The Best Seats
In The House

Whether we would like to admit it or not, the times are changing more rapidly than most of us ever thought possible.  As many of us continue to adapt and change course to reflect the demands, needs and wants of both the public and athletic communities, exciting things are happening in our industry on a daily basis.

With new stadiums being erected all over Canada and the United States, these new design trends are not strictly reserved for professional sports. Collegiate, community and private facilities are all being swept into this massive wind of change as well.

With this in mind, here are a few of the biggest trends sweeping the athletic facility industry and how many planners, designers, and fabricators are keeping pace.

With our ever-expanding dealer network, our reach and ability to effectively service clients in both Canada and the United States have grown exponentially.  With dealers spanning coast to coast across North America, we service the masses and guarantee prompt and professional service through our stringent vetting process for prospective partners.

While some dealers have been with us since the early days, others are joining us each and every year, bringing their unique skillset and expertise to our already talented organization. 

Founded in 1949, St. Alban’s Boys and Girls Clubserves over 2,000 members per year, not to mention over 1,000 others across 18 satellite sites in the Greater Toronto Area.  It is here their dedicated staff and volunteers have been establishing a diverse range of programming including after-school programs, sports and athletic programs, camps, tutoring, mentoring and employment readiness programs for close to 70 years.

While we work with a number of Boys and Girls Clubs scattered throughout both Canada and the United States, this is not the first time the St. Alban’s Club has turned to us for help with improving their athletic facilities.  Previously, we were commissioned to install a state-of-the-art gym divider curtain for the club and once again, the club’s stakeholders tapped us for our expertise with regards to padding their gymnasium and stage.

Each bleacher system we design, supply and/or install is unique in one way or another.  While some are designed from the ground up, such as large-scale grandstands, others are solely designed to accommodate special hindrances and seating capacities.

Going beyond traditional uses such as stadiums, gymnasiums, and outdoor sports fields, we also supply a line of bleachers specifically crafted and suited for high-humidity environments such as aquatic facilities.

These facilities, often humid and wet in nature, require certain material and construction requirements in order to last a number of years; a point our team took into consideration while developing our innovative pool bleachers for use in moisture-rich environments.

Located roughly 3,000 km from our head offices, our most recent project was for an innovative new facility located in beautiful St. John’s, NL.  The Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Centre is a one-of-kind multi-sport athletic training facility giving both administrators and athletes across all age categories access to the very best athletic training equipment and resources.

The three-pronged facility boasts a high-performance training centre, a state-of-the-art strength, and conditioning area, as well as a full-service gymnasium.  In addition to local residents, the facility is also utilized by a variety of provincial sports organizations as a forum to train and increase athletic performance.

Safety is paramount in athletic and educational facilities, as more and more products on the market today are built to keep participants and spectators safe.  Traditionally speaking, most would pigeonhole our organization as one that can often be found designing and hanging both permanent and removable wall padding in gymnasiums across Canada, the United States and the rest of the world.

While we certainly do take on many wall padding jobs fit for schools, colleges, and athletic facilities, we are home to a massive custom padding department that has expanded exponentially over the past number of years, serving more and more niche markets.

Named after one of Canada’s Fathers of Confederation, George Brown College boasts three full educational campuses in the heart of downtown Toronto.  Serving a variety of programs covering arts, design, business, community services, early childhood education, and construction and engineering technologies, George Brown College is asserting itself as a leading educational institution in North America.

We were connected with key stakeholders at George Brown College in the summer of 2016 when they reached out to us with the interest of revamping their basketball systems and gymnasium facility at their St. James Campus. 

All told, there was a total of six basketball systems that were in need of replacement but the facility itself presented some unique logistical challenges, particularly when it came to moving large equipment in and out of the location.

Generally speaking, we all have some sort of an idea as to what constitutes sports barrier netting.  As a large portion of our business, custom netting solutions for sports applications are vital for the safety and well-being of both participants and spectators.

Coming in all shapes and sizes, our netting barriers can be found in parks, athletic facilities and sports fields across Canada and the United States.  Ranging from portable or permanent barrier netting solutions surrounding soccer pitches and baseball diamonds, to lining golf fairways and driving ranges, our netting solutions span across a wide variety of uses.

Aside from its most conventional use, there are a surprisingly large number of other applications our custom netting department is tasked with each and every year.  Here are a few netting applications we can design that you may not have thought about.

Bringing us to the far eastern regions of Canada’s capital city, our most recent project brought us to Gloucester, Ontario at the Louis Riel Secondary School.  After a brief stay at another location, Louis Riel Secondary School permanently opened at its current location in 1980 and immediately got to work expanding programming and facilities within the establishment.

Originally serving strictly grades 9-12, the school expanded in 2003 offering programming to grade7 and 8 students, today it boasts a student body of over 700 students.

In addition to strong academic programming, the school is home to a robust athletics platform serving a variety of sports such as basketball, golf, hockey, soccer, volleyball and more.  Additionally, the school is home to a unique facility among high schools in the region; the Dome @ Louis Riel.

With literally millions of gymnasiums, athletic complexes and other facilities here in North America, designing athletic equipment with a one-size-fits-all approach would be useless.  Ranging from facilities built 30 or more years ago to the high-tech and architecturally stunning facilities we are slowly becoming accustomed to today, no two gymnasiums are alike.

When it comes to basketball systems, in particular, much of the configuration and installation methods are heavily dependent on the space allotted, ceiling height and other architectural nuances.  With that in mind, a lot of facilities today opt for either a wall-mounted basketball system, a ceiling-suspended system, or both.