Though the Arizona Wildcats' NCAA Tournament run is over -- March Madness still continues, and will come to an end here in Arizona. The University of Phoenix Stadium is conducting its final preparations to host the Final Four and National Championship.
On Friday afternoon -- the turf was transformed into a basketball court, and according to Andrew Campbell, the Director of Partnership and Events -- it took a lot of planning, coordination, attention to detail, and wood.
"These are all sugar maple," he said. "So the same trees you get your maple syrup from is the same maple we use to build the floor."
And he says it took a lot of it to complete the hardwood.
"We have around roughly 450 panels on this floor," Campbell said. "Each panel weighs about 175, 180 pounds."
Campbell explained all of the wood came in on 17 pallets, each pallet making up a line of the court. The court itself weighs nearly 20 tons.
From start to finish, it didn't take the crew as long as one might think.
"We were done in 3-4 hours," he said. "Which is by far the fastest we've installed this floor before."
And the amount of manpower? Also less than one might guess.
"We have 2 or 3 supervisors, then we use the building's crew," Campbell said. "So we have 12 workers, then two forklift drivers. So it's not a huge staff."
Speaking to the design on the floor, Campbell explained every court will be a bit different, tailored for the city hosting the Final Four.
"Every floor is unique," he said. "They did a really nice job trying to tie into the city and the host, and what's going on."
The Final Four games will be played on Saturday, April 1, and the National Championship will be on Monday, April 3. The court won't stay up for long -- it starts to come down 4 hours after the final buzzer.
"The basketball court will be out of here, I'd say, by 7 a.m.," Campbell said.
