Utah company takes basketball courts to Romania

Utah company takes basketball courts to Romania


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Keith McCord reportingA Salt Lake company is making a lot of children happy on the other side of the world through basketball.

Connor Sport Court is known all over the world for its sports flooring products. For the past several weeks, the company has installed more than three dozen game courts in a city in Romania, and the children there are thrilled.

Two months ago, workers began unpacking what would ultimately become brand new outdoor basketball courts at 37 different schools and parks in Bacau, Romania.

"The town of Bacau is only 200,000 residents, so this is every school and every outdoor basketball court that they have that's getting an upgrade," said Andrew Gettig, vice president of international marketing for Connor Sport Court.

The game courts, which are made by assembling thousands of 12-inch-diameter squares, are manufactured at Connor Sport Court in Salt Lake City. Once packed up, it took eight weeks via train, ship and truck to get the 110 tons of flooring to Romania.

"The mayor of Bacau, I think he's a former athlete himself, and he's a real advocate of youth and sports and quality of life," Gettig said.

For the past couple of weeks, workers at school after school after school laid out the brightly colored courts. They obviously attracted a lot of attention, especially from children. They flocked to the courts as soon as the workers finished.

"It was like whoo! As soon as they left, it was like someone had blown a whistle and they all came out running and playing and skating," Gettig said.

Sport Court has installed nearly 50,000 courts like these in 75 countries. Bacau is the biggest single-city project. But based on the positive reaction from the community, the mayor, and especially the children, other cities may follow suit.

"We're thinking that other people might look at this a say, ‘What a dramatic difference!' Not in just the appearance in town, but in the opportunities for kids and safe places to play," Gettig said.

The mayor of Bacau said these game courts, besides providing a place to play, also spruced up the school yards and parks, giving the residents a sense of pride. Their neighborhood simply looked better.

Connor Sport Court has been in business since 1974. For more information on the company, click the related link.

E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com

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