 "Photo: Jordan Gomez")
UT workers roll 296 wooden panels out of a Frank Erwin Center storage room on dollies and into the arena before and after each basketball game. Approximately four hours later, the panels decorated with UT colors and symbols have been bolted together to form the UT basketball court, played on by both UT men's and women's basketball teams.
"Putting the basketball floor together is my favorite part of the job, but it's heavy," said Barrick Christian, an Erwin Center facility worker. "It's like putting a big puzzle together."
After the UT men's basketball team played Texas A&M on Monday night, 32 Erwin Center facility workers spent about 11 hours cleaning the venue and dismantling the basketball court to prepare for Tuesday night's Celtic Woman theatrical performance, said Robert Hairston, assistant technical services manager for the center.
"Still to this day it amazes me," Christian said. "Today it looks like this, and tomorrow it will be totally different."
In February, the Erwin Center is booked for all but five or six nights, so the crew continually works on a deadline and late at night after events, Hairston said. A normal shift lasts from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., but these times vary depending on the type of event, he said.
"Those guys do a tremendous amount of work for us," said John Graham, director of the Frank Erwin Center. "It's hard work and long hours, and by the time the crew comes in, the cheering has long passed, but they certainly deserve a standing ovation."
About 1 million people visited the Frank Erwin Center last year, and the hard work of the crew makes customers feel welcome there, Graham said.
"The place looks nice when we open the doors, and it's no accident," he said. "The crew has a hard job, and there's no glory in it, but it's important."
In addition to dismantling the basketball court floor and setting up stages for performers, crew members sweep and mop the floor between the approximately 17,000 arena seats and the floors of the 24 bathrooms, said Ray Nelson, a facility worker.
Immediately after the Celtic Woman show, the crew prepared the arena for a School of Engineering event at 8:30 a.m. today.
"I like my job because the crew provides a service for the Austin community," Hairston said. "They set up for all the events that come in and make sure that the building is clean and ready for the public. I don't think my guys realize how important their job is."
Most of the time the crew uses three common layouts to set up for events, but the number of arrangements of bleachers and chairs is endless, Hairston said.
"For stars like George Strait we use the center stage because we can get the most people in," he said. "It's the same setup we used for Hannah Montana."
After a sold-out event, it takes about 20 crew members 12 to 16 hours to clean the entire floor, he said.
"The last row holds 700 seats," Graham said. "You could put all the people from some small towns in Texas in there. That's a lot of hard work that sometimes goes unnoticed, but it'd be noticed pretty fast if they didn't do it."
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