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If you find yourself wrestling with outdated, manually operated basketball systems and your staff is finding it increasingly difficult, or unsafe, to set up for game day, we’re here to tell you that you aren't alone.

One of our more recent projects with the City of Ottawa was an excellent example of this after stakeholders from the city reached out to our team with the goal of replacing the aging, manual wall-mount basketball units at the Routhier Community Center with modern, motorized folding systems. To top it all off, they also were looking at upgrading the existing backboards to professional and ultra-durable glass backboards.

As with any time a call like this comes in, our process always begins with a boots-on-the-ground site audit. When our sales and installation team arrived at Routhier, they identified two critical issues that changed the scope of the project. Taking a look at the existing systems, our team immediately found extensive wear and tear, indicating that the existing systems had reached the end of their functional life after years of high-traffic use. We also managed to identify a bit of structural integrity issues after discovering significant cracking in the concrete block walls.

Given that a standard glass backboard is significantly heavier than the old steel fan-shaped units, mounting heavy, modern equipment onto compromised masonry is a major safety risk. Basketball systems endure immense punishment from aggressive play and those forces are transferred directly into the building's bones.

After a comprehensive site audit, our team determined that the original walls simply could not safely support the weight and torque of a modern wall-mounted glass system.

Despite putting a wrench in some of our possible plans, our team instead pivoted to a superior engineering solution given the findings we had made. Rather than compromising on safety or sticking with the status quo, we went ahead and recommended our ceiling-suspended units for the local community center.

Our thoughts were that by leveraging the gym’s exposed steel ceiling joists, we would bypass the weakened walls entirely, providing a rock-solid foundation for the upgrade without requiring expensive masonry repairs.

As part of the new setup, the plan was to design and install two forward-folding systems engineered to tuck away perfectly when not in use. When it came to operation, we eliminated manual cranking by including key-operated motors that would allow staff and team members to deploy or retract the hoops with the turn of a key. And finally, since we were using our ceiling-suspended units, we were able to include pro-level glass backboards that provide the true rebound and aesthetic players expect in a modern facility.

In the end, the transformation at Routhier Community Center has been a win-win for everyone involved including facility staff who now can operate these new basketball systems with the turn of a key. For the city and its players, they’ve now got a safe and long-lasting investment that did wonders for modernizing the gymnasium and giving local leagues and players something to rave about for years to come.

Don't wait for a manual system to fail or a wall to crack. Whether you need a standard replacement or a creative engineering solution for a challenging space, Sport Systems has the expertise to get it done right. Be sure to get in touch with a member of our team today if you’ve got a project you just can’t seem to wrap your head around.