The TRACK, New Balance’s 250,000-square-foot multisport training and exhibition facility, will serve as home to retail, concerts, a massive sports research lab, and the ‘world’s fastest and most technical’ 200m indoor track.
Officials in Boston broke ground this week on what may be one of the most technologically advanced sporting venues in the world. The TRACK aims to provide entertainment, recreation, and world-class competition.
With multiple uses planned — including a 20,000-square-foot biomedical athletic research lab and a 3,500-person concert venue — the centerpiece of the facility will be a hydraulically banked 200m track. In fact, New Balance chairman Jim Davis claimed The TRACK will help elite athletes achieve historic feats.
“The Track at New Balance will be among the fastest and most technical tracks in the world, if not the fastest,” Davis told Boston.com, “attracting athletes from all over the world aspiring to break world records and ever personal best times.”
New Balance: The TRACK in Boston
Not only will The TRACK host world-class athletics competitions, but Davis said it will also provide an arena for high school and college events. Hydraulics will help bank the track to allow more speed in running events and will flatten the surface for hard-surface sports like lacrosse, basketball, volleyball, and soccer.
As a sports venue, The TRACK will accommodate 5,000 spectators. But the multilevel facility will also provide dining, retail shops, and a yet-to-be-named concert venue run by The Bowery Presents. New Balance said the facility will stay open 18 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In addition, New Balance will launch The Lab inside the complex. According to the brand, this will include a “state-of-the-art sports research lab focused on human performance, biomechanics, and product innovation.”
The Lab will feature motion capture, specialty treadmills, force platforms, body scanning, metabolic analysis, and an altitude and climate lab to aid in athlete training.
Officials expect construction on The TRACK to conclude in late summer 2021.
