FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) – No more dormitories. No more lunches in a college cafeteria.

The New England Patriots open their first training camp at Gillette Stadium Wednesday, ending a 27-year association with Bryant College.

With a state-of-the-art stadium that opened last season and outstanding locker room, conditioning and classroom facilities, team officials say it made sense to move the preseason training site from Smithfield, R.I., to Foxboro.

“You’ve got a lot invested in terms of making that a great environment,” chief operating officer Andy Wasynczuk said. “It’s a perfect environment for training camp as well as what you normally do during the rest of the year.”

The Bryant campus is about 25 miles from Foxboro. Players slept in rooms used by students during the school year and team operations had to be set up at the college. Team meetings were held in smaller rooms than those available at Gillette Stadium.

“Training camp is to prepare a football team, and we feel by keeping the facilities that we’ve built here on-line,” the preparations will go more smoothly, Wasynczuk said.

They’ve improved their defense by adding free agent pass-rushing specialist Rosevelt Colvin to a deep linebacking corps that includes Ted Johnson, Roman Phifer, Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi and Willie McGinest.

They hope their first-round draft pick, defensive end Ty Warren of Baylor, can improve a weak pass rush. And they added former All-Pro safety Rodney Harrison, who played for San Diego last season

On offense, depth on the line remains a question mark and the running game needs to improve. Antowain Smith enters camp as the starter, with Kevin Faulk as a third-down back. The Patriots also have former Boston College star Mike Cloud – signed as a free agent after playing for Kansas City – and Antwoine Womack, a seventh-round draft pick last year who missed the entire season after knee surgery.

Depth at wide receiver improved with the signings of free agent Dedric Ward and draft pick Bethel Johnson.

Coach Bill Belichick plans to alter the traditional morning and afternoon practice sessions, moving some of them to the evening.

“He’s got a lot of things (to keep) it fresh,” Wasynczuk said.

Fans will have better access to the training facilities, with parking lots and bleachers by the practice fields that can accommodate nearly 4,000 fans, Wasynczuk said. There were seats for about 1,000 fans at Bryant’s training camp.

AP-ES-07-22-03 1929EDT