Populous’ design for $80M New York Liberty training facility offers a different take on the ‘locker room’

It’s been a while since sports facility locker rooms actually contained metal lockers, but the Liberty are going a step further toward banishing the phrase “locker room” altogether with the recently unveiled design of its proposed $80M training facility at Greenpoint in Brooklyn.

The take on the locker room from the team and architect Populous centers on an open players’ lounge surrounded by more than a dozen private player suites, each with its own separate door off the main room. The player suites (their dimensions haven’t been finalized) contain a seven-foot daybed for naps or relaxing, a desk at which Zoom calls with agents or potential brand partners could be conducted, and vanity mirrors for pre- and post-practice skin and hair care routines. Ample closet space, especially for shoes, was a specific request from Liberty players.

“It just made so much sense from a recovery standpoint and privacy standpoint for our players,” Liberty GM Jonathan Kolb said. “Then we figured why don’t we make that shared space in there the player lounge, so that they’re interacting and you’re getting team bonding, but also a reprieve.”

Unlike the traditional locker room where players encircle coaches for big speeches, this space is really intended for Liberty players, where they can bond but also have private space from each other in which to recover mentally or physically, or just FaceTime with a loved one or friend. As Kolb pointed out, the players are already together quite a bit. And the team has separate space for watching film as a group or for meetings with the coaching staff, not to mention two practice courts where coaches and players obviously convene.

“When we’re trying to be efficient about our space, that should be a sanctuary for our players and no one else should step foot in it but the players,” Kolb said. “Then the imagination can wonder, if no one else is setting foot in there, what can we do with that space to make it different from anywhere else?”

This concept of a team space requires some faith from those running the Liberty; what if the players all just recede into their private spaces and shut the doors?

“That’s something we considered,” Kolb said. “Let’s look at this from all angles: The biggest thing, as you can see from the renderings, there is an ample amount of lounge space. I don’t think this is going to be a situation where everyone has their doors closed all the time. If that’s happening there is probably something else we need to fix.”

The Liberty don’t have a groundbreaking date yet, but the facility is scheduled to open in 2027. Populous, which is also designing training facilities for the Thorns and the Portland WNBA expansion team and for the Fever, proposed the reimagined locker room concept. As more venues and facilities are designed and built specifically for women’s pro sports teams, unique aspects are beginning to emerge, like the Liberty’s still unnamed space that will serve some of the role that locker rooms have in the past.

“It’s exciting that something is being created where you have to think about what it should be called,” Kolb said.