Pelicans give tour of newly opened practice facility

With the start of the NBA season right around the corner, the New Orleans Pelicans showed off their new digs to reporters this week.

Pelicans General Manager Dell Demps, head coach Monty Williams and team owner Tom Benson gave reporters a tour of the team’s newly opened practice facility, which is constructed right behind the New Orleans Saints’ offices on Airline Drive in Metairie.

The project was a multi-million dollar endeavor set forth by Benson when he purchased the team in 2012.

It drew rave reviews from those who will use the facility in the future.

“To come back and see this place, it’s unbelievable,” Demps said to the team’s website this week. “You could go on and on about everything this does, from a training standpoint and giving the players everything they need to be successful.”

The Pelicans’ new practice building is state of the art.

Benson said it is a 50,000-squarefoot building that is conjoined with the Saints’ facility on its back-end.

Inside the multi-purpose facility is a playing court, a 28-seat theater (for viewing game film), a player’s lounge and even a barber’s chair for players to receive haircuts.

“We believe we have the finest facility in the NBA,” Benson said. “With that, we’re looking forward to having one of the finest basketball teams. This is a first-class facility.”

“When we bought the team, we planned to build a championship from the ground up,” Pelicans Vice Chairman of the Board Rita Benson-LeBlanc added. “We have all kinds of extra things to make sure our players are the happiest in the NBA. We have all kinds of creature comforts. (There’s even) a barber’s chair so that they can get spiffed up and feel great about themselves.”

The practice facility is a long time coming for the Pels.

When the team moved to New Orleans in 2002, plans to create a facility were laid out, but never materialized.

For more than 10 years, the team did not have a true home and worked out of the Alario Center.

But when Benson purchased the team from the NBA last year, the new owner added a sense of urgency to getting the structure completed.

The new owner immediately dug ground on the project, which Pels President Dennis Lauscha said shows his commitment to the team and its quest to remain in Louisiana for the long haul.

“When the Benson family purchased the team, there were several commitments made to the fans,” Lauscha said. “This building is one-of-a-kind. We went around the league and looked for the best components of each practice facility and brought it here.”

So with the facility now complete, the Pelicans are now anxious to reap the benefits of the new toy.

The team will host its training camp in the facility while preparing for the 2013-14 season.

The team also said the building’s completion will make luring free agents to New Orleans easier.

New Orleans’ newest combo guard Tyreke Evans think that’s true, too. During the media tour, he said the facility was a main cog in his decision to ink with the Pels.