The Best Seats
In The House

Last summer, we were commissioned by the Algoma District School Board to replace and upgrade the existing telescopic bleacher systems at three separate schools. This summer, we were again commissioned to do the same at an additional two schools under the same board.

The first site was at Elliot Lake Secondary School in Elliot Lake, Ontario and the second was at W.C. Eaket Secondary School in Blind River, Ontario. Both schools were previously equipped with wooden bleachers that needed to be removed and replaced by a state-of-the-art telescopic bleacher system. Much like the three schools completed last year, these two schools were in need of an upgraded seating solution for their growing sports programs in their gymnasiums. The school board once again turned to our team at Sport Systems to design, supply and install what would be their future bleacher seating for years to come.

Our recently completed project was on behalf of the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board which currently serves over 15,000 students and borders Maynooth, Deseronto, Prince Edward County and Quinte West in southeastern Ontario.

Our latest project took place at Centennial Secondary School located in Belleville, Ontario, an institution based upon three main values which it embeds in its students, faculty and community. These values are: Academic Excellence, Athletic Prowess and Artistic Integrity; encouraging their student body to improve and develop literacy and numeracy skills, sportsmanship qualities and artistic creativity, which fosters the development of their self-awareness and self-confidence.

The annual Puppets Up! Festival just wrapped up this past weekend in our hometown of Almonte, Ontario. The three-day festival runs each year during the month of August where puppets and performers provide hours of entertainment for families and children of all ages in the town’s historic downtown.

While downtown’s Mill Street was lined with vendors, live music and puppet performances, the main attractions took place in a number of tented theatres and inside some of Almonte’s historical buildings. Complete puppet performances took place at various times throughout the weekend in these designated locations, pleasing spectators from start to finish.

As with your vehicle or any other piece of machinery or equipment, properly scheduled maintenance is a sure-fire way to get the most out of that product’s life cycle. The same holds true for athletic equipment and infrastructure, whether that equipment has mechanical or moving parts or is simply stationary.

Larger-scale projects such as bleacher and grandstand seating are often overlooked, but require a good deal of attention. These large structures are often located outdoors 365 days of the year and while they are built to withstand terrible weather conditions, they too require regular maintenance to ensure your spectators are always safe.

We have compiled a quick checklist that can be used at any time of the year and hopefully on an ongoing basis that will help you and your facility maintenance staff perform routine checks.

As a company, we strive to offer our existing, current and prospective clientele the very best in sports and athletic infrastructure and areconstantly updating, tweaking and expanding our product offering to best serve our growing market. One large area of expertise our team proudly presents our clients with is upgrading outdating equipment in older facilities and operations. Often times, these upgrades arise due to safety issues or concerns, while other times they can simply be the by-product of technological and functional advancements in the design and construction of certain pieces of equipment.

One of our largest areas of upgrades exists within educational facilities. These facilities serve hundreds of participants and a variety of events each year and the athletic locations such as gymnasiums within these facilities require a multi-use approach to their equipment and fixtures.

Removing the barriers experienced by children with physical and mental disabilities was the goal when the Miracle League first started in April of 2000 in the state of Georgia. The idea behind this incredible organization has spread like wild fire and now consists of over 240 Miracle League Organizations serving over 200 000 children and adults who might not otherwise have the opportunity to play the game of baseball.

The Miracle League brings a unique angle to the traditional game of baseball that allows participants to blossom, not only as players, but as individuals. The proven ‘buddy’ system the league employs pairs each disabled player with an able-bodied player and fosters new friendships, skills and tremendous confidence in all who participate.

In the summer of 2012, a local Ottawa family approached both the Champions for Ottawa Baseball and the Orleans Rotary Club with expressed interest in bringing a Miracle League to Ottawa to support their son Bryce’s love of baseball. Bryce, who was born with cerebral palsy, wanted dearly to partake in a baseball league and his parents, Rolly and Michelle Desrochers, set out to make his dream a reality.

It’s no secret; bleachers are a big part of our business and when it comes to true versatility, our telescopic and retractable bleachers cannot be beat. These indoor bleachers are typically found in gymnasiums, particularly in educational institutions that require a gym space that can accommodate multi-sport use, a variety of different events and spectator seating.

Our telescopic bleachers answer the call with their uniquely engineered ability to retract when not in use and provide valuable floor space to participants and program operators. While each gymnasium and space is different, these bleacher units are completely customizable and our design team ensures each bank of seating we install is just the right fit.

Our recent project for the Ecole Secondaire Macdonald Cartier in Sudbury, Ontario, featured an educational facility that was already reaping the rewards of a retractable bleacher system, but had since grown to require a slightly larger seating capacity.

As July quickly approaches, the city of Toronto waits in anticipation for the kick-off of the first international multi-sport event to be held within the province of Ontario in over 85 years. The Pan Am Games are scheduled to take place beginning July 10, 2015, when approximately 7000 athletes will compete in 36 individual sports.

As one can imagine, the preparation for this type of event must begin well in advance and be carefully planned and executed. In the fall of 2014, we were commissioned to design and install retractable barrier netting to be used by the games on the campus of the University of Toronto.

Following the successful completion of this netting project, Sport Systems was once again commissioned by organizers of the games to design and fabricate some intricately customized bleacher seating for the Pan Am Athletic Stadium housed at York University.

When planning any large-scale event, seating is typically a chief concern, especially regarding sporting events. With legions of fans and spectators set to descend upon the city of Toronto this summer, organizers had to ensure they could seat the masses at each and every event location. What made this bleacher seating project so unique was the fact that the seating was to be designed so that it could be installed on the 5^th level or roof deck of the stadium.

In the fall of 2014, we successfully completed an arena bleacher project with our partners at Omni Sport for the Village of Rycroft, Alberta. Shortly following the successful installation of both bleachers and new rink boards for the hockey rink, we partnered up with the team at Omni Sport once again to design, build and install a large-scale grandstand bleacher project in Frog Lake, Alberta.

Given the size of the entire project, it will be broken up into three separate phases, which will be detailed here on our blog as it is completed. The first phase of this job was to design, fabricate and deliver a customized arena grandstand seating structure for use inside an arena.

The project called for a clear-span beam-styled design featuring a fully galvanized steel I-beam under structure. This type of configuration is often found in many grandstand bleacher systems, both indoors and outdoors, to allow for usable space underneath the bleachers. Many facilities will place concessions, storage areas and/or bathrooms under their bleacher structures to fully maximize the space. In this particular case, the existing change rooms would be housed beneath the bleacher structure with some additional area to be used for storage by the facility as well.

Over the past 10 or so years, we have seen a dramatic increase in both demand and therefore, price paid for raw metals. A direct result of this is a paired increase in the number of thieves targeting athletic facilities, high schools, universities, colleges and public park properties for their rows upon rows of aluminum.

Bleachers are not among the only targets of these fly-by-night thieves, there have also been various thefts of player’s benches, aluminum tables and a number of other metal-based products left outdoors.

Given the size of some of these structures, removing them and preparing them for a scrap metal buyer is no easy feat. These criminals are extremely organized in choosing their targets and executing the removal of these bleacher systems as quickly as possible. Most crimes occur during the night-time hours and often require a number of individuals with the right tools and transportation to pull off the heist.