The Best Seats
In The House

This past March, the Texas Motor Speedway unveiled the largest HD sports screen in the world. Aptly nicknamed the “Big Hoss TV”, measures at 218 feet in length and comes in at about 95 feet in height. The HD screen is located at about 125 feet above ground level, sitting over the middle of the backstretch of the 1.5 mile track in Fort Worth, Texas.

This is yet another monstrous screen located in the Lone Star State, rivalling most other sports venue screens around the world.

A few months prior to the unveiling of the “Big Hoss TV” in Fort Worth, the folks down at the now SEC college, Texas A&M are in the middle of a $450 million renovation, with their goal of making Kyle Field and College Station, Texas the premier destination in college football.

After completing the purchase of a bike rack system for your facility or municipality, you will need to obviously decide the best way in which you would like the system mounted. There are a few options available to you, based on the product chosen.

Each of the following mounting configurations satisfies a specific requirement for your bicycle rack:

Portable

This option is clearly the most obvious choice when looking for a versatile solution when you might be interested in moving your bike rack from one location to another. This non-permanent solution simply allows the rack to rest on the ground independently and does not require any anchoring.

Before the bleachers fill up this fall, follow these tips to ensure your educational athletic facilities are in tip top shape with these easy summer maintenance procedures.

Annual Inspections

This one is a given, in addition to your facilities routine inspections and maintenance, it is always a good idea to hire an outside infrastructure company to professionally inspect your athletic equipment and structures at least once per year.

Growing in popularity, especially for outdoor enthusiasts living in winter climates, indoor rock climbing or bouldering facilities are a great place to hone your current skills, or get involved in a new activity.

As with many indoor recreational facilities, safety is always on top of mind when designing and performing regular maintenance in your indoor climbing location. One area of great care and concentration should be that of the crash pads and mats placed below rock climbing walls.

With the average height of an indoor rock climbing wall being anywhere from 20’-45’, in the event of a fall by either yourself or one of your patrons, you want to be sure the right crash pad is there to break the fall.

The unfortunate part about human nature is we often fail to see something until it is too late. When everything in your gym or athletic facility moves along smoothly from day to day, it’s easy for us to simply trust that it will stay that way.

The reality is, when something does happen to go wrong in your gymnasium, it often goes very wrong, very quickly.

Eyes To The Sky & Ears On The Ground

Although annual inspections by an external profession are always recommended, completing regular in-house inspections should be done on a regular basis by facility employees.

It begins with informing your staff members of particular areas of interest and items that deserve constant attention and monitoring.

The first step usually being: look up.

A quick visual reference of wall mounted and ceiling mounted basketball systems above eye level are a great starting point. Some other areas that deserve attention are gym divider curtains, batting cages or any gym mats that might be stored in the ceiling high above the playing and spectator surfaces. Looking closely, you can usually identify any items that might eventually fall onto the gym floor or bleachers, protecting everyone inside your gymnasium or facility.

Today, more facilities are turning toward the use of a gym divider curtain to serve a variety of purposes. Divider curtains are being utilized to separate gymnasiums to expand their use, design spaces and divide rooms of all kinds. In addition to its unbeatable versatility, a gym divider curtain also adds the extra element of cleanliness and organization to any facility.

Here are a few easy tips to follow when purchasing a new gym divider curtain for your school, recreation centre or other facility, athletic or not.

Modern designs and models of basketball systems have evolved a long way over the years. Sifting through the sometimes overwhelming selection of pole sizes, backboard types, adjustments and other such features can leave most potential buyers a bit lost when trying to select the best system for their facilities unique needs. At Sport Systems, we have years of experience with basketball systems, in fact, it was basketball hoops that founded our company!

This quick and informative guide will walk you through the terminology and parts of our in-ground basketball systems. We carry two models of outdoor in-ground basketball systems that have served our clients’ needs for many years now. Our BBIG Series is the most rugged and recognizable basketball systems in the outdoor sporting market. A popular choice for recreation departments, schools and community playgrounds, this goal features a welded flange, while competitors systems typically feature a “slip-on” flange that constantly requires retightening due to vibration.

Our other outdoor in-ground basketball goal is the GP100 Series, and is a step above the BBIG Series for those looking for a slightly higher-end outdoor basketball system that can stand up to repeated use and the elements. The GP100 allows our customers to select their backboard material, backboard size extension lengths and is equipped with an industry-exclusive heavy-gauge triangular extension arm and thick bracing allowing for extended board stability.

With North American groundhogs recently predicting a longer winter season than we had hoped, even the idea of a mere six weeks, gives us all hope that we will soon be swinging the sticks.

Golf courses and facilities can certainly expect a quick start to the season when this long, treacherous and record breaking winter season comes to an end.  In addition to the spring thaw revealing the condition of fairways and greens, it is also an opportune time to get out and review other aspects of your golf course and facility that Jack Frost may have affected.

With high winds, ice and snow storms, the winter can often leave your beautiful course in disarray come spring. Making it not only important to check up on fallen trees and debris around the course, but to ensure any golf equipment left to the elements is still in good working order.