The Best Seats
In The House

Basketball has been a longtime favourite game for people of all ages. From playing a casual game in the backyard to cheering on a high school or professional team in an arena, the game truly brings friends, family, colleagues, and neighbours together.

While basketball has been played on a myriad of surfaces, athletic professionals recognize the importance of best court design to suit the facilities’ needs and that accommodate the players and audiences with those features that enhance everyone’s experience.

Incorporated in 1972, the neighbourhood of Bramalea was created as an innovative “new town” as part of the city of Brampton, Ontario. Created by farmer William Sheard, the name of the community is made up of the BRAM from Bramption, MAL from Malton (a former neighbouring town) and the LEA from the old British word meaning meadow or grassland.

As part of this community, the Bramalea Baptist Church as founded ahead of the new town’s development and has been a staple in the community since its inception. Seeking to serve the spiritual needs of the greater Brampton community, the church has served as a hub not only for religious practice but also for community learning and support programming.

Named after one of the most prolific Canadian writers of the nineteenth century,François-Xavier Garneau, the École Secondaire Catholique Garneau follows this historical Canadian’s lead on continuing to develop French Canadian culture.

Located in the east of Canada’s Capital, the school’s motto revolves around the words of Michael Montaigne who said, “The gain of the study, it is becoming better and wiser.” Today, École Secondaire Catholique Garneau invites students to engage in a perpetual momentum of improvement, progress,and wisdom through the pursuit of knowledge and excellence.

Our connection to basketball runs deep here at Sport Systems. In addition to cutting our teeth in the industry by designing and selling basketball hoops back in the late 1970s, our headquarters is located in the hometown of Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of the game we all love so much.

While much has changed over the past 40-or-so years since we began this journey in the athletic equipment industry, much still remains the same. We continue to specialize in basketball equipment including, hoops, backboards, complete indoor and outdoor systems and so much more.

Working so closely with one sport for an extended period of time has afforded us the ability to experiment and test a large quantity of products and solutions. This testing has led the way for our internal development of our own line of basketball products, specifically in the outdoor space.

In a picturesque rural setting with Lake Ontario to the south lies the city of Bowmanville, Ontario. Home to roughly 40,000 residents, Bowmanville is located just 75km (47 miles) from the great city of Toronto and offers a tranquil community as part of the Greater Toronto area.

Travelling just north of the downtown core is the Gaud Corners community and home to the Knox Christian School, where one of our most recent projects took place. With deep roots in the community, Knox Christian School has been an admirable educational institution since its inception in 1957, providing students with strong academics and opportunities to grow spiritually in the Canadian Christian community.

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.

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.

Taking the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) by storm, the team at Next Supply has revolutionized how hydronics and plumbing supplies would be made available across this fast-paced region. By dividing the GTA into succinct zones based on neighborhoods and traffic zones, they have created a number of full-service locations across the region and have filled those locations with the very best industry talent in Toronto.

The result has seen the decentralized business model embraced by those who have come to love the company, the people and what makes them different from the rest.

After working closely with the good people at George Brown College in Toronto back in 2016 and 2017, our paths crossed once again this past summer. Initially, we got paired with the college when their St. James Campus was looking to replace their existing basketball systems but were faced with a huge logistical challenge.

Situated on the sixth floor of the building, the gymnasium at the St. James Campus was thought to be inaccessible to large equipment such as basketball systems. Fortunately, our team was able to come up with an innovative solution that would allow the systems to enter the building normally, without the expense of crane rentals and window removal.