Vibrant oranges, blues and assorted desert imagery stretched across a sheet of hardwood where the Phoenix Suns’ court usually sits. The signage and decor around Mortgage Matchup Center made it clear the venue was preparing for something big.
Championship hoops return to the Valley this weekend as Phoenix hosts the NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four. In reality, preparations for this event have been underway for months.
“Setting up for an event like this is an 18-month process,” said Amy Reis, the director of NCAA women’s basketball. “Hundreds of people coming to and from (Phoenix) making sure everything is set for the big weekend.”
The semifinal games are set to be played on Friday, where UConn will face the winner of the Elite Eight game between South Carolina and TCU, and UCLA will face the winner of Texas and Michigan. The winners meet for the championship on Sunday.
In 2025, the Women’s Final Four in Tampa drew fans from all 50 states and 23 countries. To accommodate such large numbers, the NCAA is working with the city of Phoenix to create a weekend that fans will remember – not just for the action on the court, but through other events and festivities as well.
This year’s Women’s Final Four marks the first time that the women’s championship will be played in the Grand Canyon State, though the Phoenix metro area has previously played host to the NCAA Men’s Final Four, most recently in 2024 when Glendale’s State Farm Stadium hosted the event.
This year’s games also mark the farthest west the event has been played since 1999, which raises an important logistical challenge – production and delivery of the court.
Connor Sports, a Michigan-based athletic flooring company, has been responsible for the production of Final Four courts for the men’s and women’s events since 2006. All courts produced by Connor Sports are manufactured and designed in Michigan then shipped out to be finished in Texas and eventually delivered to venues hosting the championship games.
The company prides itself on being zero-waste, using only locally sourced wood that is milled and processed into 4-by-7-foot panels, which are then hand-painted before being shipped.
“Most of what we do starts months, if not a year, in advance,” said Zach Riberdy, marketing director at Connor Sports. “We work with the forestry services in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin and some parts of Minnesota, making sure we only take wood from areas we know are OK to pull from.
“We do all of the milling in Michigan, then have them shipped wherever they need to go.”
The shipment of the court is no easy task, with the women’s court consisting of 262 separate panels and weighing 42,500 pounds.
Before the court was shipped to Mortgage Matchup Center for assembly, it was first shipped to a facility in San Marcos, Texas, where it was sanded, sealed and hand-painted before being delivered to Phoenix just days before the games tip off.
Once the court arrived at Mortgage Matchup Center, the logistics of putting it together were fairly straightforward, largely due to the fact that the arena, which is home to the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, was built to host basketball – unlike the 2024 Men’s Final Four, played in State Farm Stadium, home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
“We’re fortunate that this event is (at Mortgage Matchup Center) because the building is built for basketball.” Riberdy said. “The infrastructure is already here to let us come in and put down the court pretty easily using the footprint of the building and where the Phoenix Suns’ court usually is.
“Court assembly at (stadium venues) presents some unique obstacles because those venues aren’t necessarily built to house basketball games.”
Transforming the venue to host the championship games is a crucial aspect of the Final Four weekend, though Reis views the games as just one part of a much bigger event.
“People think of the Final Four and just think about the games.” Reis said. “Of course, we’re here for the basketball, but that doesn’t mean that’s all that there is. If you don’t have tickets, there are so many other events happening. A fan festival, live viewing parties and a free concert. These are the events fans don’t know about.”
Providing fans with activities and events across the metro Phoenix area allows the NCAA to create a much wider-scope experience than fans would find just at the games, though the games and their presentation still remain at the core of the Final Four weekend.
“We will max out this venue,” Reis said. “The operations of ESPN here rival that of the College Football Playoff and the Super Bowl. The operations are complex and multifaceted, and it’s an extensive process that involves hundreds of people working to make this weekend come to life.”
Planning an event as large as the Women’s Final Four in a city that has never hosted it raises many challenges, though Reis views these challenges as a unique opportunity to deliver a spectacle of an event to the Valley for the first time.
“Here, you’ve got a city that’s also a destination location.” Reis said. “You have a world-class venue here at Mortgage Matchup Center. And so for us, it’s a very special opportunity to make this weekend an event – a spectacle for the players, the student-athletes, the media, the fans and everyone else involved.”
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