The Best Seats
In The House

Nestled smack dab in the middle of the Rocky Mountains lies historic Bozeman, located in the southwest portion of the great state of Montana. While not the most populous city in the state, Bozeman does serve as home to the state’s largest university and flagship campus of the Montana State University System, Montana State University (MSU).

With enrolment of roughly 17,000 students, MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 51 fields, master’s degrees in 41 fields and doctoral degrees in 18 fields spread across its nine colleges. Over the past decade, the school has enjoyed monumental growth in both enrolment with major construction and renovation projects including a new Animal Bioscience Building and a major renovation to Gaines Hall.

While we aren’t talking about any current Major League hitters when it comes to community baseball diamonds, we are talking about the big bats of the future. As such, with many community organizations or municipalities, keeping balls in play and out of creeks, lakes, parking lots and crowds is always priority number one.

This was the case in one of our more recent projects in the west end of Ottawa. Located within city limits, the small village of Fitzroy Harbour is situated along the Ottawa River at the confluence of the mighty Carp River. This small village is one of the last stops on the west Ottawa border and is also home to Fitzroy Provincial Park, servicing outdoor enthusiasts since 1963 amid century-old white pines and 200-year-old bur oak trees.

When it comes to indoor bleacher seating, the options can be endless and the choice of product selected ultimately depends on the requirements of each individual facility.

In the case of simple auxiliary seating, our smaller tip and roll bleachers are typically the best choice, allowing facility operators to quickly and easily move and place these small bleachers on an as-needed basis.

When accommodation for more spectators is required in limited spaces such as gymnasiums, our telescopic bleachers quickly become the best choice. Available in a number of configurations and sizes, our Kodiak 2400 series solves the issue of providing ample seating in a limited space. From elementary schools, to high schools, our most popular telescopic units are easily customized to fit most capacity requirements and available spaces but when the need arises for yet another level of indoor bleacher seating, nothing holds a candle to the Kodiak 3200 series systems.

Acting as the governing body of soccer in the United States Virgin Islands, the US Virgin Islands Soccer Association (USVISA) was founded in 1987 while becoming affiliated with CONCACAF in the same year. With headquarters in Christiansted on the picturesque island of St. Croix, the association eventually joined the ranks of FIFA, the official governing body of soccer worldwide, in 1998.

After participating in a successful FIFA-sanctioned project in Barbados, key stakeholders from the USVISA and FIFA once again contacted our team to begin the process of designing and installing some new bleacher seating in the Caribbean.

Similar in nature to the grandstands that were installed in Barbados, the USVISA was interested in two banks of grandstand bleachers to accommodate spectators at their home pitch known as Bethlehem Soccer Complex, which also serves as the head office of the USVISA.

If you have ever had the opportunity to observe a particularly large retractable bleacher system, there is likely little doubt in your mind as to the significant weight of one of these structures. Used in gymnasiums across Canada and the United States, these seating systems are space-saving solutions that are easily rolled out for use when the time or event calls for it.

These wonderfully engineered systems are undoubtedly helpful for various organizations, schools, universities, and public and private athletic facilities. While the majority of the larger versions of these structures are powered electrically and easily moved into the open and closed positions, some have been installed without these powerful motors and rely solely on human operation.

Situated in Kingston, Ontario, we were once again called upon by our esteemed partners and colleagues at Queen’s University.

In 2015, we were awarded the contract to take the lead on the revitalization and rebuilding of Richardson Stadium, a project that saw our team build out the entire stadium from the ground up. We designed and installed seating for 8,000 spectators in what is today known as one of Canada’s premiere collegiate athletic stadiums.

We’ve been fortunate to have a long-tenured relationship with this prestigious institution and continue to foster that relationship to this day.

We were recently called back to Richardson Stadium to address a serious health and safety issue on the outside of the stadium. Located beside the stadium is the school’s maintenance compound where staff members routinely work on keeping the grounds in tip top shape. With a large retaining wall just outside of the building, it was deemed unsafe by officials from the school and they were looking for an immediate solution to protect all staff and others who might use the walkway.

Constructed in 2004, the Bell Sensplex serves as the official practice facility for the NHL’s Ottawa Senators hockey club. Built in partnership with the City of Ottawa, the 180,000 square foot facility boasts three NHL-sized ice surfaces, one Olympic-sized ice rink and an indoor fieldhouse and additionally serves a number of minor hockey leagues and short track speed skating clubs in the greater Ottawa region.

We were recently contacted by stakeholders from within the Sensplex organization with questions regarding some safety netting for the Olympic-sized rink inside this community-focused athletic facility.

When many of us think of bleachers, we instantly envision large stadiums and grandstands filled with happy spectators. While this is true of many of the bleachers we design and construct, the truth is, we also create a number of smaller, or low-rise options.

With every organization, facility, and team coming to the table with their own unique needs and circumstances, it’s not hard to imagine that there really is no one-size-fits-all approach to bleacher seating. Generally speaking, many customers come to us looking to solve seating problems for anywhere from 20 to 100 spectators and this is where our low-rise options truly shine.

A common problem in the spring months for much of Canada and the United States is the risk of flooding from the melting of snow and the rising of rivers and other waterways. As we are seeing particularly in Canada over the past few weeks, flooding is ravaging communities here in our neck of the woods as well as in many others.

While the priority for assistance is focused primarily on residential properties (as it should be), those working in facility operation or management also know how detrimental Acts of God such as flooding can have on their facility.

That said, flooding from natural disasters is not the only risk these operators face with regards to water damage. Leaking roofs and faulty sprinkler systems, for example, can also wreak havoc on gymnasiums if too much time passes.

Rock and roll, bell bottoms, free love and extremely heavy folding gym partitions are just a few characteristics of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. While the former are relatively unthreatening, the latter has become one of the biggest safety concerns athletic facility operators face today.

After serving the purpose of dividing a space for a number of decades, the fact that many of these antiquated systems are still in operation today pose a variety of safety risks to both operators and participants.

Designed using heavy materials and often with not enough horsepower to operate them, these outdated gym dividers have made unfavourable appearances in the media over the past two decades, having caused a number of of injuries and even some deaths.