As vice president and general manager of Connor Sports, Jon Isaacs runs a company that has become the top supplier of basketball floors for NBA and college teams since entering that market segment in 1990. Over the past decade, the firm has served as the official court for the men’s and women’s Final Fours and has produced the surfaces for both tournaments with the exception of the women’s first- and second-round games, which are played on campus. The company, founded in 1872, originally made toys and furniture before manufacturing its first basketball court in 1914.
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We are the No. 1 [basketball court] brand right now in China. We also see a lot of growth in Europe as basketball is becoming even more popular.”
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Photo: COURTESY OF CONNOR SPORTS
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On what happens to Final Four courts after a tournament is complete: The winning team has the right to purchase that court from us, either for use the next season [at its arena] or to cut it up and sell to alumni. It’s a pretty good investment for them. There have been times when schools have purchased the court from us, they’ve sold it and made up to $1 million by selling pieces of the court to their alums. At a minimum, they have tripled their investment.
On trends in court design: Everyone [in the college space] is trying to develop that brand identity to acquire the best recruits and to really make a name for themselves. When the NCAA came to us 10 years ago, they wanted uniformity in their brand so that blue ball that we’ve seen for so many years in the middle of the court that says “NCAA” on it — that’s something we’ve helped them with. Also, the staining of courts in the 3-point area and now in other areas has become prevalent. A lot of high schools and colleges will watch what the NCAA does with its Final Four courts, and they’ll either take all of that or parts of that design and use it for when they rebrand their school.
On producing Oregon’s eye-opening “Deep in the Woods” court design: It costs about $120,000 to make a court, but that one was unique: upward of $200,000. The process for design and development cost more than the court itself. It was basically hand-crafted. The labor to complete the design and paint the court took a lot of man-hours.
On expanding lines of business: We don’t consider ourselves to be in the flooring business. We are in the sports business. The same grassroots process that we’ve used to become the leader in basketball we are now using for track and field as we add that piece to our repertoire.
