Jan 14 2008
Mark Hildebrand has less than one hour between basketball games scheduled at his Utah Valley State College McKay Events Center next Saturday night.
His challenge: One game features the UVSC Lady Wolverines and the other is the game for a new NBA Development League team, the Utah Flash---and they each wanted their own court, complete with logos and team names.
The solution: Quick-Change panels, an innovative court design from Connor Sport Court.
Within minutes of the final buzzer for the Wolverines basketball game, Hildebrand's facilities crew will remove the Quick-Change panels bearing the UVSC logos and they will replace them with Flash images.
Hildebrand is director of the McKay Events Center at UVSC in Orem. The new floor was purchased by the Flash, a Development League affiliated with the Utah Jazz and the Boston Celtics. Rather than switching-out the entire floor, the Quick-Change featured requires that the crew replace only seven panels, a small percentage of the total floor surface. They worked out an agreement with UVSC to share the events center and the floor, but needed Connor Sport Court to create a solution that allowed them each to display their unique identity--even when the teams schedule games back-to-back.
"It works great," says Hildebrand. "Our women's basketball game starts at 3 p.m. and the Flash play at 7 p.m. We'll take out the Wolverine logos and replace them with Flash logos and have a few minutes to spare."
The initial installation of the new court started at 5 a.m. on November 27, 2007. Gary Gray, Connor Sport Court's Southwest Regional manager, was joined by Lisa Vito, wood business coordinator, and Technical Field Manager Bruce Haroldson.
"The McKay Event Center brought in 18 players from the UVSC baseball team to augment the facilities crew.
"We put the whole court down in two hours and forty minutes," said Gray.
The floor was placed over concrete substrate, with a recycled rubber product--Nike-Grind--providing resiliency and shock absorption on the bottom of each panel. provides resiliency.
"This floor has a zipper configuration," said Gray. "We started in the center of arena and worked in both directions. We incorporated seven panels that can be changed," he said.
The Flash/UVSC Connor Quicklock portable court meets the strict standards of the Maple Flooring Manufacturer's Association (MFMA) and is a made-in-America product.
Connor Sport Court International is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.