Patriots announce construction of new football training facility
The New England Patriots are building a new ‘football-exclusive training center’ adjacent to Gillette Stadium, set to open in the Spring of 2026.
Fans who have been to Gillette Stadium in recent weeks may have noticed construction going on behind the building. On Wednesday morning, the New England Patriots announced the reason for that construction – a new ‘football-exclusive training center’ adjacent to the stadium and practice fields.
“The whole project is designed around the players and the player experience,” Kraft Sports and Entertainment Chief Operating Officer Jim Nolan said in a release from the team. “As teams and team operations have grown, it was time for us to design a larger facility exclusively for the operation of the football team. The main floor is designed for where the players will work out, train, rehab, relax, and eat. The top floor is designed for where players and coaches will watch game film, strategize and meet.”
Features of the training center highlighted in the release include a nutrition center, player lounge, open-space locker room, expanded weight room, virtual reality rooms, and new training rooms featuring “hydro capabilities” including hot tubs, cold plunge tubs, a pool and an underwater treadmill. The three existing practice fields behind Gillette Stadium will also be redesigned in their current locations as part of the project.
Also included in the project will be football administration offices and meeting rooms, as well as a conference room designed “for hosting the annual draft operations.”
In total, the three-level facility will more than double the square footage available to the team currently inside Gillette Stadium. The release notes that “while the day-to-day activities will primarily be spent in and around the new center, the core pieces for the team’s gameday needs, including their stadium locker room, will remain intact.”
This investment comes after the Patriots graded poorly in last year’s NFLPA survey that has players grade their teams on their ‘club experience.’ The Patriots’ overall grade was 29th out of 32 teams, with facilities particularly grading out poorly. That includes an F for the team’s weight room – the Patriots were the only team in the NFL where a majority of players said they feel that their team’s facility is worse than places they could train offsite.
According to Wednesday’s release, the Patriots are still expected to have one more full season before they shift operations to the new building. The current timeline has a targeted completion date of Spring 2026, which would make training camp prior to the 2026 season the first major usage of the facility.
