Boston Celtics Getting New Practice Facility At Boston Landing
The Boston Celtics basketball team will be getting a new practice facility in an area known as Boston Landing, according to the Boston Globe.
New Balance Development will be working with the Celtics to build and plan the facility, and it will feature two basketball courts, office space, and training areas, according to Bleacher Report.
The facility will be 70,000 square feet, and it will feature a 40-foot glass wall. It will be a while before the Celtics get their new practice facility, as construction isn’t set to begin until the Spring of 2018.
In 2018, the Boston @Celtics will have a new practice facility at Boston Landing in Allston-Brighton. pic.twitter.com/YD2uEW30qP
— Only In Boston (@OnlyInBOS) May 10, 2016
“We are proud to team with New Balance Development in the creation of a best-in-class athletic training and practice facility that will provide Celtics players, coaches, and training staff with the resources, technology, and programming to compete at the highest level in an increasingly competitive NBA landscape,” Celtics president Rich Gotham said in a statement. “The Boston Landing location will bring us closer to our game day home at the TD Garden while providing high impact brand visibility.”
The Celtics have been training in the Healthpoint Sports Authority Training Center since 1999. Besides the Celtics, the Boston Bruins ice hockey team are also at Boston Landing, which will be opening a facility this summer. New Balance also has its corporate headquarters at Boston Landing.
“We are thrilled to welcome the Boston Celtics to Boston Landing,” said Jim Halliday, the managing director for NB Development Group LLC.
The Boston Celtics are currently waiting to see what will be the future of the team in terms of players, as the NBA draft will soon be underway, according to the Boston Globe. The Celtics have eight picks for the draft, and fans are eager to learn how the draft will affect the team.
All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas will be representing the Celtics for the NBA draft, and they’ll be using the lottery system to determine picks.
“My expectations are high this offseason, and yet I also know that it takes good fortune,” Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said recently, according to the Boston Herald. “We need the (draft lottery) ping-pong balls to bounce our way to give us the best opportunity, whether we use that pick or whether we trade that pick. And in free agency, we have opportunities, and that’s all we have. We have no guarantees of great things happening. We just have a lot of hope. And so we have a lot of work ahead of us, and we have to have plan A through Z. Usually it’s more A through G, but we have A through Z this year to have an opportunity to upgrade our team.”
Trade talks are set to begin until after the lottery is over, and it occurs on May 17. The free agent period won’t begin until July.
“The problem with the draft is we don’t know what’s going to happen in free agency,” Ainge said. “We can’t start free agency until after the draft, and so we have to just plan and see what our team needs first. We need to sort of first set our sights on trades and drafting. We’ll be looking at all the possibilities.”
The team is looking prepared and competitive going into the draft season, and perhaps the coming practice facility will give the team an edge. Players typically look for whatever benefits a team has that could help their career, and a brand new practice facility might be something players decide they want.
[Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images]
