The Best Seats
In The House

As July quickly approaches, the city of Toronto waits in anticipation for the kick-off of the first international multi-sport event to be held within the province of Ontario in over 85 years. The Pan Am Games are scheduled to take place beginning July 10, 2015, when approximately 7000 athletes will compete in 36 individual sports.

As one can imagine, the preparation for this type of event must begin well in advance and be carefully planned and executed. In the fall of 2014, we were commissioned to design and install retractable barrier netting to be used by the games on the campus of the University of Toronto.

Following the successful completion of this netting project, Sport Systems was once again commissioned by organizers of the games to design and fabricate some intricately customized bleacher seating for the Pan Am Athletic Stadium housed at York University.

When planning any large-scale event, seating is typically a chief concern, especially regarding sporting events. With legions of fans and spectators set to descend upon the city of Toronto this summer, organizers had to ensure they could seat the masses at each and every event location. What made this bleacher seating project so unique was the fact that the seating was to be designed so that it could be installed on the 5^th level or roof deck of the stadium.

Gymnasium flooring is a large investment and as facility operators and managers, we want to protect and maintain our flooring as much as possible to extend its lifecycle. While most of our gym floor covers provide more than adequate protection for gyms hosting special events, dances and assemblies, there are a wide variety of other exercises used in gyms around the world that are in need of a more customized solution to protecting their investment.

In the spring of 2014 the Canadian Armed Forces approached us to design and fabricate a solution for use in tandem with some of their mandatory training exercises. As part of a new fitness standards program, one exercise requires participants to drag and pull multiple sandbags for over 20 meters. Over time, the gym floor in the training facility suffered major damage as a result of this exercise.

In the fall of 2014, we successfully completed an arena bleacher project with our partners at Omni Sport for the Village of Rycroft, Alberta. Shortly following the successful installation of both bleachers and new rink boards for the hockey rink, we partnered up with the team at Omni Sport once again to design, build and install a large-scale grandstand bleacher project in Frog Lake, Alberta.

Given the size of the entire project, it will be broken up into three separate phases, which will be detailed here on our blog as it is completed. The first phase of this job was to design, fabricate and deliver a customized arena grandstand seating structure for use inside an arena.

The project called for a clear-span beam-styled design featuring a fully galvanized steel I-beam under structure. This type of configuration is often found in many grandstand bleacher systems, both indoors and outdoors, to allow for usable space underneath the bleachers. Many facilities will place concessions, storage areas and/or bathrooms under their bleacher structures to fully maximize the space. In this particular case, the existing change rooms would be housed beneath the bleacher structure with some additional area to be used for storage by the facility as well.

We’ve all seen them on national sports broadcasts, celebrities lining the sidelines of professional basketball games with what appear to be the best seats in the house. While these premium seats provide athletes and celebrities with an exciting close-up courtside experience, they also serve a variety of purposes for athletic facilities and programs.

Portable chairs used for courtside seating are a very versatile investment. Their lightweight and sturdy structure allows them to be moved around easily and can withstand the weight of large athletes. These chairs are constructed on an 18 gauge steel frame accompanied by heavy-duty metal linking brackets and rear steel cross-braces for the ultimate in support.

In addition to their sturdy construction, our courtside seats are covered in 40 oz. vinyl, one of the most durable vinyl on the market today. This vinyl can withstand constant use and makes these chairs very easy to maintain and clean. As far as protecting your gym flooring from scratches, marking and dents, our courtside seats come complete with non-marring foot inserts to ensure your flooring does not endure any unnecessary damage.

The Woodstock Collegiate Institute (WCI) was erected in 1881 before moving to its present location in 1939, where it resides today in Woodstock, Ontario. Home of the Red Devils, WCI prides itself on developing contributing members of society upon graduating from their school and proudly supports numerous community initiatives such as the United Way, Oxford CAS and many others.

WCI approached us with the idea of upgrading their wall-mounted basketball backstops. The existing backstops had been serving their students well for a number of years, but it was time to explore the possibility of enhancing their existing wooden backboards with professionally-sized glass backboards for their basketball program.

Most installations are either ceiling-suspended or directly mounted to the walls in a variety of available configurations, depending on the architectural layout and specific needs of each facility. After assessing the existing installation however, our team discovered that these basketball backboards were not traditionally mounted.

The role of facility managers and operators has become increasingly complex over the years. With advancements in both the design and technology of many athletic centres and multi-use facilities, new options and accommodation for obstacles are increasingly common considerations.

Selecting a basketball system for your indoor gymnasium or basketball court was once a simpler task; select the backboard, rim and mounting hardware, find a flat wall and mount it. As aforementioned, today’s facilities are being upgraded, redesigned, retrofitted, or are moving to serve a wide array of sports, rather than simply functioning as a basketball court.

Given these unique circumstances and to aid both our installation team and our customers, we carry a variety of single-post ceiling-suspended basketball systems to address most needs on the market today. In addition, we receive many other complex requests for unique basketball mounting positions, for which, we can design customized solutions.

One of the more recent additions to our growing product offering is that of our custom padding solutions, designed specifically for animal hospitals, farms and veterinary clinics. With our team of designers and full-service padding manufacturing capabilities, this became a natural pivot to our business, providing animal health facilities with a wide array of custom padding solutions to fit their unique needs.

Our most recent project was commissioned by the Lloydminster Animal Hospital in Lloydminster, Alberta. Specializing in companion and food-production animal species, this animal hospital offers a range of services to its diverse clientele, including: diagnostic modalities including in-hospital laboratory, digital x-rays, ultrasound, and fiber optic endoscopy.

The hospital was looking for customized padding for their post-surgery recovery stalls used to house horses. While circumstances differ with each patient, horses are in need of proper padding and stall comfort, particularly after the use of any anesthesia as the recovery stage can be a potentially dangerous time for large animals in particular.

Over the past 10 or so years, we have seen a dramatic increase in both demand and therefore, price paid for raw metals. A direct result of this is a paired increase in the number of thieves targeting athletic facilities, high schools, universities, colleges and public park properties for their rows upon rows of aluminum.

Bleachers are not among the only targets of these fly-by-night thieves, there have also been various thefts of player’s benches, aluminum tables and a number of other metal-based products left outdoors.

Given the size of some of these structures, removing them and preparing them for a scrap metal buyer is no easy feat. These criminals are extremely organized in choosing their targets and executing the removal of these bleacher systems as quickly as possible. Most crimes occur during the night-time hours and often require a number of individuals with the right tools and transportation to pull off the heist.

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) has been Canada’s largest granting foundation for over thirty years. This foundation has grown by standing behind its mission of strategic investments in community-based initiatives throughout the province of Ontario.

Each year the OTF awards over $110 million dollars to approximately 1300 not for profit and charitable organizations, while they receive around 3000 total applicants per year.

In its quest to bring real changes that truly make a difference to communities in Ontario, the OTF has identified six Action Areas to use to identify and fund its investments. Each and every grant applicant pledges to make a difference and only those who satisfy one of the action areas are considered. The action areas are as follows:

• Inspired People
• Connected People
• Active People
• Prosperous People
• Promising Young People
• Green People

High school gymnasiums are high traffic areas and facility managers are always looking for ways to make them more efficient and prevent damage to non-athletic appliances and equipment while the area is in use. As multi-sport environments, gymnasiums in high schools serve numerous purposes, host a variety of athletic events and are used by a variety of age groups. For this reason, a large portion of our business serving educational institutions involves highly customized solutions to either fit certain areas or to protect equipment and participants.

As we’ve mentioned many times before, our custom padding department is our most versatile and customized product line, as almost daily we receive requests for unique padding configurations covering everything from customized gym wall padding to fully padded rooms.

One of our most recent design, fabrication and installation of custom padding projects was requested by the Arnprior District High School, not too far from our home base here in Eastern Ontario.