After two years and $2.3 million in renovations, intramural indoor soccer finally has a new home – the Chick Evans Field House.

Before renovations, the field house was home to the NIU men’s basketball team. Now all NIU students can utilize the fieldhouse for basketball, volleyball, hockey and weight training.

In addition to these activities, intramural soccer has moved to the field house, where the playoffs begin Monday. This is the first year indoor soccer can use a regulation soccer court for its competition. In the past, indoor soccer was played at the Office of Campus Recreation building.

Last year, a different type of soccer ball was used and there were no boards, said Galen Mahle, NIU Intramural and Sport Club Director. Also, there was no need for a goalie because the goals were smaller than regulation size.

Now with the new courts, the sport has brought a few new dimensions to the game by adding boards to play off and a goalie for the regulation-sized net.

“The new soccer courts at the fieldhouse have made it a more realistic style of play,” Mahle said.

The fieldhouse has brought more interest by students with 46 teams of 10 students on each team, Mahle said. Last year there were only 40 teams.

“It’s like real professional indoor soccer here,” said Marcin Stachnik, freshman business major and indoor soccer referee.

The new courts allow players to play a much more aggressive style, and this leads to more fouls than before, said Sergei Shumaster, a senior biology pre-medical major.