Harvard planning new arena, update to stadium

Harvard is planning to build a new basketball arena by 2022 and also to renovate the nation's oldest football stadium.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Harvard is planning to build a new basketball arena by 2022 and also to renovate the nation's oldest football stadium.

The Harvard Crimson, the school's student newspaper, reported that the school revealed the plans during a neighborhood meeting Thursday night.

Harvard's Lavietes Pavillion, the basketball teams' home since 1982, now holds 2,195 seats. It is the second-smallest in the Ivy League, next to Dartmouth's.

Jeremy Gibson, an associate athletic director at the school, said at a Harvard-Allston Task Force meeting would be built between 2017 and 2022.

Harvard basketball has seen an increase in attention with its first NCAA tournament berth since 1946. Alumnus Jeremy Lin was a national sensation with the New York Knicks before signing with the Houston Rockets as a free agent this offseason.

But this fall the team's co-captains were forced to withdraw from school in connection with a cheating scandal that may have involved as many as 125 students.