Final Four floor arrives at Georgia Dome
They were maple saplings more than 60 years ago. On Friday, they were pieces of a basketball court being fitted together in the Georgia Dome. In another life, they might have served a different purpose.
The hard maple, said Bruce Haroldson, overseeing the floor’s assembly, is “actually, the same tree that they make maple syrup out of.”
Toting a sledgehammer and wearing a tool belt around his waist, Haroldson directed Dome employees in piecing together more than 300 panels measuring 4 feet by 7 feet to make the Final Four court. The flooring arrived Friday morning in advance of the national semifinal games April 6.
Haroldson is a technical manager for Connor Sports, which supplies tournament courts for the NCAA. He expected the assembly to take about five hours. The floor has a blue border, with this year’s Final Four logo at center court. The logos for the past two Final Fours at the Dome, in 2002 and 2007, are on one sideline.
The pieces fit together in a tongue-and-groove system, each panel precisely cut to ensure a seamless surface.
“It plays like a permanent floor,” Haroldson said. “It fits tighter, and it looks a little cleaner on TV.”
On Friday, the Dome neared the appearance it will take when the tournament arrives next week, starting with open team practices in the afternoon. An 183,000-pound octagonal video board hung above the court.
Risers extended from just beyond both sides of the court to about three-quarters of the way up the lower bowl, space for a total of 18,000 seats. Starting with the 2009 Final Four, the NCAA has placed the court length-wise on a platform at the center of the dome floor rather than at one end, to increase attendance.
Along with additional student seating behind the baskets and more seats on risers in the end zones, capacity is expected to be about 74,000. The single-session attendance record for the NCAA tournament is 75,421, set at the 2011 Final Four at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
That is secondary for Haroldson, for whom the play is not the thing.
Said Haroldson, “I watch the floor.”
About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
