The Best Seats
In The House

Although our industry keeps us busy year round, this time of the year is an especially busy time.   After spending the better part of the past few months buried in snow, the spring thaw brings a renewed opportunity for facility managers and operators to assess their outdoor equipment and get ready for spring and summer sport seasons.

It is also the time of year we hit the road and take part in numerous industry tradeshows, expanding our knowledge, creating new connections and showcasing our talented team and stellar product offering.

In the immediate months, we will be attending two major tradeshows in Ontario:the 2015 Parks and Recreation Ontario Educational Forum and Trade Show and the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association’s Annual General Meeting.

The larger the property and the greater number of venues on it, facility operators are presented with the challenge of providing spectator seating where and when required. While it is possible to install bleachers at each and every venue, for many budgets, it just simply is not a feasible option.

Transportable bleachers provide a solution to this problem, as they can be easily hitched to a maintenance vehicle and towed to the selected location. These mobile bleachers are available in 5 and 10 row heights and are safely equipped with chain link guardrail systems when configurations exceed 5 rows in height.

In the event, however, your facility did not initially purchase a mobile bleacher system, we do have a unique solution to quickly retrofit your existing bleachers into a safe and easy-to-move transportable seating system.

Effectively converting your existing bleacher seating into a mobile seating solution involves two bleacher tow kits; a bracing kit and a wheel and tongue kit. Here’s how they work:

With spring officially starting tomorrow, many soccer associations and organizations are quickly preparing for the upcoming seasons. In addition to ensuring substantial registration numbers, many soccer clubs are busy performing inventory and maintenance checks on their current gear and thinking about possible upgrades as the weather becomes more pleasant.

Some upgrades may be as simple as upgrading smaller accessories like corner markers, balls and goal anchors, but many organizations take a careful look at aging soccer goals and begin exploring options for replacement this time of year as well.

Over time the elements can take their toll on outdoor goals and rusting and corrosion can become not only unsightly, but unsafe for players on the pitch. If you do notice that there is some wear and tear on your goals, or they just might simply be out of date, below is a few of our most popular soccer goal options for both permanent and portable configurations.

When you first begin your research on a new set of soccer goal anchors, we always recommend taking the following three factors into consideration:

• Anticipated Goal Usage - semi-permanent vs. portable
• Type of Playing Surface – grass vs. artificial turf.
• Soil Type of Grass Fields - sand vs. loam vs. clay.

We proudly carry a wide variety of goal anchors. Below are some of the main categories with descriptions to help you choose the anchor type that is right for you.

In addition to offering our customer base the very best in athletic infrastructure products, we also boast a number of services to compliment them as well. Covering everything from basketball backstop installations, annual facility inspections or customized design work, there isn’t much we can’t make happen.

Depending on the size of the seating project, our bleachers are often delivered with our detailed assembly instructions and drawings, allowing trained facility staff and operators to assemble the bleacher system on-site.

In some cases, however, time constraints, staff shortages and other outside influences can make on-site assembly a challenge for some organizations. Given these unique circumstances, we have developed a service program allowing our end users to receive their bleachers in a ready-to-use state, without any time investment and the hassle that can sometimes accompany in-house assembly.

A common problem facing educational and community based facilities is the usability of their basketball systems by players of all ages. With the regulation height of basketball systems hanging at 10’, this can eliminate a number of users depending on their age and size. Organizing basketball games and exercises across all ages has been a problem faced by many for years, but with the addition of our newest basketball system designed specifically for youth, it is bound to level the playing field...or court!

The newest addition to our basketball line is our Junior Jammer. This innovative product easily and quickly attaches to any previously installed basketball hoop and backboard and brings the basketball goal into play for younger age groups.

We see a variety of facilities, each with their own unique designs and configurations. Over our 35 years in the athletic infrastructure business, we have seen a number of jobs that have called upon our strength as a custom designer and installer across many of our product lines. Our custom padding department’s products are used in educational, athletic and health facilities of all shapes and sizes. Our bleachers department is no different, as we continue to build innovative structures to seat fans and spectators.

Basketball systems can appear to be quite cut and dry with regards to installation and product specifications, but with the development and renovation of so many facilities, we are continually challenged to design new solutions for our ceiling-suspended basketball nets.

A priority of businesses, organizations and sport facilities is and always will be safety. Commercial buildings such as warehouses have stringent safety standards and are often rewarded for outstanding performance in maintaining and exceeding these standards.

Sporting facilities and institutions are no different. Appealing to a wide range of participants of different ages and skill levels, these organizations must always work toward providing their participants with the very best in safety and security.

Safety starts long before a product hits the shelves or the loading docks of any institution; it starts during the manufacturing process. As manufacturers ourselves, we constantly strive for more durable, long-lasting and safety-conscious products.

Pole fitness and pole dancing has evolved into a mainstream fitness program in local gyms and fitness facilities around the world. Today, facilities dedicated to pole dancing fitness are popping up in many areas and pole fitness is quickly becoming a popular exercise for those looking for a unique and fun way to build strength and get in shape.

Because of the complexity of some of the moves, a pole fitness program requires the participant to be in great shape, although beginner programs do exist. With specialized exercise programs taking off in local gyms and training facilities, it is no wonder pole fitness facilities and programs are following the same trend.

As a leading padding manufacturer and supplier, we initially began designing custom padding solutions for pole dancing and fitness programs on a case-by-case basis. As pole fitness has risen in popularity, so too has the demand for a padding solution to keep participants safe while exercising using poles.

Built to international standards for competition aquatics, the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC) is a world-class facility serving those living healthy and active lives in Toronto, Ontario.

This 312,000 square foot facility is home to a four-court gymnasium, indoor running track, conditioning rooms, a high-performance testing centre, studio spaces and an exclusive fitness centre for their members. The TPASC is also home to the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario which provides cutting edge sport science and sport performance services.

The TPASC also hosts an impressive aquatic centre comprising of two internationally sanctioned 10-lane, 50-metre pools and a dive tank measuring at five metres in depth, featuring eight lanes for practice swimming.

For this recent project, we were approached to provide customized wall and column padding for the TPASC’s state-of-the-art Diving Dryland Training Centre. This portion of the facility is where athletes go to hone their diving skills and difficult manoeuvres using trampolines, a dive pit, harness rigs and cushioned flooring.