Dome won't have just any old floor
CHIP TOWERS | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sixteen panels into placing down the 227 pieces of the floor that would become the Final Four court you'll see inside the Georgia Dome this weekend, Jeff Morton began to realize something wasn't right. So he placed a quick phone call to confirm his suspicions.
Oops, he found out. They were putting the floor in wrong.
"We started on the wrong side," said Morton, sports marketing event manager for Connor Sport Court, which builds, sands, paints, finishes, stacks, ships and installs this court and the ones at all four regional sites. "We were told the logos were supposed to go one way and they actually were supposed to go the other."
No biggie, the 28-year-old Utah grad said. They simply disassembled what they had done and started over.
"It only delayed us about 20 or 30 minutes," Morton said Tuesday.
Don't be fooled. Putting in the Final Four floor is no small task. The court itself is made-to-order for the big event, and in every way it's the best money can buy.
The top layer of the floor, or the playing surface, is made of hard northern maple. That it comes from trees grown and processed in a mill in Amasa, Mich., is no fluke.
"It has to be grown above the 47th parallel," Morton said. "That's where the majority of all courts come from. It's for the hardness and resiliency of the wood."
The court is actually constructed there in Michigan. The middle layer, or frame, is made of continuous steel tongues that are connected by pins. The bottom layer consists of what's called "wooden sleepers." They are made of pine and act as a shock absorber.
It takes about 2 1/2 weeks to construct the 120-by-63-foot structure, which weighs 47,000 pounds, or a little over 23 tons. It was transported to Atlanta by private carrier trucks.
It took 10 people about five hours to assemble it Tuesday. It could take
longer at other venues.
"This is a pretty experienced crew," Morton said of the Georgia Dome group, which hosted the 2002 Final Four. "They're pretty fast."
Enjoy the court while you can, Atlanta, because it won't be around long. Its fate will be in the hands of the NCAA champion. You know, to the winner goes the spoils.
"It really depends on what the winner wants to do," Morton said. "Last year, Florida bought the floor and they play on it [in the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla.]. In years past, other teams have cut it up and sold the pieces to alumni and fans." |
