DPR “Suits Up” to Build Premier Basketball Training Facility in Sacramento

“Everything is tall. Everything, from the countertops to the doors, is geared toward really tall people.”

So says DPR Sacramento’s Trish Timothy about the basketball player-sized specs of the much-anticipated, premier training facility for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs. The doors, for example, are nine-ft. tall rather than the standard seven ft. and even the restroom partitions are “custom made,” according to Timothy, who is DPR’s Project Manager.

Currently in the final stages of construction, the project broke ground under the bright spotlight of the sports and entertainment media of California’s capital in March. The state-of-the-art facility-which is being constructed adjacent to the teams’ home, ARCO Arena-is slated for completion just in time for the beginning of the Kings’ 2000-01 season.

The project has been on an eight-month, fast-track schedule. This has translated into the construction team working a number of weekends, according to Timothy, who along with her husband is a Kings season ticket holder. “Everybody realizes that this is a very high-profile job and is committed to making it a success,” she says.

DPR is constructing the $8 million, 38,500-sq.-ft. practice facility for owner, Maloof Sports and Entertainment, which has owned the Kings and Monarchs teams since July of 1999. Project architect Boora Architects of Portland, OR, modeled the Sacramento building after an award-winning practice facility it designed for the NBA’s Portland Blazers.

The building is divided into two main sections. The first is a precast tilt panel structure with a steel joist roof that encases two full-size basketball courts, while the balance of the building, containing locker rooms, corporate offices and training areas, is wood frame construction. The two basketball courts are designed as exact replicas of the court featured in the Kings and Monarchs’ home games at the ARCO Arena, and the wood flooring will provide the same shock absorption and bounce to the ball.

Additional features of the building include identical locker rooms for the Kings and Monarchs and visiting teams; a large, state-of-the-art weight room; a separate treatment and rehabilitation area; a high-tech video scouting room; a fully equipped media center; a hydrotherapy room with three pools, and office suites for the owners, coaches and staffs of both teams. The training facility will provide 24-hour dedicated access to the Kings and Monarchs’ players, coaches and staffs.