pine on Friday night on CBS Sports Network, this is about more than the numbers, especially when it's always easy to get something new and exciting to get through to fans; it's about authenticity to keep this going for the long haul, which is taken into account with this being soccer for Boise by Boise. When the expansion club was awarded in 2024, it was important to get the community in Idaho involved to build the brand, and that, of course, is easier to do when members of the ownership team, such as Sofia Huerta and co-founder Brad Stith, are natives to the area and understand where they're trying to make this happen. Both described the moment of bringing soccer to Boise as a surreal one, and even with such an accomplished career in the National Women's Soccer League and beyond, having a role in bringing soccer to Boise is going to be one of the things that Huerta sees as a major accomplishment of her storied career.
"Now that I'm sitting back and thinking about it when my career is all done," the Seattle Reign defender and AC Boise co-owner said. "Like, I think I'm probably going to be the proudest of representing my country and then also bringing soccer to Boise, and it's not going to be anything stats-wise or, you know what I mean? Like, it's so much deeper than that."
This is the all-time leader in assists in NWSL history, saying this, but then when you think more about it, not only do AC Boise provide a level of representation on the pitch, but they provide something that Huerta didn't have while growing up, more opportunities for youth soccer players, and it's things like this that help improve the soccer infrastructure in America as a whole. That level of local representation was always important to the club, so it should come as no surprise that the first signing in club history was Blake Bodily in midfield, who came with Major League Soccer experience, and even his first game for the club was a moment that gave goosebumps.
"The support's been unbelievable," Bodily said. "Something that before the season started, they talked a lot about, and they're like, 'Oh, season tickets have sold out, you know, it's going to be poppin'. But you never really know what to expect until the first game comes. And that first game was unbelievable."
That first game can be one of the greatest memories for a club, but it's on the ownership and front office to ensure that there are more memories to be made. American soccer certainly knows a thing or two about new clubs coming into the market, but there's also a laundry list of clubs that no longer exist, and Stith recognizes how important it is to build something that's sustainable in Boise. He has been involved in USL expansion bids and also spent time working for the Portland Trailblazers, all of which translates even down to knowing the timelines needed to launch a team, although even he admits that there's no such thing as having enough time to do everything, but if the right people are in place, it will happen.
"It always comes down to bringing in the right people, having the right team, having the right community support, pouring back into the community as much as possible, making sure communication is fluid and that you're, you know, incredibly honest about where you're, where you are, and where we're going," co-founder and club CEO Stith said.
Building a community
To know where Boise is going, one also needs to understand where they are, and some of that comes back to the European-centric name. On one hand, USL has some of the most unique names in American soccer, look at their opponents on Friday, Portland Hearts of Pine, but for Boise, taking the European route also makes sense, considering the Basque population in the area and their connection with Athletic Club Bilbao who back in 2015 played a friendly against Club Tijuana there, a match which drew over 20,000 fans, but even then the possibility of Boise having a soccer team didn't feel like a reality. It was a moment that tipped the scales for youth soccer in the region, as alongside the match happening, there was money raised for the Idaho Youth Soccer Association as well as the Boys and Girls Club of Ada County, for which Stith sits on the board.
"For Idaho, we don't have unlimited players to pull from, so you really have to invest in your community here to develop the players, which is similar to the mindset of the Basques in the Basque region and Athletic Club Bilbao where you really have to invest in your system and in your players because there's a lot of congruency there," Argia Beristain, CEO of Boise State University Foundation said. "So that is how our relationship with Athletic Club Bilbao and Real Sociedad and Eibar and the different clubs over there have really helped."
That's one spoke of the community, and of course, another is how the club connects with the supporters, where Ryan Pritchett has founded the River Guard, the AC Boise supporters group, which has grown since day one, but that shows the growth of soccer culture in the area in the past 11 years. Beristain admitted that during that Athletic Club friendly, the ambiance wasn't there, as it was a crowd that wasn't familiar with soccer. But plenty has changed in American soccer from then to now, when we're in the midst of the second World Cup being held on United States soil.
Pritchett spent time living in Seattle being involved in the Sounders fan culture, which, as the World Cup put on display for United States men's national team games, is one of the best environments in the United States, but that doesn't mean that Boise can't build something unique, and for Miller and Bodily, getting that support from fans like Pritchett has been a critical part of the team's success.
"Day one, we had like three songs, you know? And it was like, uh, we were handing out song cards as people were coming into the section, and we were like, you know, just try to follow along. And they were following along, and it was kind of half-hearted, but they were starting to get it," Pritchett said. "To now, I can say three words, or I could even just start the first word of a song, and everybody is there on the next beat. Like, they're just waiting for me to start a song, and that's pretty awesome."
That level of buy-in is easy to have when the club is showing ambition and giving fans something to cheer for, which is another aspect of Boise's early success.
Ambition is important
With promotion and relegation coming to USL in 2028, not only is it important to win now, but it's also a time coming where winning will be rewarded with moving up a division. That's something that separates the league from somewhere like a single-entity league, such as MLS.
"In MLS, there's no [promotion or relegation], and there are clubs like Sporting Kansas City who could give two shits if they win. They just want to put butts in seats, sell some jerseys, and be stoked that they're in MLS," Pritchett said.
"We said from the start that we want to compete in the USL Cup, you know, we don't just want to skip by and whatever happens, happens," Bodily said.
The USL Cup has been an emphasis from Miller to the team. Players have experience in the USL Champions League; Miller has also coached in it, so playing against clubs who are up a level is a time to show what they're about, as Boise soccer history is being written from scratch every step of the way. Miller is able to do what he can to reward supporters, but importantly, ownership is giving him the tools to succeed both from a roster-building perspective and when it comes to the facilities that are being built.
"We've just seen it in the World Cup, right? You see Cape Verde go against Argentina in a bigger context, right? If we take it on a micro and macro level, bring it down to where we are: why can't Boise go in and play against, you know, the LAs, the New Yorks, and the big cities and try and, you know, compete on a professional soccer level?" USL League One president Lee O'Neill said. "So, you know, that's one of our ambitions and directions for the league itself, and that's myself, the Championship, and the new league coming in. I think about how we can have that pathway between the different levels and show that, you know, regardless of whether you're, you know, a billionaire or a millionaire or whatever it is in your ownership structure, but the players on the pitch, right? It's 11v11, and you want to go and try and compete at the highest level you possibly can with whatever resources you have."
It's rare, but so far, Boise are doing just that. Only time will tell how sustainable it is, but with the community buy-in all around, this is more sustainable than an average club where investors may set up shop hoping to turn a profit. It's people with an understanding of how the community works, looking to work with that community to build something special, and that may be brewing in one of the places where you'd least expect it in America. For the team, keeping that going is critical.
"I see this club being one of the top clubs in USL," Bodily said. "You see what they've done not even a year in, six months in as a professional organization, and we've already shown that we can compete with the top teams. So I think as the club progresses, as time moves forward, and we move on, I think I see this club being in division one, the top uh division, and competing with the top teams in USL."
How to watch Athletic Club Boise vs. Portland Hearts of Pine
Date: Friday, July 17 | Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
Location: Athletic Club Boise Soccer Stadium -- Boise, Idaho
TV: CBS Sports Network
