“A reduced plan is an advisable short-term plan, but there are those who say that we shouldn’t do the reduced plan if we can do the larger, long-term plan,” Dingman said. “You’d undo what you’d just fixed.”

In the meantime, Kirby suggested, there may be a possibility of moving more equipment into House gyms. To immediately satisfy students’ chief exercise resource demand—more workout machines—the Undergraduate Council allocated $13,000 last year to improving facilities and equipment in House gyms.

Similarly, Scalise said that the stadium was targeted for renovations since the current budget crunch has focused the College’s attention on renovating old facilities—not building new ones.

“The cost of things is always a factor,” he said. “[The bubble] is a low-cost alternative to building another field house.”

But administrators say that these are short-term answers to what may prove to be a larger, long-term problem.

“In time we will need a rather different set of recreational facilities in different parts of the campus,” Kirby said.

Dome Won’t Be Built in a Day

Kirby said that the University’s future campus will not stand in the way of solving the recreational space problem.

“I am sure that the need to plan for Allston, now—which is very important—need not derail or delay other plans for athletics,” Kirby said.

Instead, Kirby suspects that money will be the primary decision-maker.

“In a moment when the growth in our income is quite low, a 2 percent increase this year from our endowment, while our expenses have increased by much more—and next year there may be no increase at all in the funds we receive as endowment income—we have to look with care at what we can do,” Kirby said.

It is unclear where the money for the stadium revamping and MAC renovation will come from, but Dingman said much will depend on the whims of athletic donors.

“I suspect that there are a lot of alumni who have participated in or have a fondness for athletics,” Dingman said. “The question is whether they’re as interested in the strengthening of recreational athletics, and I’m not sure. The top draw is to help intercollegiate athletics.”

One alum, speaking last Friday at an event to commemorate the stadium’s centennial, expressed doubts about the merits of the dome.

“I don’t know what you would need it for,” said John L. Powers ’70. “There are now so many other indoor facilities.”