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Campus arenas and athletic buildings are increasingly being designed as shared infrastructure rather than single-purpose sports venues. The clearest answer to what they do beyond sports is: they combine training and competition with recreation, teaching, student services, ceremonies, conferences, performances and community events. A 2019 Building Design + Construction feature illustrated that approach through Boston College’s Fish Field House, Hackley School’s Walter C. Johnson Center for Health and Wellness, and Bentley University’s arena. Those projects show the programming possibilities, but they are selected New England examples—not proof of a measured, sector-wide increase. Their lessons are practical: plan for several user groups, make rooms and systems adaptable, and treat operations, technology, energy and site infrastructure as part of the venue’s public function.
What can a campus arena do beyond hosting sports?
A well-programmed campus arena can support varsity training, intramural and club sports, physical education, wellness services, classes, admissions activity, career fairs, concerts, ceremonies and ordinary student gathering. The building may still have a primary sport—ice hockey, football practice or court sports—but its value rises when the same circulation, seating, audiovisual systems and back-of-house areas can serve other activities without compromising athletes’ needs.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe distinction is important for owners and construction teams. A sports-only brief can optimize sightlines, locker rooms and competition equipment. A shared-infrastructure brief must also address daytime classroom use, public access, event changeovers, acoustic separation, food service, security, accessibility, maintenance and energy performance. The projects below show different ways to make that overlap work.
How do the three New England projects compare?
Each example keeps athletics at the center while adding a different mix of educational, social or community functions. The figures are attributed to the named sources and should be read in their publication context.
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| Project | Primary athletics role | Additional programs | Scale and infrastructure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish Field House, Boston College | Indoor football and other varsity practice; recreation and club sports | Practice-support spaces and audiovisual capability; shared campus use | $52.6 million; 115,700 sq. ft.; 12,000-sq.-ft. strength and conditioning center; LEED Gold; 2.3 million gallons of reported stormwater capacity |
| Walter C. Johnson Center for Health and Wellness, Hackley School | Basketball, swimming, squash, wrestling and indoor track | Wellness studio, three classrooms, teaching kitchen, student common area, café and offices | 115,000 sq. ft., as reported by Building Design + Construction in 2019 |
| Bentley Arena | Ice hockey | Concerts, career fairs, admissions programs, fashion show, presidential inauguration, conferences and other campus events | Bentley reports 76,000 sq. ft.; ARC lists 75,200 sq. ft.; 2,117 hockey seats and 3,400 seats for other events; LEED Platinum; 1,400 solar panels |
Prices checked November 2026.
The Bentley area discrepancy is unresolved in the available sources, so it should not be silently averaged or presented as one definitive measurement. Likewise, the Hackley area and amenity list come from the 2019 feature rather than a corroborating institutional or architect page found for this article.
What does Boston College’s Fish Field House add to an athletics building?
Fish Field House demonstrates how an indoor practice building can carry varsity, recreational and site-infrastructure duties at the same time. Boston College Athletics describes the facility as a $52.6 million, 115,700-square-foot building opened in July 2018. Its principal athletic function is indoor practice for football and other varsity sports, with a regulation AstroTurf field and a 12,000-square-foot strength and conditioning center.
The broader 2019 account also places recreation and club sports within the building’s shared-use logic. That changes design priorities: the field must support scheduled team sessions while circulation, access control and support rooms remain workable for other campus users. A full-size field with a 20-foot runoff, practice-support areas and integrated audio and video systems give coaches and event staff tools that are useful outside a game, too.
Site engineering is part of the project’s public value. Architectural Resources Cambridge reports LEED Gold certification and 2.3 million gallons of stormwater storage capacity, a response to campus flooding concerns. For a construction brief, that is a reminder that an arena’s footprint affects drainage, downstream capacity and resilience—not just the interior program. A venue that hosts more people and more event types must also move people and water safely.
How does Hackley’s Walter C. Johnson Center combine sports with school life?
Hackley School’s Walter C. Johnson Center for Health and Wellness is the most explicit example of a sports complex functioning as an academic and social building. The 2019 Building Design + Construction feature reports a 115,000-square-foot facility with three basketball courts, an eight-lane pool, eight squash courts, a wrestling room and an indoor track.
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Its non-sports spaces are not leftover rooms around a gym. The same account identifies a wellness studio, three classrooms, a teaching kitchen, a student common area, a café and offices. Those uses bring students and staff into the building even when no team is practicing. They also create different environmental and operational requirements: classrooms need reliable speech intelligibility and daytime daylight control; a teaching kitchen needs food-service utilities and hygiene protocols; a café and common area need social seating and durable finishes; wet and athletic zones need moisture management and cleaning access.
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The lesson is programming adjacency. Put spaces that share users, staff or equipment close enough to be efficient, but separate noisy, wet or event-intensive functions from quiet instruction. A school may want one front door for daily wellness and classes and a controlled route for evening spectators. That decision belongs in the early plan, before structure and mechanical distribution make changes expensive.
Why is Bentley Arena more than a hockey rink?
Bentley Arena retains hockey as its primary use while operating as a campus event room. The university says the 2018 facility is 76,000 square feet, includes a glass-walled function room and uses 1,400 rooftop solar panels to supply 40% of annual electricity needs. Bentley also describes it as the first standalone ice arena in the country to receive LEED Platinum certification.
The 2019 feature records a wide event calendar: concerts, career fairs, admissions programs, a fashion show and the university president’s inauguration. It reports seating for 2,117 at hockey games and 3,400 for other events, plus more than 30,000 non-sports-related guests during the first 15 months after opening. That attendance number is a historical figure from the 2019 article, not a current annual count.
The project’s purpose was articulated by Nicole Chabot-Wieferich, Bentley’s director of student programs and engagement, in the feature: “The impetus for this came from the students. Hockey is a big draw on campus, but the students also wanted additional space to hold events and to build a community on campus.” The quote explains why a function room, adaptable seating and event infrastructure can be as important to the brief as the rink itself.
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ARC characterizes the arena as a student-centered event space for conferences, career fairs, convocations, music and comedy. Its project page lists 75,200 square feet, while Bentley lists 76,000 square feet; the available sources do not explain the difference. ARC also says students operate the audiovisual system and that sustainability courses measure operations and energy consumption. That makes the building a learning laboratory as well as a venue.
How do layout and technology make a venue genuinely flexible?
Flexibility is not achieved by leaving an empty floor. It comes from coordinated architecture, equipment and staffing. The 2019 feature points to adjustable lighting and sound, event-capable audiovisual systems, classrooms and energy use as parts of the program. ARC’s Bentley description adds student operation of the AV system and course-based measurement of building performance.
- Lighting: Provide scenes for competition, practice, exams, banquets and performances, with controls that trained staff can recall quickly. Avoid aiming every fixture at the sport alone; event layouts may put speakers, screens or temporary stages in different locations.
- Sound: Treat speech intelligibility and music playback as separate design goals. Acoustic absorption, isolation from mechanical plant and controllable zoning help a career fair coexist with a practice session.
- AV and power: Plan permanent cable routes, distributed power, robust wireless coverage and locations for production control. A system that requires temporary cables across public paths is not truly event-ready.
- Rooms and storage: Add classrooms, function rooms, offices and lockable storage where they can be used without opening athlete-only areas. Event furniture, staging, sport equipment and cleaning gear all need a home.
- Operations: Write changeover procedures into the plan. Decide who can alter lighting scenes, connect a concert system, approve public access and reset the building after an event.
Technology also creates a training opportunity. Bentley’s student-operated AV model shows how a venue can give students practical production and facilities experience. If that is an objective, the owner must provide safe access, supervision, documentation and a system that can be learned rather than a black box controlled only by a vendor.
What should an owner include in the brief for a multipurpose arena?
Start with a calendar, not a room list. List a representative week of practices, classes, club sessions, competitions and public events, then test where users overlap. The following sequence keeps the building’s shared mission explicit.
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- Define the primary sport and protected requirements. Record field, court or rink dimensions, runoffs, equipment, locker and medical needs, sightlines and competition standards. Those requirements are the non-negotiable base layer.
- Map secondary users. Name students, faculty, clubs, admissions teams, community groups, performers, vendors and spectators. For each, document arrival time, access level, storage, toilets, food, accessibility and technology.
- Set event modes. Draw the building in practice, competition, classroom, concert, fair and ceremony configurations. Include seats, stages, booths, temporary flooring, rigging zones and egress in each mode.
- Separate circulation and security. Provide routes that allow a public event without exposing team rooms, and routes that allow athletes to reach practice without crossing a queue. Plan service access for deliveries and waste independently from spectators where possible.
- Specify adaptable systems. Require lighting presets, zoned audio, AV connection points, resilient network service, acoustic treatment and controls that operators can document and maintain.
- Price the whole life cycle. Compare first cost with staffing, cleaning, ice or turf maintenance, replacement cycles, energy, water, event setup and training. A cheaper room that needs specialist labor for every changeover may be less flexible in practice.
How should sustainability and site constraints shape the design?
The examples show that sustainability is both a certification target and an operational question. Fish Field House’s reported LEED Gold status and 2.3-million-gallon stormwater capacity connect the building to campus flooding concerns. Bentley’s reported LEED Platinum certification and solar array connect the arena’s roof and electrical strategy to its annual energy demand.
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For a new project, establish a water and energy baseline before selecting systems. A large roof can support solar, but it also changes runoff; an ice rink has significant refrigeration and dehumidification loads; pools add heating and humidity-control demands; and event peaks can drive ventilation and electrical capacity. Metering should be arranged so students and facilities staff can see how different operating modes affect consumption, rather than receiving one opaque monthly total.
Stormwater, heat-island effects, emergency access and neighboring buildings belong in site planning from the first concept. Retention volume, overflow routes and maintenance access should be coordinated with foundations and utility corridors. Certification labels are useful signals, but they do not replace an operations plan that explains who monitors energy, cleans filters, maintains panels and responds to extreme weather.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What do the published figures—and their dates—actually prove?
They prove that these particular institutions built facilities with uses beyond scheduled sports. They do not establish how common the model is across campuses, how profitable it is, or whether every multipurpose arena reaches the same attendance or energy outcomes. The source feature was published July 12, 2019, so its descriptions, costs and Bentley attendance figure are historical.
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Boston College’s current facility page, accessed in November 2026, still lists the $52.6 million cost and 115,700 square feet and identifies the July 2018 opening. Bentley’s current page, also accessed in November 2026, lists 76,000 square feet, the 1,400-panel array and 40% annual electricity contribution. ARC’s current Bentley page lists 75,200 square feet. When preparing a feasibility study or board paper, cite the source and access date, and verify dimensions, operating costs, capacity and code conditions against current project documents.
What is the practical takeaway for construction teams?
Design the arena as a schedule of overlapping users, not as a single large room waiting for occasional events. Protect the primary athletic function, then make secondary uses deliberate through adjacency, acoustics, storage, access control, adaptable lighting and sound, event-ready AV, durable finishes and measurable energy and water systems.
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Fish Field House shows how training, recreation and stormwater infrastructure can share one investment. Hackley shows that classrooms, wellness, food and common space can be integral to an athletic center. Bentley shows how an ice venue can become a student event hub when the owner plans for multiple capacities, solar generation, a function room and student-operated technology. The strongest briefs carry those lessons into operations: define who changes the room, who pays for the changeover and how performance is measured after opening.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a campus arena host public events without disrupting varsity practice?
Yes, if the plan gives athletes and visitors separate access, storage and back-of-house routes and sets operating modes in advance. Scheduling, acoustic separation and a documented changeover procedure matter as much as movable seating.
How much space should be reserved for classrooms or student services in an athletic building?
There is no universal ratio. Size those rooms from the institution’s calendar and staffing model, then test peak overlaps with practices, competitions and events; Hackley’s classrooms, teaching kitchen, café and common area illustrate the range of uses rather than a prescribed allocation.
Does LEED certification guarantee that an arena will use little energy?
No. LEED describes the certified design and construction criteria, while actual consumption depends on occupancy, refrigeration, pool or turf systems, controls and maintenance. Bentley’s reported 40% solar contribution and ARC’s metering-focused description show why operating data still matters.
Why do two credible sources give Bentley Arena different floor areas?
Bentley’s facility page reports 76,000 square feet and ARC’s project page reports 75,200 square feet. The available sources do not explain whether the difference reflects measurement boundaries, later revisions or rounding, so project documents should control any current specification.
