ASB GlassFloor LED glass court to debut at FIBA Women's World Cup

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The court, produced by ASB GlassFloor, will be used in competition for the first time at the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup this July.

A glass LED basketball floor that can be a TV and a court all at once will make its FIBA debut at the U19 Women's World Cup this coming July, the federation announced Monday.

The interactive court, designed by the German company ASB GlassFloor, is an LED screen covered by connecting squared panels of textured glass that contains ceramic dots for traction and elasticity to prevent floor burns and dead spots.

FIBA's Head of Equipment & Venue Centre Bart Prinssen claims the high-end ASB LumiFlex court has an almost identical feel to a hardwood floor, straight down to the sound of a dribble. But after that, the possibilities are endless and similarities essentially nil.

The main function of the glass floor is to illuminate lines onto the court with LED lights, projected from a steel frame base underneath. But the innovation only grows from there. Controlled by the push of a button, an organizer can change the court's design and color…or stream a broadcast on its surface… or project game stats on one end of the floor while the players are on other end…or beam advertisements or sponsorships.

Other use cases can be left up to the imagination, because the court is essentially a 94-by-50-foot LED jumbotron. A court could literally show a stream of the same game that's being played on it, redundant or not. Or teams could hold a watch party of a road game by streaming it on their home arena's glass floor.

"You can present anything you can imagine on the screen of this court," Prinssen told SBJ. "[It] works the same as a media player…We can watch an HD 4K movie in the stadium at the same time if you want."

Vetted by FIBA for roughly two years — and trialed initially five years ago in Dresden by the Harlem Globetrotters — the federation incrementally examined the science behind it. A concern was that the out-of-bounds lines, shining up from beneath the floor, would not be the right size or angle. Or that the brightness of the floor would affect the clarity of TV broadcasts. Or that the light and glass would combine to make the court hot to the touch.

So, in 2021, FIBA strategically observed the 3-on-3 Ruhr Games in Bochum, Germany and also German Bundesliga exhibition games, each of which were staged on the LED glass. FIBA then asked some of Europe's top pro players to run and shoot on the surface — receiving only winks and nods of approval.

What FIBA determined in the end, according to Prinssen, was that the court's lines were precise, that the floor's matte finish created actually less glare on TV and that the glass was only five to 10 degrees warmer than a hardwood floor.

"We see that, if you fall on it, it has no burning, you can't have the burning," Prinssen says. "[But] the vaporization [removes] a little bit of the moisture on it [if there's sweat on the court]. It's less slippery."

FIBA and its Secretary General Andreas Zagklis were satisfied enough that they approved the court in September of 2022, and, after careful consideration, they decided to debut the glass floor at the high-profile U19 Women's World Cup in Madrid.

Coaches and teams arriving for the tournament this coming July will get a tutorial, as well as time to practice on the court ahead of time. Coaches, for instance, can diagram plays on a surface pad and, via software, transfer the X's and O's to be lit up on the actual court. That makes a practice or walk-through more interactive than ever thought possible.

"If you practice, you [can shine] a dot on the floor," Prinssen says, describing a scenario where dots or play designs can be projected onto the court during workouts. "[Or] you can imagine a World Cup, and if you have U.S. playing France and the next game is China playing Denmark, you can theme that game and the advertising towards the audience that's going to look and watch the game."

ASB GlassFloor has produced two iterations of the court — the first being an ASB MultiSports version that can produce LED lines for basketball, volleyball, tennis, squash, indoor soccer or any sport known to man with the mere tap of a button. According to Prinssen, the basic floor costs roughly $800,000 to install. The second option is the top-of-the-line ASB LumiFlex version that can be streamed on, which Prinssen says prices at around $2.5 million.

For team owners with multi-purpose venues, the product could feasibly pay for itself. Court types can be changed in seconds, eliminating the need for overnight workers. Plus, the flooring is sturdy enough to handle concerts or, as Prinssen claims, even car shows.

In the U.S., the Basketball Hall of Fame has already purchased a small sliver of the glass flooring for display purposes, and according to FIBA, the NBA is monitoring the court/TV screen closely.

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