Robert Kraft Reveals Plan For New Patriots Facility After NFLPA Survey Disaster

It probably isn’t all that smart for you to complain about your workplace environment, but it definitely seemed to work out for the New England Patriots.

It pays being a professional athlete, huh?

The Patriots, for those who aren’t aware, were lambasted in the NFLPA’s annual “Player Team Report Cards” in February. New England ranked 29th out of 32 NFL teams organizationally, with a number of voted coming directly from members of the Patriots in the anonymous 1,706-player survey.

It was bad from multiple levels, but the two spots New England ranked the worst in were weight room accommodations (F; 32nd) and treatment of families (F-; 30th). Patriots owner Robert Kraft, when asked about the survey during his discussion with media members at the league’s annual meetings Tuesday, vowed to make it right.

“I must tell you, I was unaware of how bad that was,” Kraft said, per team-provided video. “We’ve had a plan, and we put in place, where we’re committing a whole new facility adjacent to ours that has been discussed with the young leadership team. A building that will be in excess of $50 million that will have the most (modern) facilities. We have to correct anything. I was not aware, even of this daycare issue. That’s something that’s fixable and we want to do. Look, the players are the heart and soul of the business. I’d be very surprised if (the score) didn’t improve. That was done in the fifth week of the season.”

The Patriots’ weight room has been inside the bowels of Gillette Stadium for as long as the stadium has been around, but that’s led to spacing issues. It’s currently attached to the locker room and is among the smallest in the NFL. In building a new facility entirely, New England can at least control the amount of space it dedicates to pumping iron.

It won’t be all that difficult to fix the daycare issue, either. They can, you know, just hire people to do that.

Kraft, somewhat deservedly, has received a ton of flak this offseason. He even received a less-than-stellar grade in the survey, but his commitment to fixing multiple issues this offseason is commendable. It’s hard to blame the guy up at the top because if he’s involved in the day-to-day childcare of the players, the Patriots have bigger issues.

Who knows, maybe upgrading the facilities will make One Patriot Place more desirable to free agents.