Re: Celts to replace Parquet Floor?

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

I hope all the curmudgeons totally roast the Celtics
for this.  Bad enough to get rid of the hallowed
parquet floor (why?  does anybody have a clue?) but if
you are going to replace it, it has to look identical
to the old floor.  What morons!  Is there somewhere we
can write to protest?

--- opi@unesco.org wrote:
> A Boston Globe article --by a new guy Paul Harber --
> today reports among
> other things that the Celtics are exploring
> replacing the 5x5 feet
> parquet floor panels (some as old as the NBA itself)
> with new ones
> measuring 9x4 feet.
> 
> The really great upside is that Gaston can sell a
> lot of the old panels
> to memorabilia collectors. In addition, the new 9x4
> panels should make
> it much easier for Pitino's dancing girls to
> sidestep the dead spots,
> which can be a real killer when you are in high
> heels.
> 
> Joe
> 
> ---------------
> 
> A new floor plan
> Original parquet declared deadwood
> 
> By Paul Harber, Globe Staff, 11/09/99
> 
> Another Boston sporting heirloom soon will become a
> memory.
> 
> The famed parquet floor, as synonymous with Celtic
> basketball as Larry
> Bird  or Bill Russell, is nearing an end. A
> replacement floor is being
> sought for the FleetCenter.
> 
> ''It's something we've looked at for a while,'' said
> FleetCenter
> spokesman Jim Delaney. ''Nothing has been done for
> sure yet. But we are
> actively looking at  different samples to replace
> it.''
> 
> For more than a year, the Celtics and the
> FleetCenter have explored the
> possibility of replacing the crosscut oak floor that
> is as old as the
> National Basketball Association. There were rumors
> last summer that a
> new floor would be installed by the opening of this
> season.
> 
> ''That deadline has already passed,'' said Delaney.
> ''But it might be
> something  to look at for the new millennium.''
> 
>  Most likely, the new floor will not be an exact
> copy of the current
> floor, which consists of 247 panels, measuring 5
> feet by 5 feet, held
> together with 988  bolts.
> 
> Some of the samples that have been brought to the
> FleetCenter for
> examination are much bigger, some 4 feet by 9 feet.
> 
> ''Whatever is done, we'd like there to be a
> continuity with the Celtic
> tradition,'' said Delaney.
> 
> Rick Pitino, the Celtics' president and coach, said
> he knew nothing
> about the floor being replaced, but team spokesman
> Jeff Twiss confirmed
> that replacement samples have been examined, as
> Delaney said.
> 
> The floor currently in use at the FleetCenter was
> brought over from the
> Boston Garden when that building was closed in 1995.
> It is the only
> basketball floor that has been graced by every
> current NBA Hall of Famer
> who ever dribbled in the 53 years of the league's
> existence.
> 
> Though the Garden dates to 1928, it wasn't opened
> with the intention of
> hosting basketball games, so it wasn't until 1946
> that original Celtics
> owner Walter Brown had the floor built by the East
> Boston Lumber Co.
> 
> The floor was built from oak scraps crosscut from a
> forest in Tennessee
> for a cost of about $11,000. It had to be
> manufactured in that unusual
> fashion because of a shortage of materials following
> World War II.
> 
> Besides its unique pattern, the floor is famous for
> its alleged ''dead
> spots'' -  areas where the basketball doesn't bounce
> the way it should.
> 
> ''There are a lot of dead spots,'' said Delaney.
> ''The old floor isn't
> what it used  to be.''
> 
> When the parquet floor is finally retired, you can
> expect some of it to
> wind up at the Basketball Hall of Fame in
> Springfield. Much of it is
> expected to be cut up and sold as memorabilia.
> 
> 
> 


=====

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