With the coronavirus pandemic dictating the capacity of social gatherings, a return to the design of original Major League Baseball stadiums could be in the future, said an architect and engineering firm.

Don Barnum, of firm DLR Group, said teams would need to make "required and necessary renovations" to sports stadiums to honor social distancing guidelines, at least in the short term.

Barnum, who leads the firm's global sports studio, added the changes shouldn't be too costly. "You just modify them [arenas]; take out the seats," he said.

Barnum said the firm had a "variety of conversations" with team owners who inquired about adjusting layouts for social distancing. The firm created renderings using a minor league baseball stadium to analyze seating arrangements.

The firm found that "loge box" seating, with four seats separated by six feet in all directions from other people in the seating bowl sections, would honor distancing rules.

"In the short term, you can manage that by selling tickets to a certain number of people, identify their seats, and have fans distance," said Barnum, who designed the $161 million Pinnacle Bank Arena in Nebraska.

"If this becomes the new norm over two-to-five years, then I think [teams] would start removing those other seats and making that environment a fixed permanent one that creates that separation and distancing," he said.

Barnum used the 1900s original versions of Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston to forecast temporary seating arrangements. The seating back then resembled box seats with a railing that separated people.

"That sort of approach may find its way back into how we manage the seating bowl," Barnum said. "That would allow teams to control the separation and not affect sightlines."