It’s about 3 a.m. on a Wednesday morning in September as 24 crew members begin transforming the Golden 1 Center from a concert venue (British indie pop band The xx played the previous evening) into a basketball court in time for an upcoming pre-season game against the San Antonio Spurs.
The floor consists of 233 wood panels, each eight feet long and four feet high weighing roughly 185 lbs each, according to Sacramento Kings Manager of Arena Operations Chris Spann. The team works in groups of five, starting from the centerline and then moving outward.
Four individuals place each panel, and a fifth member locks it in place with a steel pin as another group approaches from behind with the next panel.
The panels are northern hard maple, save a single strip of Sacramento elm in the Kings logo at the heart of the court. “The crew is really proud of putting the court down, because they can see it on TV and say they built that, and be proud of their job,” Spann says.
The last thing the crew will do before calling it a night is to roll the hoops onto the floor and into their rightful places on either end of the court. Game on.