The Best Seats
In The House

There are plenty of gadgets out there today, all created with the goal of helping hockey players become the best on their team, but what’s really necessary?

Out of all the techniques and tactics being employed today to help young hockey players prove their worth in the rink, cross-ice hockey is among the most successful of them all.

Why Cross-Ice Hockey?

For younger players, cross-ice hockey came to the forefront back in the 1970s although it wasn’t adopted into American and Canadian hockey leagues until just recently. It sprouted from a study that realized for amateur youth hockey games, players had an average of .5 shots per game.

Aluminum bleachers are a popular option for sports and social events because they are convenient and cost efficient. However, due to ADA compliancy regulations, assembly areas in arenas, stadiums and event centres with a bleacher setup, must provide accommodations for wheelchairs and companion seating. This means the addition of not only seating spaces but also ramps and handrails to ensure safe and easy access.

With so many venues having been in existence for thirty years or more, there is a growing concern that these regulations cannot be met without incurring massive renovations and expenses. Some of the older seating designs that are most affected by the recent regulations include telescoping bleachers, fixed stadium seating, outdoor grandstands and auditorium seating.

Back at one of Canada’s top-ranked independent schools, we once again found ourselves on the beautiful campus of the Country Day School just outside of Toronto. Included on the 100-acre campus is a completely customized grandstand bleacher our team had the pleasure of designing and installing with help from our partners at Ash Stevenson over the early summer months.

Upon completion of the bleacher seating structure, talks immediately ensued that had our team deeply rooted into the finishing touches that would be added to this brand-new structure. Heading back to the prestigious school, stakeholders within the organization were interested in finishing the bleacher with a customized windscreen that would cement the grandstand as the focal point of Country Day School athletics.

As the year progresses and the colder months approach, the need for winterization and protection of athletic fields and equipment must be considered. Regardless of the field’s purpose, be it football, baseball, soccer or any other athletic use, anyone in the athletic industry knows the importance of being vigilant and actively planning and preparing for the winter months is crucial in protecting and prolonging the life of outdoor athletic areas and equipment.

While a large majority of the products on athletic fields are designed to withstand the harsh winter temperatures, there are steps that should be taken to further protect some items.

The playing field itself is one of the most important for outdoor sports venues. Any groundskeeper or coach realizes the need for a field to be kept in optimal condition whether during peak season or any other time. The additional maintenance and investment will pay off.

Headquarted in Mississauga, we were once again enlisted by our partners at the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board for some recent upgrades to one of their schools. Fresh off the completion of the installation of new telescopic bleachers for Father Michael Goetz Secondary School, the board reached out to us to complete another project within their 148-member school board.

Much the same way many of these projects come to fruition, the board determined that the time had come to replace the outdated and unsafe wooden retractable bleachers at Notre Dame Secondary School in Brampton.

Serving approximately 1,500 students across the Heart Lake region in Brampton and the communities of Caledon, Orangeville, Bolton, and Georgetown, the school has been in operation at its current location since 1988.

In recent years there has been an upswing in money spent on high school athletics programs as well as on training facilities. While in the past, sports as well as arts programs in schools were typically the departments to have budgets cut. However, in some areas, this is no longer necessarily the case.

Athletic directors have worked diligently to fight for the attention and recognition that sports departments are now getting in some locations. Why? The coaches and directors are adamant that athletic programs make a significant impact on the educational development of youth. In sports, you must teach and encourage sportsmanship, teamwork, perseverance, fair play and self-care and these are the exact qualities and values that help youth understand the basics of being a good leader and understanding the importance of being cooperative with others. Athletics require scheduled practice times that are focused on specific goals within that practice time. For students who may be struggling academically, sports could be their outlet. Sports bring people together, even if it’s strictly from a conversation aspect.

Administering Roman Catholic schools scattered throughout the western portion of eastern Ontario, the Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic District School Board is comprised of over 30 elementary schools and 11 secondary schools in the region.

As part of their equitable and inclusive education standards, the schools residing within the board are built on the foundations of discipleship, scholarship, and stewardship. As such, a number of the schools are equipped with specialized rooms that allow for a quiet or safe place for students who sometimes thrive by being temporarily removed from the often noisy and busy environments characteristic of the classroom.

One of the fastest growing trends in stadiums and sports arenas today is the popularity of LED lighting, which is replacing the old-school metal-halide lights. What initially sparked the interest of professional sports venues was the estimated 70% energy cost savings. However, the fans immediately noticed that the LED lighting enhanced the look of the game immensely.

Why LED Lighting?

While stadiums across the nation are switching to the LED systems, they are becoming the standard during the construction of new stadiums as well. Why? These systems use less energy and they are much more cost efficient to maintain. The LED lights offer longer burn time, they are brighter, they do not require “warm-up” time like the older metal halide lights did, and they do not flicker, due to the higher level of energy efficiency.

One of our more recent projects brought us back to Canada’s most southern city, Windsor. Tucked along the Detroit River directly across from the Motor City (Detroit), Windsor is a major player in the Canadian automotive industry and the area’s 400,000 residents.

Working closely with the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board in southern Ontario, we were contracted to perform some work at Holy Names Secondary School on the south side of Windsor.

Home of the Knights athletic program, the school was scheduling a two-phase approach to the construction of two sets of large bleachers and a press box to adorn their new field and track.

The forgotten basement, the storage room, or the outbuilding that hasn’t been used in ages are all examples of projects we have had some involvement in over the past couple of years.

While we do spend a lot of our time on baseball and football fields and inside gymnasiums, we are often tasked with projects that require a refreshed vision and some old-fashioned ingenuity.

As space becomes limited as programming grows, planners, managers and operators are sometimes left scrambling for additional areas in which sports and other activities can be performed. Rather than incurring the massive expense of an addition to an existing facility or building an entirely new building, many are taking stock of what they can presently maximize.

In some cases, these spaces are basements, storage areas, sheds, barns and other such structures and with some planning, can be transformed into wonderful facilities all in themselves.