The ACC brought a number of teams, fans, alumni, boosters, bands, cheerleaders and employees to Verizon Center this week for the annual men’s basketball tournament.
It also brought a basketball court.
The maple floor that was used for the first time during last year’s event in Greensboro, North Carolina was transported to Verizon Center over the weekend, allowing 14 teams to compete for the ACC title on a court that has already crowned a champion.
It left manufacturer Connor Sports’ facility in Rossville, Georgia via a flatbed truck on Friday and arrived at Verizon Center in time to be installed on Sunday.
Because the arena’s three other courts were produced by Robbins Sports Surfaces, a competitor, two of the company’s technicians taught the on-site operations crew how to install the court, which locks together with screws and bolts.
“For us, it’s an easier process in that the flooring manufacturer came in with people,” said Dave Touhey, Verizon Center’s senior vice president and general manager.
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Knowing the event would be held in Washington this year, the ACC sent the tournament branding to Connor Sports in early fall, including a version of the new tournament logo. In most cases, conferences and schools dictate how they want the court to look; some, including the “Frog Skin” court installed this year at TCU, as well as the gradient used on the new court used for the ACC women’s basketball tournament, go through several rounds of testing to make sure the effect translates well visually.
“With the men’s court, it’s very crisp and clean,” said Lisa Vito, a business manager at Connor Sports. “We’ve got dark stains, we’ve got light stains and then we’ve got paint. That gives a very clean look. Very simple, but very nice. It fits their needs and it fits what they want.”
In January, the company reassembled the court at the storage facility in Rossville — there’s also one in Idaho Falls, Idaho for western clients — and then sanded it, re-stained it and painted the new logo over the center circle. After letting it cure and dry for roughly a week, it, the court, along with a dozen others the company handles, was reshelved and ready to be loaded for distribution.
Once it was assembled at Verizon Center, the only other task was to apply a series of decals — in this case, the name of the city and arena on each baseline — to finish it off. Arena personnel are responsible for any necessary maintenance of the court during the time it’s on the event floor; in case of major issues, the representatives from Connor Sports remain on hand.
The lifespan of a court varies. Those used heavily will need to be replaced after about five years; since conference tournaments happen just once a year, they could last upward of 20 years.
A dozen conferences have purchased courts from Connor Sports, which can run $100,000 or more, for either the men’s or women’s basketball tournaments. So, too, has the NCAA, which has had a contract with the company to provide courts for tournament games for the past decade.
The relationship with the NCAA has led to conferences turning to Connor Sports for their own tournament courts, Vito said, because they know the playing surfaces will be the same.
Once the tournament ends, the court will be broken down into four-foot by eight-foot pieces and loaded back onto the truck, which will return it to Georgia for the rest of the year.
“The goal is to make it a very smooth process for each of the conferences,” Vito said. “Because they have so much going on during the course of the tournament, this is something that they don’t have to worry about.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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