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It's not very often the venue
for a sports event is so unusual
that it gets as much, if not
more, attention than the game
being played on it. But on
November 11, the U.S. was
captivated by an event known as
the Carrier Classic: a college
basketball game played on the
deck of an aircraft carrier.
The venue was the U.S.S. Carl
Vinson, the nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier off of whose
deck Osama bin Laden was buried
at sea. The game, held Veterans
Day, saw Michigan State
University's Spartans pitted
against University of North
Carolina's Tarheels -- a rematch
of the 2009 NCAA National
Championship, for those who
recall. The game ended in a
67-55 victory for UNC, witnessed
by U.S. President Barack Obama
and First Lady Michelle Obama,
as well as 7,000 military
personnel and -- according to
ESPN, 3.86 million viewers,
making it the most watched
college basketball game since
North Carolina faced Duke in
March 2006.
Something ASBA members might not
know? Connor Sports Flooring, an
ASBA member, was involved in the
effort to pull it all together,
and to make it possible to put a
regulation surface on the ship's
deck.
According to Gary Gray,
Portables Manager at Connor,
Connor worked with one of its
dealers, McWill Sports Surfaces
in Los Angeles, who got the
contract to supply the flooring
for the event. After much
back-and-forth discussion as to
whether a floor should be
purchased or rented for the
event, Connor and McWill settled
on using the rental floor left
over from the NCAA basketball
tournament when it was held in
Anaheim, California the previous
March. The floor was first-grade
northern hard maple.
"The floor was sanded down and
finished, and then logos were
put down with stickers on the
baselines," noted Gray.
The court was regulation size,
said Gray, "but the one thing
special about this install was
the fact that you were working
on the deck of the ship, and it
had lights that were raised
about an inch and a half above
the tarmac. We put about two
inches of high-density foam to
create a level surface, and were
able to cut away to fit it
around the lights of the
aircraft carrier."
The only other unexpected aspect
of the event was the weather.
Once the surface was installed,
personnel tarped it to protect
it from rain.
"We installed it on Tuesday,
November 8," recalls Gray, "and
everyone was nervous because
there was a 60% chance of rain
on Friday. Our contingency plan
was to put another floor below
-- under the deck is the hangar,
and there's almost the same
amount of space that there is on
top. We watched the forecast,
and the weather started changing
for the better . The chance of
rain went to about 10% and we
were able to have confidence we
could use the deck."
The game went past being a
success, and could safely be
called a phenomenon. Gray says
that Connor, which has worked to
place flooring in a wide array
of unique venues, was very happy
with the way all aspects of the
event turned out.
"I've been able to do so many
projects, but this is definitely
the most unique we've ever done.
Obviously, the Final Four is
very special to us as well, but
in terms of everything that went
into this, it was the most
special event."
Count on seeing another Carrier
Classic next year, he adds.
"It was a great success and I
think they do plan on doing it
again every year." |
