Scalise also listed putting turf and lights in the stadium as ways to extend the use of the football field well into the year and possibly open it up for use by other teams and recreational purposes.

“The grass can only [be used] so much before it turns to mud,” he said. “With turf and lights, more activities could be done there more of the time.”

Football Coach Tim Murphy said that the dome would provide an opportunity to combine a much-needed renovation of the stadium with the equally urgent creation of new recreational athletic space.

“Harvard Football’s main facilities have not been upgraded in about half a century and are in many ways antiquated at best,” Murphy said. “With the lack of overall building space, it is critical that we maximize what we have. The tentative plans would go a long way in improving some desperately needed facilities for many of Harvard’s athletic teams.”

Remaking the MAC

Plans to upgrade Harvard Stadium have emerged alongside discussions about renovating the MAC, which has long been slated for improvement.

The MAC serves all 6,000 undergraduates, as well as faculty members and staff. A report released in the spring of 2002 outlined different options for increasing undergraduate athletic space, with an eye to maximizing female varsity locker space and room for recreational athletics while keeping field space constant. All of the proposed plans included some form of MAC renovation to satisfy these goals.

But financial concerns, compounded with the uncertainty of the University’s future in Allston, have delayed plans for the renovation.

Kirby, along with Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71, has said many times in the past two years that the MAC is in need of renovation.

“I desperately want to renovate the MAC,” Kirby said. “We will be looking to improve current facilities, and soon.”

According to Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman ’67, there have been several different plans for the MAC over the past few years.

One early suggestion involved moving the three teams that currently practice at the MAC—wrestling, fencing and volleyball—to venues across the River, and completely reconfiguring the gym exclusively for undergraduate recreational purposes.

But that plan had been put on hold temporarily, Dingman said, because of concerns about cost and pending decisions about how to use the University’s land in Allston.

“People are, wisely, hesitant to commit to things across the river, if things might change there,” he said.

In the works now, according to Dingman, is a smaller-scale renovation that would keep the three teams in the MAC but still increase recreational space.