The Best Seats
In The House

When it comes to planned expenditures, our friends over at Recreation Management Magazine conduct annual research that is helpful in more ways than one. Their annual report takes a deep dive into annual trends for spending with regards to colleges and universities across the United States.

While the 2019 edition of their annual survey indicated little to no changes with regards to planned features and upgrades, there was certainly some movement up the ranks for certain products such as bleachers and seating.

While planning for the development of synthetic turf sports fields remains at the top of the list for the second consecutive year, bleachers and seating took honours in the third spot for the most planned additions to colleges and universities. Jumping up from sixth position in late 2018, it is no secret that the building boon for planned seating will continue through 2020.

Working again with our partners at Tadeos Engineering LLC, we recently joined forces on a unique project. Operating as a structural and civil engineering firm founded in Miami in 2015, Tadeos Engineering offers a range of Structural Engineering Services for new construction, additions to current buildings, remodeling, legalization and more. The opportunity to remove old, outdated wooden telescopic bleachers and replace them with new, state-of-the-art telescopic bleachers was presented to our team by Tadeos and we were quick to reply. Organized by the City of South Miami, the project was scheduled to take place at the Gibson-Bethel Community Center. Opened in 2003, the center serves people of all ages in the community of South Miami, offering a fitness center, basketball and volleyball courts, arts and crafts rooms and much more.

Cartwheels, back handsprings, handstands, tumbling and balancing are all part of the day-to-day operations of today’s busy gymnastics facilities.

One of the fastest-growing segments in terms of athletic participation, today’s facilities are getting bigger and often require a great deal of planning to set up but also to keep current with what participants and parents want.

With over 40 years in the business, we have seen the growth in this sector firsthand and have adjusted our product offering accordingly. In addition to growing our product line to meet the demands, we have also turned to research and development to ensure we carry the products that are the safest available.

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.

Following the success of a number of projects in Nebraska including a new grandstand bleacher for Pawnee Park in Columbus and new telescopic bleachers for Omaha Christian Academy, we were once again paired with our partners at Crouch Recreation.

Uncovering a wonderful opportunity to replace some outdated retractable bleachers in an Omaha high school, key stakeholders at Crouch Recreation brought the project to our attention and we quickly pooled our resources to have a detailed look at the project.

Located at Millard South High School in western Omaha were a number of retractable bleachers that no longer could satisfy building and safety codes and were quickly becoming a maintenance headache for the local high school.

Home to over 2,250 students, St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School (CSS) is the largest school in Hamilton, graduating approximately 400 students each year with about 90% of those students leaving to pursue post-secondary education.

With an unwavering commitment to excellence in academics, the school is also home to over 70 sports teams, each of which have won at least one championship in the school’s history.

Keeping up with the level of athletics offered at such a large school is no easy feat and requires an innovative approach to facility management and operations. With one of the most decorated football programs in the province, the school’s main athletic field is often the focal point of athletics. The indoor gymnasium however, was in need of some upgrades to bring it to the level where it could rival the calibre of the outdoor field.

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.

One of the most common questions we field is whether or not a prospective bank of bleacher seating requires a guardrail or not. With these seating structures varying widely in size and design, the answer can be hard to determine, depending on who you talk to.

With spectator safety in mind, it’s no surprise that facility operators and owners want to ensure they get this part of their bleacher order correct. The risk of having an unnecessary injury looming over your facility or league is just not something that anyone wants. It is one of the reasons that we take a proactive approach to safety precautions by recommending solutions tailored for every product or situation.

For us, not much looks better than a fresh cut sports playing field as the morning sun rises high above the bleacher structures that adorn the sidelines. While they might be empty at that point in the day, we are constantly reminded of everything they bring to the events, to both the athletes and spectators throughout the year.

We are all undoubtedly familiar with their function – to seat throngs of fans who attend every game to cheer on family, friends and the athletes of tomorrow.  When it comes to ordering a bleacher structure for an athletic field or facility, questions about configuration and seating capacity are often the first to surface, especially for those unfamiliar with the process.

In what is often referred to as Sarnia’s premier baseball park is also its oldest. Dating back to the 1950s, the baseball diamond has long served the community as a hub for local baseball serving as a home diamond for the Sarnia Braves as well as other local teams.

Following the completion of a new set of dugouts built in 2014, plans were set in motion to complete the redesign in the years following. With plans set to build around the new dugouts, demolition on the site began in 2017, with the rebuild slated for 2018.

The existing 600-seat bleachers were in disrepair, so included in the rebuilding operation was a new grandstand seating system complete with customized accessibility ramps, viewing platforms and more. Change rooms, a new concession area, netting barrier, landscape design and baseball field backstop were all also part of the scope of work for the historic athletic field.