The Best Seats
In The House

Our connection to basketball runs deep here at Sport Systems. In addition to cutting our teeth in the industry by designing and selling basketball hoops back in the late 1970s, our headquarters is located in the hometown of Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of the game we all love so much.

While much has changed over the past 40-or-so years since we began this journey in the athletic equipment industry, much still remains the same. We continue to specialize in basketball equipment including, hoops, backboards, complete indoor and outdoor systems and so much more.

Working so closely with one sport for an extended period of time has afforded us the ability to experiment and test a large quantity of products and solutions. This testing has led the way for our internal development of our own line of basketball products, specifically in the outdoor space.

Home to over 2,250 students, St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School (CSS) is the largest school in Hamilton, graduating approximately 400 students each year with about 90% of those students leaving to pursue post-secondary education.

With an unwavering commitment to excellence in academics, the school is also home to over 70 sports teams, each of which have won at least one championship in the school’s history.

Keeping up with the level of athletics offered at such a large school is no easy feat and requires an innovative approach to facility management and operations. With one of the most decorated football programs in the province, the school’s main athletic field is often the focal point of athletics. The indoor gymnasium however, was in need of some upgrades to bring it to the level where it could rival the calibre of the outdoor field.

Located on the north shore of Lake Ontario, the town of Whitby is a commuter suburb serving as the eastern portion of the Greater Toronto Area. Comfortably located between the communities of Ajax and Oshawa, the town is home to over 100,000 residents.

Moving to the town’s northern, rural roots is the community of Brooklin and home to one of our recent bleacher projects. A fairly new school, Brooklin High School was constructed in 2015 and currently serves roughly 1,000 students as part of the Durham District School Board.

In addition to its academic prowess, the school has always maintained a commitment to athletics, offering programming in basketball, rugby, football, volleyball, golf, hockey, curling, lacrosse and more. In fact, in 2018 the boys’ hockey team won gold while their female counterparts took home bronze at that year’s OFSAA AAA championships.

In addition to the school’s indoor athletic facilities, it was time to enhance what was started outdoors at the school’s full-service sports field.

Located in southwestern Ontario, one of our most recent projects lead us to beautiful Essex County, Ontario. Stretching south along the banks of Lake Erie, the area is known for its wonderful beaches and small-town flair.

The project was brought to us by the Greater Essex County District School Board  as they were interested in creating a custom grandstand bleacher for the Essex District High School located in the northwest corner of the City of Essex. Founded in 1885, the high school serves as the oldest operating publicly funded secondary school in the entire province of Ontario and currently serves roughly 1,000 students in the area.

Looking to add to the sidelines of the school’s athletic field, the idea to design and build a custom 10-tier grandstand was brought to our team earlier this year. In addition to the seating and ensuring the bleacher was completely accessible, our team was also mandated with coordinating, furnishing and closing off the building permit as well as procuring all inspectors necessary for the school to obtain occupancy from the municipal building authority.

Headquartered just south of Canada’s capital, the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario (CDSBEO) proudly offers quality Catholic education and programming to students across the eastern regions of the province. Blending specialized learning opportunities, athletics, and faith, the school board is committed to social justice and serves as the board of nearly 40 schools in Ontario.

One of the most common safety risks in gymnasiums across North America today is undoubtedly outdated gym partitions. These massive dividers were commonplace in most gymnasiums throughout the 80s and 90s but with the development of new technology, improvements in design and additional safety mechanisms, they are quickly becoming dangerous relics of the past.

We are all blessed to live on such a beautiful planet and for many of us, keeping it in great shape is a priority. As new initiatives are released on a daily basis, there is much for each one of us to do to make the world a better place for the next generation.

While we all have an individual responsibility to our planet, we believe as a business we do too. This is why, where and whenever possible, we aim to source and utilize the very best materials for our products and to ensure they are manufactured in a way that has as little impact as possible.

With that in mind, we wanted to highlight a few of our products that we proudly supply that are made using recycled materials. These popular products can be found in gymnasiums and athletic facilities around the world and it is our hope to expand our offerings using recycled materials where the opportunity exists.

A global self-funded nonprofit organization, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) devotes itself to preventing death, injury or economic loss due to fire and other related hazards.

With such a broad reaching mandate, this organization sets the standard in safety by utilizing over 300 consensus codes and standards and has been a leader in safety since its inception in 1896.

Specifically designed to minimize the risk and effects of fire, the organization develops and distributes educational programs, tools and resources for all ages and audiences in addition to their internationally recognized code of standards.

While these regulations and guidelines can be far reaching, they also extend into the nature of our business in many ways as well. When it comes to setting the safety standards to bleachers and grandstands, the NFPA updates their codes and standards regarding these products once a year based on public and industry input.

Here are a few main conditions that must be considered when designing your next stand-alone seating structure.

One of the most common questions we field is whether or not a prospective bank of bleacher seating requires a guardrail or not. With these seating structures varying widely in size and design, the answer can be hard to determine, depending on who you talk to.

With spectator safety in mind, it’s no surprise that facility operators and owners want to ensure they get this part of their bleacher order correct. The risk of having an unnecessary injury looming over your facility or league is just not something that anyone wants. It is one of the reasons that we take a proactive approach to safety precautions by recommending solutions tailored for every product or situation.

For us, not much looks better than a fresh cut sports playing field as the morning sun rises high above the bleacher structures that adorn the sidelines. While they might be empty at that point in the day, we are constantly reminded of everything they bring to the events, to both the athletes and spectators throughout the year.

We are all undoubtedly familiar with their function – to seat throngs of fans who attend every game to cheer on family, friends and the athletes of tomorrow.  When it comes to ordering a bleacher structure  for an athletic field or facility, questions about configuration and seating capacity are often the first to surface, especially for those unfamiliar with the process.

In what is often referred to as Sarnia’s premier baseball park is also its oldest. Dating back to the 1950s, the baseball diamond has long served the community as a hub for local baseball serving as a home diamond for the Sarnia Braves as well as other local teams.

Following the completion of a new set of dugouts built in 2014, plans were set in motion to complete the redesign in the years following. With plans set to build around the new dugouts, demolition on the site began in 2017, with the rebuild slated for 2018.

The existing 600-seat bleachers were in disrepair, so included in the rebuilding operation was a new grandstand seating system complete with customized accessibility ramps, viewing platforms and more. Change rooms, a new concession area, netting barrier, landscape design and baseball field backstop were all also part of the scope of work for the historic athletic field.