Tulsa 66ers Get New NBA-Style Floor
BIG TIME: The Tulsa 66ers received a new NBA-style floor in October. The floor was revealed during a commemorative ceremony featuring, from left, SpiritBank Event Center General Manager Patrick McGrew, City of Bixby Mayor Ray Bowen, Tulsa 66ers President Jim Brylewski, SpiritBank Deputy CEO Paul Cornell, and former Oklahoma State Head Coach Eddie Sutton.
GTR Newspapers photo
The Tulsa 66ers have a new floor, but it’s not just any kind of floor.
The new -style floor was designed by Connor Sports Flooring, which has created floors for multiple teams, including the Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat.
The floor was first revealed during a commemorative ceremony on Oct. 4.
The new court will accommodate the 66ers in their return to the SpiritBank Event Center this season. “We are really excited about the new floor,” says Tulsa 66ers President Jim Brylewski. “Connor Sports has built some of the best courts in the country’s top arenas. With their experience in creating the floors of the past seven Final Fours and fitting venues such as Chesapeake Energy Arena and Madison Square Garden we knew we were getting the best court possible for our players and fans.”
Connor Sports has also been the sole provider of floors for the Basketball Tournament and Final Four since 2006.
Built with maple wood from throughout the Upper Midwest, the court was cut and prepared at Connor Sports Flooring’s wood mill in Amasa, Mich., about 150 miles north of Green Bay, Wisc. The panels were then sent to Praters Flooring in Chattanooga, Tenn., to be sanded, finished and painted. The portable floor contains 225 individual pieces, allowing the court to be taken apart to accommodate other events at the arena. Each piece of the floor has steel “tongues” and high-impact plastic grooves that allow all of the panels to connect for a tight fit. The court is a “zipper-style” floor, meaning that the pieces of the center row are laid out first and the subsequent rows are installed on both sides.
Built in 2008, the 4,500-seat SpiritBank Event Center is located within Regal Plaza Shopping Center at 104th and Memorial. The state-of-the-art building has hosted acts such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, John Legend, Willie Nelson and Miranda Lambert. Tulsa tips off the 2012-13 season at home on Nov. 23 against the Texas Legends.
Updated 11-07-2012
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