UF premieres $20,000 3-D projection

When Karlee Smith saw the court of the O’Connell Center open up in front of her, revealing a lair of hungry alligators, she lifted her phone to record the experience on Snapchat.

For the first time, a 3-D video installation was used before the game, which made the basketball court appear as if it was opening up to a swamp and displaying championship banners, said Alicia Longworth, the assistant athletics director of marketing and promotions for the University Athletic Association.

Smith, a 19-year-old UF sport management sophomore, said the atmosphere at Saturday’s UF basketball game against the University of Kentucky was “madness,” especially when the court began to glow and morph.

“The first part’s always my favorite, when they’re introducing the teams, and that made it even better I think,” Smith said.

The projection for the game cost more than $20,000, Longworth said. Four rented projectors were used to put on the display, but the UAA is looking into purchasing the equipment.

Buying the equipment would cost about $250,000 to $350,000, Longworth said.

She said it would be a worthwhile investment, because court projections are the future of venue entertainment in professional sports arenas. If purchased, the equipment could also be used for other events like volleyball games or gymnastics meets.

“As a staff, we continue to try to find the next innovative idea that we can help make the fan experience great,” Longworth said.

Longworth said she planned the display at UF for about two years after seeing similar projections at Tampa Bay Lightning hockey playoffs and Atlanta Hawks basketball games. In November, she presented the idea to the UAA’s Innovation Committee and received the more than $20,000 grant for the project.

She worked with the creative team from the company, ON Event Services, to plan the projection. Longworth said she wanted to have a display unique to UF that featured gators and voiceovers from the national championships.

“Opening the court up, having the swamp there and having the gators kind of swimming around, it’s just very unique to us,” Longworth said. “There’s no other university that can do that.”

The feedback from the display has been positive, Longworth said. Other schools have started calling the UAA to ask how it put on the show.

“It was really, really loud in there on Saturday,” Longworth said. “We’ve had some other games that it’s definitely been that loud, but it kind of set the tone for pregame, and in the end, our team came out and they played really well.”

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rellenbogen@alligator.org

A 3-D court projection debuted before tipoff at Saturday’s UF basketball game against the University of Kentucky. The projection cost more than $20,000 for the one-time use.