With the University’s extensive varsity, club, and intramural sports programs, Princeton students have no shortage of options for athletic field usage on campus, even as Poe Field remains under construction until the end of the summer. As the weather gets warmer, field utilization will only increase.
The Daily Princetonian examined the 5,306 reservations on seven multi-purpose athletic facilities made by both Princeton University Athletics and Princeton University Campus Recreation over Spring 2022, Spring 2023, and Spring 2024.
The Bubble over Powers Field, constructed at the culmination of each football season and taken down mid-spring, consistently maintains the most reservations year-over-year. The Bubble covers the entirety of Powers Field in Princeton’s Stadium, creating a climate-controlled environment for teams to practice year-round. This year’s final reservation before its removal was a varsity athletics practice scheduled by Princeton Athletics on April 8.
White Peff ’03 Field — the newest field addition to Princeton’s campus — has been the least versatile in its utilization, as all of its reservations this spring have been for varsity athletics.
Plummer Field, located east of Yeh College and New College West serves as the most versatile athletics field on the list serving a significant number of reservations from each department. Plummer Field maintains the highest percentage of intramural sports reservations — 6.44 percent — while still having a strong club and varsity sports presence on the turf field.
“Plummer is commonly used for [outdoor] intramurals,” said Yeh Intramurals Activity Chair Caleb Williams ’26 in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “It used to be Poe Field that was used all the time and Dillon [Gym] for all the indoor sports.”
“The biggest benefit is giving people a break from the busyness of class,” said club Flag Football president Evan Alfandre ’25 in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “[People have] a lot of work going on, and just being able to forget about that for a couple hours every week is really valuable for me.”
A majority of reservations each year occur on weekdays. In 2024, the most reservations were made for Wednesdays, accounting for 282 of the total 1,520 reservations made in 2024 — almost 19 percent. Teams often hope to hold weekday practices allowing a busy Princeton student to forget about their impending deadlines for a couple hours and get some physical activity.
“[Intramurals] give us a nice study break, something different and also allows people to interact with others that they don’t know very well,” Williams said.
Over years, varsity reservations remained relatively constant, with the most varsity use on Sherrerd Field, Campbell/Finney Fields, and the Bubble. Outside groups are also able to reserve the fields.
“Seven to nine [in the evening] is the prime practice time and a lot of people tell me they don’t like our nine to eleven practice time… The fact that they’re giving the most valuable club sport practice time to an outside organization — it’s frustrating,” Alfandre mentioned. “And then when we’re outside on Campbell/Finney … it’s just frustrating because we are freezing and they get to use the indoor space,” he said.
During times of financial struggles for club sports, with teams declining invitations for games that are too far away, they also face difficulties at home with barriers to field reservations.
“I think one of the big issues with the process of how we make reservations is that on the Google Form you just say when you want to practice,” Alfandre said, mentioning there are three slots where you rank the best times that work for your club. “I think it makes it hard for them [Campus Recreation] to actually get everyone what they want, which is why we probably end up not getting what we want.”
Campus Recreation did not directly respond to the complaints regarding the reservation system and said that they only have oversight when it comes to scheduling spaces in Dillon and Plummer Field.
Vincent Etherton is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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