The Best Seats
In The House

Code-aware planning for wall padding, basketball goal padding, and impact protection in school gymnasiums (U.S. & Canada)

When it comes to high energy spaces, not much can compare to the gymnasiums located inside our schools across the country. These are popular spaces where sports like basketball, volleyball, PE classes and even community events collide, often literally. Here in 2026, gymnasium padding is no longer an optional upgrade, it has now become a core safety requirement driven by athlete performance levels, liability exposure, insurance expectations, and governing body standards both here in Canada and in the United States.

This guide delivers a clear, practical roadmap for school athletic directors, coaches, PE teachers, principals and facility managers, “covering” exactly where padding is needed on basketball courts and multi-sport gyms, how much protection is required, the key standards that matter (NFHS, OPHEA, FIBA, ASTM), and how to select and install safe, durable gymnasium padding that supports code-aware facility planning.

For the last four years, we’ve officially opened the floodgates for Canada’s ugliest bleachers. After rolling out our inaugural Ugly Bleacher Contest back in 2023, we’ve received hundreds of photos from coast-to-coast, showing off the splintered wood, sagging seats, and paint that’s more of a memory than anything else, of Canada’s Ugliest seating structures. Each year since then, we’ve crowned a winner and delivered a fresh set of bleachers directly to their community.

But here’s the secret the rest of the country is starting to figure out:

You don’t have to win to win!

Of all of the cornerstones of neighborhood life, there are not many that carry as much importance than that of the local community centre. These locations often serve as a backbone to their communities and offer drop-in basketball opportunities, open gym times, youth programming, family activities, and just about everything in between. Over the past 45 years, we’ve spent plenty of time in these types of communities and the centres that anchor them and always enjoy the opportunity to give back.

Do we like a good challenge? You bet we do!

When our custom padding team received a unique call about protecting CFL players at Lansdowne Park — home of the Ottawa REDBLACKS — we knew we were in for something special. The request? Design and install safety padding on a temporary wall at an active construction site, right where players would be catching touchdowns during practices and regular season games.

Small arenas, community rinks, and municipal recreation facilities face unique challenges when it comes to indoor spectator seating. Space constraints, accessibility requirements, budget considerations, and the need for durable, long-lasting performance all come into play. Despite the challenges surrounding arena seating, aluminum bleacher seating stands out as one of the most reliable options for these environments, offering strength, low maintenance, and flexible configurations that fit tight footprints all while meeting modern codes.

Whether you manage an institutional sports facility or work for a municipal recreation department, investing in quality aluminum bleacher seating delivers better sightlines, enhanced comfort, and full compliance with major building and safety codes as well as accessibility requirements.

Working, once again, alongside our long-standing dealer and installer Interior Visions in New Brunswick, we recently completed another successful gymnasium bleacher upgrade. This time, the project took place at St. Mary’s Academy in Edmunston, part of the Anglophone West School District.

The school needed to replace their old wooden telescopic bleachers, which were manually operated and had become outdated. Upgrading aging bleachers is a common request we receive from schools across Canada, and our experienced team, and in this case, supported by a strong dealer network, is well-equipped to deliver reliable, modern solutions that improve safety, comfort, and ease of use for years to come.

In yet another great addition to our team, Sport Systems is pleased to announce that Doug Fidelak has recently come on board as our new Western Region Sales Manager. Based out of his home office in the Edmonton area, Doug’s role will focus on expanding our presence and impact across Western Canada.

In multi-sport gymnasiums where students of all ages participate in physical education the walls and structural columns, in most cases, have the ability to be silent hazards. A split-second loss of balance or an aggressive play can send an athlete into unforgiving concrete, cinder block, or steel, often resulting in unnecessary injury.

With student and athlete safety being of chief concern, the solution for these types of risks is not generic mats or some form of afterthought padding. In today’s high-impact environments, it is a custom gym safety padding solution that includes precision-engineered wall padding and column protection designed specifically for the unique layout, usage patterns, and safety requirements of modern multi-sport facilities.

With decades of experience in custom padding solutions, we invite you to use this article to explore why and how custom approaches outperform standard options, how they address critical safety and compliance needs, and what institutional facility managers should consider when specifying impact protection for their gymnasiums.

We’re no strangers to a unique challenge and when it comes to designing and installing custom arena bleachers, we’ve always got a few tricks up our sleeve. This tends to serve us well, especially when the project combines innovative seating with full accessibility in a brand-new community facility — which was exactly the case in one of our most recent projects.

Working closely with our First Nations is something we’ve been doing for a number of years now and on this project, we were proud to partner with the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation. Construction on their new Nawash Community Arena in Neyaashiinigmiing, Ontario kicked off last summer and was supported by generous contributions from Bruce Power and Kinectrics. The arena is set to serve as a vibrant year-round hub for hockey, lacrosse, and community gatherings, featuring an ice pad, changerooms, concession areas, accessible washrooms, and more.

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Khrush Rahman as our new Design/Engineering Manager. With his deep expertise and leadership experience, Khrush joins our team at a pivotal time as we continue to scale our capabilities in custom grandstand and complex bleacher systems for schools, arenas, and athletic facilities across North America.