Las Vegas resident has hand in courts for NCAA Tournament games
Before the first game of the college basketball season is played, preparation for the last already is underway.
Portable sales manager and Las Vegas resident Gary Gray and Connor Sports are coordinating graphics and color samples with the NCAA as early as October.
Connor Sports provides the courts for NCAA Tournament games, and coordinating the men’s and women’s tournaments is a sizable undertaking.
It may seem like months of work for courts that feature just a few college basketball games, but after the courts fulfill their purpose, Gray sells them to colleges, convention centers or anywhere else a floor is needed.
“We try to find prospective customers to sell back at a slightly discounted court,” Gray said.
They’ll usually sell courts back for around $90,000, saving buyers around $10,000 off the price of brand new hardwood.
Connor Sports, based in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula town of Amasa, recently has found takers in Las Vegas. South Point Arena features a floor that was used in an NCAA regional a few years back. Same with Orleans Arena and the shared MGM Grand Garden/Mandalay Bay Events Center court.
When T-Mobile Arena opens for basketball, it also will feature a Connor Sports court, used in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Gray said they are working on the graphics and painting the court for an April 12 installation.
In the meantime, the Las Vegan, a former college basketball player, is zigzagging the country in March, helping ensure that everything goes smoothly with court installation.
After the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Portland Trail Blazers on March 14, Gray served as a technical supervisor as a team installed the court at 2:30 a.m. at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Once they laid the first row, it took about two hours to complete the process.
After assisting with the court breakdown in Oklahoma City, Gray headed to Las Vegas for a couple of days before going to Anaheim, California, to help set up for the West Regional and eventually to Houston for the Final Four.
Gray spends about 20 of 30 days in March on the road dealing with court installation.
And then there’s the matter of actually selling the courts, which takes place before and after the NCAA Tournament.
“We actually have a few floors (from this year’s tournament) that have been already committed,” Gray said. “We actually try to sell those during the year. We have a couple universities or small-division schools that have actually reserved those floors.”
Sometimes after a tournament, a school will decide to buy a court for sentimental reasons. Florida, for example, bought the floor on which it won its 2006 championship and uses it at the O’Connell Center, Gray said.
Gray also said NBA teams sometimes buy courts. Around 40 percent of teams play on a Connor Sports court, whether it’s their game surface or practice arena.
But this time of year, it’s all about March Madness.
After coordinating with the NCAA on design and paint colors and doing its work, Connor Sports sends the 21 floors out to finishing partners in Idaho, Ohio and Tennessee to help with the process so that everything’s in perfect condition once the tournament starts.
So far, so good.
“It’s a massive logistical endeavor,” Gray said.
Betsy Helfand can be reached at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @BetsyHelfand.