U.S. Bank Stadium is coming together exactly one week before Final Four festivities begin.
By Sunday we'll know which four teams are coming to Minneapolis to compete for a men's basketball championship; Friday the floor they're playing on will be completely installed.
Connor Sports manufactures northern hardwood maple from Wisconsin at its manufacturing plant in the Michigan upper peninsula fresh for the three games. It's its 14th year providing the court for the NCAA men's basketball Final Four.
"We looked into sourcing it from Minnesota this year, but at the time when we were harvesting the lumber, it was really tricky for us to get into the forests in Minnesota because it was really wet," he said. "It was hard for us to get in and get the lumber out."
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Spokesman Brian Klein says the championship-winning university usually purchases the floor, which he roughly estimated at anywhere from $80,000 to $100,000.
"A lot of the universities get so excited about sharing this opportunity or this experience with their fan base and their alumni," he said. "Whether the court gets re-purposed as an actual playing surface, or if it's divvied up and used as a fan experience in an area or it's sold in parts and pieces to their alumni as a fundraiser, there's a lot of different things that happen, but typically, the universities always make the most out of it."
The court is 70 feet by 140 feet, made up by 399 individual 4 by 7 foot panels and takes four to six hours to install.
