The Best Seats
In The House

In the fall of 2021 we received an invitation to visit Loyalist College and tour the school’s football field. Located in Belleville, ON, our team made the trip to not only have a better feel for the facility, but to also meet with key stakeholders about future plans for the busy field.

Loyalist’s women’s soccer program has been picking up steam over the past few years with more and more spectators attending their home games. In addition to the soccer club, the local football team, known as the Quinte Skyhawks is also making waves, using the field for their home bouts.

A relatively new team, the Skyhawks were granted expansion status to begin playing in the Ontario Conference of the Canadian Junior Football league in 2021. As part of the agreement, the team formed a partnership with Loyalist College allowing players to continue their post-secondary education.

With these two teams attracting record-breaking crowds respectively, the college came to us in search of a solution.

With Christmas just around the corner during our initial site visit, the school delivered a wish list fit for the season. As discussions broke out between the two parties, the school made it clear what it was they were looking for.

A grandstand bleacher was required to hold the growing crowds and key stakeholders from the school wanted to ensure that the seating platform was accessible to all. In what we are now calling barrier free seating, the grandstand was to be elevated off the field, offering a distinct on-field perspective for each and every spectator.

To complete the accessibility of the bleacher, customized ramps and stairways were to be included to provide access to all 700 spectators. To top off the beautiful seating platform, a press box with three individual interior rooms was set atop the structure. The rooms would allow space for the home side coaches and staff, the visiting side coaching and staff and another for the play-by-play announcers. The press box would also feature a rooftop filming platform for unobstructed views for news and camera crews.

We took that wish list back to HQ and began the planning and design process. With a grandstand bleacher of this size, it’s important to get every detail correct prior to the manufacturing process. Utilizing our in-house design team, we fully rendered the bleachers for approval from the college and immediately got to work on the new structure.

In the spring of 2023 the project was completed and installed at Loyalist College.  The end result is a beautiful new barrier free elevated grandstand adorned with a 24’ long press box complete with all of the bells and whistles.

These are truly the best seats in the house and as the ‘23-2024 season is about to get underway, we can’t wait to see what the athletic programming at Loyalist has in store for this year!