The Ohio State basketball program has officially unveiled a brand new court design for Value City Arena at Schottenstein Center.
The gray floor will be surrounded by scarlet trim and feature two distinct and interchangeable mid-court logos: The traditional block “O” and the “Buckeyes” logo in script font.
Nearly 30 concept designs were submitted before the new court was finally settled on.
“We could’ve done the same thing, but I think in this case it was, you know what? We need to inject some new energy and just a new talking point,” ” Athletic Director Ross Bjork said, via The Columbus Dispatch. “The court, I think, can do that.”
Joe Gemma, Ohio State’s lead graphic designer, began drawing out concepts on a sheet of paper back in February before presenting nearly three dozen at a meeting in early April.
After several redesigns, the final product was approved.
“Once we landed on these concepts everyone felt it was a good mix of no one’s going to walk into the building and be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even notice they changed the court,'” Gemma said. “If you’ve come to a game every year for the past 10 years you’ll walk into the arena and immediately recognize that something’s different. I think that was an important part of it.
“That was another part: How can we make gameday experiences not feel redundant? Maybe one day you come to the game and they’re playing on the script court and the graphics on the video board are different and it’s a slightly different environment just to break up the monotony of the experience.”
The new court has not yet been installed in the arena and won’t arrive for a few months, but the entire program, including the players, is excited to make a change for the first time since 2018.
