The Best Seats
In The House

Image: Daily Telegraph

When we think about the word “condemned”, we often think of derelict properties  and barely standing buildings on the outskirts of town.  In addition to these commonly conjured images, many bleachers get condemned across Canada and the United States each and every year.

With aging schools and equipment, and especially with equipment located outdoors, degredation is a problem that is difficult to avoid. With time and continued exposure to the elements, even aluminum bleachers are subject to breaking down in one way or another. It’s important to keep an eye on your bleachers and the understructure on which they are built. 

We field many questions here on a daily basis and one that comes up more often than most would think, is the difference between Grandstand and Stadium Bleacher seating. This quick article will go over the two setups in detail, including the main differences, draw backs and benefits to each seating system.

Grandstands

Grandstands  are the larger, more complex seating systems when comparing the two. Grandstands may have basic bench seating-but can also feature individual chair back seats. They can sometimes be seen covered with a roof-but are open on the front, can be multi-tiered, have various-sized press boxes and can feature a covered bandstand.

Stadium Bleachers

Bleachers are much smaller than grandstands and are both much more basic and versatile. They consist of raised, tiered rows of benches. Stairways access the horizontal rows at each stair step. Stadium bleachers are commonly found at places like high school baseball fields, softball fields, soccer fields, rodeos and racetracks. 

For one of our recent projects, we were back up in the beautiful Ottawa Valley to once again assist the Renfrew County District School Board with an outdated problem at MacKenzie High School.

As with all things and the natural passage of time, seating structures can degrade and wear out, requiring repair or replacement. Depending on the age of the school, many of these bleacher structures were installed decades ago and have since become inoperable or just plain unsafe to operate. 

Having completed a number of projects in the beautiful state of Nebraska, we returned for another job, this time  in the state’s Capital city of Lincoln. Originally named Landcaster, the city was renamed in 1869 after the great President Abraham Lincoln. In that same year, the University of Nebraska was established in Lincoln and today remains the largest university in the state, serving nearly 30,000 students.

Our partners at Crouch Recreation in Omaha, brought us yet another opportunity in the Cornhusker State, this time at an established Christian school in neighbouring Lincoln. With a history dating back to the 1950s, Lincoln Christian School has been serving local families and the community with faith-based education for decades, currently boasting nearly 900 students and over 80 faculty members.

Depending on who you ask, some may tell you that the gymnasium inside an academic institution is the heart of the building. As it is often located centrally inside a building, it naturally and easily exists as the location where gatherings take place.

In addition to assemblies and other events, gymnasiums are the hub for indoor sports, attracting spectators not only from within the school but those from outside as well, such as friends and family.

As athletic programming continues to ramp up across Canada and the United States, these institutions are doing everything they can to remain relevant with regards to the programs they offer, as well as with the equipment located inside their gymnasiums.

As with any high traffic area, the opportunity to more actively brand your organization or team is highly beneficial in the gymnasium of a highly spirited school.  With many of the walls already adorned with banners and ribbons from years gone by, today’s institutions are starting from the ground up when it comes to branding their beloved schools.

Located roughly 16 miles southeast of the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas is Henderson, Nevada, home to residents that work in and around Las Vegas who enjoy the lifestyle southern Nevada affords them. With beautiful Lake Mead to the east and nearly 40 miles of trails through the Las Vegas Valley, Henderson is a wonderful place to make a home and to live an active outdoor lifestyle.

It was here that we  were recently contracted to take on a project, a first for us in that area of the country. During the height of the pandemic, we were brought in by a design group out of the state of Florida who was in search of partners for a project in the region. Set at the Pinecrest Academy’s Cadence campus, the Florida design group had been involved in a number of projects for the school and was looking for an experienced partner for a big project.

Located just inside Canada’s National Capital Region is the small town of St. Albert, Ontario. The small, Franco-Canadian community is located within what is known as The Nation, a municipality in the united counties of Prescott and Russel. In addition to having a rich history including a nearby ghost town, St. Albert is also home to one of the nation’s oldest cheesemakers.

In the fall of 2022, we were contacted by a school in the region that was looking to perform some upgrades and modifications to one of its rooms. Looking to create a room for students requiring a safe and calming space, key stakeholders from the school were looking for a custom padding solution that could cover both the flooring and the walls of the room.

When it comes to custom digital graphics, our proprietary GameDay GraFX solution has been making waves in the athletic space since launching it a few short years ago. Having done a number of custom graphic projects on bleacher seats in the past, we made it our mission to perfect the process and offer the marketplace a digital graphic that would look brilliant and wouldn’t scuff or wear off over time.

As the market got a hold of it, so did a number of our partners, including architects across North America. A recent project included the request for our innovative digital graphic technique, providing an excellent example of how an ancillary product can really take an organization’s design to the next level.

If you’ve been following us for any period of time, you’ll know that we take every opportunity to brag about the products and services we provide. Having been in the sports equipment industry for over 40 years, we’ve been through a lot and that has helped us provide the best service and the best products to the marketplace for decades.

What we don’t often talk about is the visionary people behind the scenes. Those who have been a part of the company since its inception and who have, with the help of many others, shaped the trajectory of our company over the years.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to spend any time in the Maritimes on Canada’s east coast, as the saying goes, you’re fortunate enough. It’s always a pleasure to head down to beautiful New Brunswick and work with our partners in the area on new and exciting projects.

This time, we were united with our partners at Interior Visions in their home province. Looking to tackle yet another sizable job, we found ourselves at the drawing table for a brand new telescopic bleacher system. One of the area's largest community colleges, Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB) was in search of some innovative seating for their gymnasium.