As the home of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League, Quicken Loans Arena is a busy place, and Tuesday is a perfect example of just how crazy things can get at "The Q."
At 10:45 a.m., the Monsters began a hockey game against the Texas Stars, and by 1 p.m., the teams had finished play. Then, began the work to convert Quicken Loans Arena from an ice rink to a basketball floor.
And by 5 p.m., The Q was ready for the Cavaliers' game against the Toronto Raptors at 7 p.m. Following the Cavaliers' game, the crew will again be put to work to tear down the basketball floor and prepare for Wednesday night's hockey game.
"It'll be a long day for the full-time team that works, the two crews, the building crew and the maintenance crew," said Matt Miller, senior director of facility operations at Quicken Loans Arena. "It'll be a 16-hour day, and then, that part-time group of change-over guys will come in today, will work 3 to 5, maybe 5:15 to be ready for the Cavs game, and then, they'll come back after the Cavs game at 10:30 and they'll work until 12:30, one o'clock to get us back into hockey again for the game tomorrow night.
"I'm lucky; I have a great crew. Our change-over crew will make the switch and make the change over happen in about two hours, maybe, a little less so that we're ready for the Cavs game tonight."
It takes a crew of 45 part-time workers two hours to convert Quicken Loans Arena from hosting a Monsters game to be ready for an NBA game, but it's more than just placing a wooden floor over a sheet of ice.
After taking out the glass and boards from the hockey game, the change-over crew takes lays down an inch-and-a-half thick maple wood sub-floor that came from the Cavaliers' former home, the Richfield Coliseum. Then, the team of men and women install risers, which will support the floor for the Cavaliers.
Once the risers are complete, the game floor is removed from its climate-controlled storage area and brought through the tunnel to the event level.
"We lay it down on top of the ice, and for Cavs games, we put carpet in the corners, but where the playing surface is, there's another riser that elevates the court to give better sight lines for the floor seat holders," Miller said. "The playing surface for basketball is about 7.5 inches above the sub-floor.
"We lay a chalk line down the middle, and we build from the center of the facility, the center of the ice and the center of the basketball court out and go from there. That gets laid down first, and then, everything else is sequential after that."
When making the schedule of how much time is needed to convert the playing surface, Miller looks at what time the next game will start, not when the first game is expected to end.
"I have to give the floor to the players two hours before the game, so I have to be done by five," Miller said of a 7 p.m. start. "I work two hours back from that, so that's three, and if a game starts at one, it's usually a little over two hours, so they've already got me crossed over, but I'm willing to accept that.
"The doors aren't actually open for the Cavs game until an hour before. Even though the players get the floor, we tend to work around the floor to finish out the corporate boxes, so it's a very tight schedule and we overlap in some instances."
