The $2.5 million renovation of the Chick Evans Field House is paying off.

Between 250 and 300 people are using the multi-purpose facility during its 4 to 10 p.m. hours Monday through Thursday.

“It is really easing the ‘busting-at-the-seams’ problem the [Campus Recreation Center] had been seeing before the renovation of the Field House,” said David Lochbaum, assistant director of Recreational Services.

Amanda Daniel, a freshman nursing major, said she goes to the Rec almost every day and the Field House’s opening has made the Rec an easier place to work out.

“It keeps the congestion down and it’s not so crowded now,” Daniel said.

The Field House reopened in August. From 1957 to 2002, it was the home of NIU basketball and other sports. After the Convocation Center opened in 2002, the field house was made into recreational space.

The goal was to help alleviate the high volume of peak-hour users at the Rec, Lochbaum said.

“I think the numbers are steadily going up,” Lochbaum said. “The few times I’ve been there in the evening lately, both basketball and both soccer courts have been occupied.”

About 2,300 to 2,400 students and faculty are using the Rec on a daily basis, Lochbaum said. The large numbers are the result of New Year’s resolutions and Spring Break preparations, he said.

At any other time of year, the Rec services about 1,700 to 2,000 people a day.

As students and faculty gradually learn there is an alternative to the Rec, the Field House usage should rise, said John Sweeney, director of campus recreation.

“It’s really fun to see it happen just the way I envisioned it,” he said.

Baseball and softball practices have kept the facility occupied in the afternoon while the Reserve Officers Training Corps has moved the majority of their offices and training exercises to the building.

“We’re in there every morning from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. as well as on Thursday afternoons,” said Lt. Col. Craig Engel, military science chair. “We also occupy the classrooms for all levels of classes, freshman through senior. We also use the soccer field for our practical lab training.”

The facility houses two basketball courts and two boarded rinks for indoor soccer and floor hockey.

A new cardiovascular room and two aerobics rooms help decrease wait times for similar equipment at the Rec.

“It’s basically like adding 80,000 square feet of play space,” Sweeney said.