The Thunder plans to break ground on its permanent practice facility late this spring or early summer. When completed in the fall of 2010, team chairman Clay Bennett said it will be the finest practice facility in the NBA.
The team is using a temporary facility in north Oklahoma City its first two seasons that was renamed on Monday as the Integris Health Thunder Training Center. The new $20 million facility, to be built near Britton and Broadway Extension, will feature state-of-the-art facilities and amenities. "The most important asset in this organization is our players as individuals and as elite athletes," Bennett said. "Like high performance machines, they require a lot of fine tuning, a lot of conditioning, a lot of rehab, a lot of training and a lot of preventative training.
"We hope to establish a platform in Oklahoma City as a franchise that we are known for providing the cutting edge best care, best rehab and best approach to medical services that there is in the league."
Team officials have toured six to eight of the finest facilities in the country and are conferring with consultants. The goal is to have the new facility completed in time for 2010-2011 season training camp.
"This will be the player's office," Bennett said. "Many times it is home for a lot of the guys. They spend a lot of time in here. We want to make it the best it can be."
The Thunder is practicing at a temporary facility, a 30,000-square-foot building purchased for $3.65 million from Performance Sports Center. Last fall, the Oklahoma City council approved a $1.5 million contract with HOK Sport to design the permanent facility after team officials selected an eight-acre tract of land.
Oklahoma City voters last March approved a 1-cent sales tax to pay for $100 million in renovations on the Ford Center and $21 million toward a new practice facility. The tax began this month and runs for 15 months.
