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22
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Joined: 05 Apr 2013
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 Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:57 pm Post subject: Some details on the new practice facility |
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| Quote: | MT: And I know you’ll be involved with the new training facility, set to open in a couple years…
Vitti: Yes, as a matter of fact, I think the new facility has my fingerprints all over it. Not the upstairs or the executive offices, though I’ve been in some of those meetings. But the downstairs, the actual basketball operation, the basketball courts, the weight and training rooms, the players’ lounge and locker room — the entire bottom floor where it all happens. I think that the flow of that is by my design talking to the architects and figuring out the space and how we can make it work. There does need to be a flow. I think you need to be in this business to understand how that flow should work. I think I’ll be involved in the transition to the new facility.
MT: What is that building flow that you’re seeking that an NBA team should have?
Vitti: Theoretically, you want the entry into your facility to be into the training room, so I or whoever the head athletic trainer know who’s here and who’s not. So if you walk through my room, then I see you, because I’m always going to be here before you. The weight room has to be adjacent to the practice court as well as the training room. It has to have window, so you can see what’s going on out there. Same thing with the hydrotherapy areas: the cold pools and the exercise pools. They have to be in between the weight room and the shower facility, because you don’t want water everywhere. Water needs to stay where water needs to be. If someone’s going down for the third time in the exercise pool, you’ve got to be able to see that. The players’ lounge needs to be next to the players’ locker room. And then some of the more important flow things include the film room needing to have a door from the basketball court. You don’t want your film room being back by your locker room, because you start your practice every day on the basketball court in a circle with the coach telling the players, ‘OK, here’s what we’re going to do today.’ And then you’ll either remain on the court or go in the film room. If you’re going into the film room and it’s back near the locker room, you’re going to start losing guys. They’re going to go to the bathroom or their locker or check their cell phone. It’s going to be like herding cats. So you really need to get them from the court into one door to the film room and then straight back out onto the basketball court. Another thing that needs to be out on the basketball area is a bathroom. It can be a small bathroom, but if somebody needs to go to the bathroom during practice, they walk through a door and there it is. If they have to go all the way back into the team shower facility, once again he’s going to stop at his locker and make a phone call. The great thing about the Rossetti architects is that they have built some other facilities and they were willing to listen and design around the flow that we’ve wanted. We’ve seen it on paper, and it’s going to be fabulous: second to none in the league.
MT: Ownership has always been willing to spend money here … the assumption would be no expense will be spared for the new building?
Vitti: I think a practice facility has a life of minimum 15 years, maximum 30. We’ve looked at all of the technology that’s coming, everything that’s here now and what other teams have done. We’ve flown around the country looking at both big-time universities, and we’ve looked at a bunch of different pro teams. We built with the attitude that we are not only looking at today’s or 2017’s team, but we’re projecting for the future and building a facility that we are so proud of that players are going to want to come here. Free agency is much like college recruiting now. So when you build something, you want all of the bells and whistles, including things like — and this may be difficult for people to understand — a barbershop with the red, white and blue pole and the whole thing. When players come to the facility, it’s all-encompassing. You can bring your dirty clothes, and the dry cleaners will come and pick it up, and by the end of practice it’s going to be hanging up in your locker. It’s a place that we want players to want to come for more than to just punch a clock. We want them to come here and stay for practice. We want them to come here, be comfortable here and this be their home away from home.
MT: What college and pro facilities did you visit in the planning process?
Vitti: We went all over. We saw the Portland Trail Blazers’ (facility), the Clippers’, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ and the University of Oregon.
MT: What other amenities will be at the facility, and who did you consult about it?
Vitti: We’ve looked at other facilities, and not only what they’ve done, but maybe more importantly what they would’ve changed if they could do it all over again. It’s pretty easy to go around and see what people do. It’s ‘What did you miss?’ or ‘What mistake have you made?’ ‘Would you have given more space for this?’ ‘Would you have sacrificed this for that?’ At the end of the day, there is a plot of land and you can fit only so much on that plot of land, especially in L.A. They sell land by the square inch here instead of the square foot. So we’ve looked at A-Z, and we put the money where we believe it counts. There are going to be lots of amenities, not only for the players and the team, but for the public. There will be an entry way into the building that will show the Laker legacy: trophies and the history of the Lakers. It should be interactive with the public. We have done a lot with the D-League team, the Los Angeles D-Fenders. They have their own area here at least double in size (of the current area). They’ll have a much better training room. They’ll have their own players’ lounge. They will play their games in our new practice facility. It’ll be like a mini-arena. There’ll be public seating there. We’ll have events there that will not just be basketball practices and D-Fenders games, but there’ll actually be events held there to bring the public into our facility and make them feel like they’re part of the family. We really have a great view of what we think this place is going to be and what it’s going to do to continue the Laker legacy. |
http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/150804_vittiqa
I like what I'm hearing so far. It was cool to hear details about the flow of the design |
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K2
Franchise Player
Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 23529
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Can't wait for this, looking forward to catching D-fender games at the new facility. For now, getting to the basketball court means going thru the ice rinks into the area in the back. Visitors have a hard time finding the court, especially on occasion when kids have some fun with the D-fenders signage and point the arrow in a different direction. |
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22
Franchise Player
Joined: 05 Apr 2013
Posts: 17063
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| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 8:01 am Post subject: |
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| K2 wrote: | | Can't wait for this, looking forward to catching D-fender games at the new facility. For now, getting to the basketball court means going thru the ice rinks into the area in the back. Visitors have a hard time finding the court, especially on occasion when kids have some fun with the D-fenders signage and point the arrow in a different direction. |
I would have been confused when I went to a defenders game, but they walked me in lol.
I wonder if the Kings will take over the toyota center? It's in good shape it's just small and outdated. Can't wait to see the new facility. Hopefully they have all the latest and greatest for physical therapy and monitoring |
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