The Best Seats
In The House

With the warm summer months upon us, kids out of school, and adults wanting to get in shape for swimsuit weather, it’s the time of year when gyms and athletic facilities are normally busting at the seams with activity. However, the “stay-at-home” orders and forced closings for non-essential businesses due to COVID-19, have disrupted routines for businesses and individuals alike.

Of course, these empty facilities have impacted the industry but for many organizations, the downtime offers the perfect opportunity for catching up on equipment repairs, evaluating cleanliness protocols, and scheduling routine maintenance and inspections without inconveniencing clients. Additionally, it allows staff members to stay busy and continue earning an income, while enabling facilities to improve various aspects of their business.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is the largest school board in Eastern Ontario and the seventh largest by school population in the Province of Ontario. With a heavy presence in the Ottawa region and close to our corporate HQ, we naturally are fortunate to do a great deal of business with this particular board.

Spanning 143 schools, it is no surprise that we have long-established relationships with key stakeholders not only from the board but also from many of the individual schools as well.

In addition to a number of upgrades performed in the latter portion of 2019, we were asked to visit three schools here in the Greater Ottawa Area that were in need of folding partition replacement. Given the often unsafe nature of outdated gymnasium dividers, it is often the mandate of schools and school boards to have these systems replaced well ahead of any problems that might surface over time with repeated use.

Headquartered just south of Canada’s capital, the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario (CDSBEO) proudly offers quality Catholic education and programming to students across the eastern regions of the province. Blending specialized learning opportunities, athletics, and faith, the school board is committed to social justice and serves as the board of nearly 40 schools in Ontario.

One of the most common safety risks in gymnasiums across North America today is undoubtedly outdated gym partitions. These massive dividers were commonplace in most gymnasiums throughout the 80s and 90s but with the development of new technology, improvements in design and additional safety mechanisms, they are quickly becoming dangerous relics of the past.

A global self-funded nonprofit organization, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) devotes itself to preventing death, injury or economic loss due to fire and other related hazards.

With such a broad reaching mandate, this organization sets the standard in safety by utilizing over 300 consensus codes and standards and has been a leader in safety since its inception in 1896.

Specifically designed to minimize the risk and effects of fire, the organization develops and distributes educational programs, tools and resources for all ages and audiences in addition to their internationally recognized code of standards.

While these regulations and guidelines can be far reaching, they also extend into the nature of our business in many ways as well. When it comes to setting the safety standards to bleachers and grandstands, the NFPA updates their codes and standards regarding these products once a year based on public and industry input.

Here are a few main conditions that must be considered when designing your next stand-alone seating structure.

From where we sit, there is nothing better than witnessing scores of spectators rising from their seats to cheer on their local sports team. Having been involved in the sports infrastructure and equipment industry for over 40 years now, nothing makes us more excited than a well-planned athletic space or outdoor sports field. While we now support all facets of athletic equipment and the design process, our hearts are deeply rooted in the very seating that accommodates a crowd of rabid fans. Having designed bleachers and grandstands of all shapes and sizes over the years, we continue to pay attention to what facility owners and operators need and expect from their sideline seating.

As such, nothing ruins a good day at the field more than a mishap on the bleachers due to a lack of care and maintenance. With this in mind, we wanted to touch on a few easy tips for keeping your bleacher seating in game-day condition for many years to come.

The NBA Finals may have just recently come to a close, but the spotlight on player and spectator safety with regards to basketball is something that never truly goes away. As one of the fastest-paced indoor sports and one of the most popular here in North America, safety is always of chief concern for coaches, planners, facility managers and operators alike.

While there are a number of safety precautions and products that already likely exist inside your gymnasium such as strategically placed wall padding, we wanted to touch on some of the basketball-specific items than can go above and beyond protecting both players and spectators.

With the action centred on the court, as operators we must not forget how much is above the floor level. With a variety of moving parts, adding additional layers of safety overhead is something we all should think about.

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.

Celebrating over 30 years of gymnasium safety, the revolutionary Aut-O-Loc safety system  has undergone a massive transformation. Since releasing the third generation of their patented technology in 2017, facility owners and operators across Canada and the United States have been taking a second look at their existing Aut-O-Locs and assessing whether or not they are in need of an update.

Anytime you are building something that is intended to host a large amount of people, safety should be at the forefront of your design plans. When it comes to bleacher seating, slipping is among the biggest and most important safety threats to account for during the design and manufacturing process.

Whether located indoors or outdoors, aluminum bleachers ultimately present certain safety hazards to the people who use them. For outside bleachers, with constant exposure to the elements and varying weather conditions, the risk for slippery surfaces is somewhat obvious. Wet surfaces, particularly those constructed of aluminum or steel, can quickly become hazards if not properly designed and treated. In fact, there are an estimated 8 million cases of injury related to slips and falls each year in the United States alone.