Crystal Falls Company Connor Sports Builds Every March Madness Court

Every court at every March Madness venue this year was built in Crystal Falls, a town of 1,598 people pressed against the Wisconsin border in Iron County, by a company that has held that contract without interruption since 2006.

Connor Sports, founded in 1872 as a wood furniture manufacturer, now produces between 8 and 10 million square feet of basketball flooring each year. The courts deployed across the current NCAA Tournament, from the First Four through the Final Four for both the men's and women's brackets, consist of 381 panels totaling 58,000 pounds, shipped to arenas across the country.

The factory runs two full shifts, and January and February are its most demanding months as crews prepare for both tournaments. A standard portable court takes about two weeks to build; the men's Final Four court runs closer to four. "The usual building time for a portable court is two weeks but the men's Final Four court, being as big as it is, usually takes about four weeks to get done," said Riberdy, a Connor Sports representative.

The wood comes from close to home. Connor uses sugar maple harvested in the Upper Peninsula, the northern Lower Peninsula, and northern Wisconsin, regions valued for producing trees with the strongest durability characteristics. The company recycles 100 percent of its waste material, offers Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, and is the only independently certified Zero Waste sports flooring manufacturer in the industry. It was also the first Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association member to earn Rainforest Alliance certification.

Once shipped from Crystal Falls, a network of 54 preferred contractors handles installation at each venue and adds the court graphics: game lines, team logos, and mascots. Beyond March Madness, Connor has supplied flooring to more than a dozen NBA and WNBA teams, Division I programs, and Summer Olympic venues in Brazil and Japan.

The facility employs 145 workers in Crystal Falls and 15 more in sales nationwide. For Iron County, home to roughly 11,000 residents, that payroll anchors the local economy as surely as any tournament broadcast. "Connor Sports flooring is very important to Iron County, for a couple of different reasons," said Zach Hautala, director of the Iron County Economic Chamber Alliance. "It supplies well over 100 jobs in that area." Hautala noted the company has also sponsored community events and worked with local municipalities to install cost-effective flooring in public buildings.

"I think the residents of Iron County have actually kind of gotten used to the fame of Connor Sports as they supply the March Madness floors every year," Hautala said.

The floors survive beyond the tournament. NCAA champions can purchase the Final Four court as a practice floor or recreation center surface; other programs buy the panels individually and sell them at alumni events and student auctions. The hardwood that rattled with every dunk and squeaked under every fast break started life in Iron County.