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BOSTON – The Boston Celtics are now the leader in the NBA’s arms race for practice facility supremacy.
The Celtics on Tuesday hosted the grand opening of their brand-new, state-of-the-art, 70-000 square-foot practice facility located at Boston Landing, in the Boston neighborhood of Allston/Brighton. The building has been named the Red Auerbach Center at New Balance World Headquarters, paying tribute to the patriarch of the organization who led the Celtics to their first 16 world championships, with the goal of more to come.
“This will be the foundation as we build the Celtics teams of the future in our relentless quest of Banners 18, 19, and beyond,” said Managing Partner and Team Governor Wyc Grousbeck.
The building will serve as Boston’s practice facility, but in a way, it is actually the team’s new home. It is equipped with everything the players, the coaching staff and the front office staff will need to live their daily lives – without ever leaving the building.
Two parquet basketball courts stand as the core of the building, with everything else being built around them behind two stories of glass windows. The building’s layout and expansive amenities will serve as crucial benefits to the team moving forward.
“Having everything under one roof is critical – we’d have to outsource and go externally for a pool, to get other equipment, et cetera,” said Dr. Johann Billsborough, the team’s director of sports science. He added that the flow of the building, from the locker room to the training room to the court to the weight room, will create a natural ease of use for all who are involved.
At midcourt and along the sideline of one court is a scorer’s table with “CELTICS” written across it. Beyond that table and a bordering wall is an entire sideline that is dedicated to sports science.
Passing through doors on either side of the scorer’s table will take players directly into an expansive and accommodating training room, which features five training tables and two taping stations. The room also houses an open-desk environment for the Sports Medicine team, as well as a private meeting room for the group.
Exiting the training room away from the courts and to the left will take players directly into a state-of-the-art pool room. The room features a cold tub, a hot tub, and a multi-level pool that will allow players to rehab at every stage of their injuries.
“The pool is really special,” said Art Horne, Boston’s Director of Performance. “It has three different levels – 4-foot, 5-foot, and a deep end. So say, for example, somebody had an ankle sprain, they would go right in the deep end so that they’re not weight-bearing, and then as they transition into more weight-bearing, they can start at the 5-foot and bear 10 percent of their weight, and then go to the 4-foot and bear 75 percent of their weight before being able to do full weight-bearing stuff.”
Off of the pool and tub room are entrances into the massage room and what is called a “float tank,” which is an enclosed chamber with a tub of water that has 1,100 pounds of salt in it. When the chamber is closed, earplugs are placed in, and the water has adjusted to a person’s exact body temperature, the body is placed into sensor deprivation.
“You literally have no sensory input, so you’re in a position to be totally relaxed at the highest level,” Horne explained.
Also available for recovery is a nap room, which houses three fully-reclinable, light-brown, leather chairs. Players, coaches or staff members who are working long hours can use the nap room to rest as they please.
If players are not recovering in the Sports Medicine rooms, they can take a few more steps into their locker room, which traces the baseline of the courts. The players’ lockers form a circle around a giant, green shamrock logo in the middle of the gray carpet, and that shamrock mirrors an identical, shamrock-shaped lighting fixture that is attached to the ceiling above it. Each player’s locker is equipped with a safe, a power outlet, six storage cubbies along the top, two drawers and two more levels of cubbies along the bottom.
The locker room is also connected to a fully-equipped barber station if anyone requires a haircut while at their place of work.
Once players exit the locker room and head to the court, they will be just steps away from a dedicated film room, which is housed along the same baseline of the neighboring court. The room looks like a curved movie theater, with all 27 leather seats angled toward the screens at the front-center of the room.
Along the opposite baselines is the strength and conditioning area. Beyond that wall stands a spacious weight room and training facility, which features a large turf area for training. The turf also just happens to have a putting hole that can be uncovered, for anyone who may want to practice their putting stroke from time to time.
One level up, and directly overlooking the court, is the cardio space, which features multiple stationary bikes, treadmills and other cardio equipment. Behind the cardio equipment – and overlooking both the courts and Interstate 90 – are Boston’s 17 championship banners, as well as one more empty banner that hangs as a motivating factor.
The cardio space looks across the court at the player’s lounge, which may be the most impressive area of the building. The player’s lounge is located directly above the film room and the locker room.
The lounge consists of two rooms, the first of which is a billiards room that houses a customized pool table with a Celtics logo at its center. The table sits atop a white carpet that reads “CELTIC PRIDE” in green and black letters. Five TVs dot the entertainment wall alongside the pool table, three lounge chairs sit along the wall, and four bar chairs look out over the court.
Inside the neighboring room is the cafe and yet another entertainment wall. In front of the entertainment wall is a five-seat, sectional couch that sits atop a carpet that reads “DO WHAT YOU DO BEST”.
The adjacent café is representative of its own restaurant, with two serving stations, four four-seated tables, and a four-seated bar that looks toward the entertainment wall. The team’s director of team nutrition, Nick Arcuri, is equipped with a fully-commercial kitchen that will allow he and his staff to serve healthy, prepared and made-to-order meals to players from breakfast through dinner time.
“The biggest upgrade is the cooking equipment, to not only be able to educate and guide the guys in terms of what they should be eating and when,” said Arcuri, “but we can actually prepare it, and be in complete control over the product itself every step of the way from its source to the plate.”
The rest of the building’s space is filled out by a medical exam room with advanced technology from GE, a large mixed-use space for press conferences or events, a broadcast studio, a sizable media room, expanded offices and open office space for staff, and multiple auxiliary locker rooms.
All told, the expansive space is expected create an environment of which the team and staff will not only appreciate, but also enjoy. The Celtics wanted a building that will extend their winning culture, and now they have it in the Auerbach Center at New Balance World Headquarters.