The Best Seats
In The House

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.

As we progress into the spring and summer months, our scope of work transitions into one of the larger parts of our business; full-scale bleacher seating systems and grandstands. These structures are a beautiful sight at any football or sports field or stadium and look even better with throngs of fans cheering on the home team.

One of our first outdoor bleacher projects of the season was the design, manufacturing and installation of a large bleacher grandstand and stand-alone press box for St. Joseph Scollard Hall Secondary School, part of the Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School Board.

The school was looking to acquire seating to accommodate around 500 spectators with press box for use with upcoming athletic events to be held at the school.

When we were awarded the job, our design team quickly got to work designing and manufacturing what would be two 10-tier and 40’ long banks of elevated bleachers and one bank of 3-tier 16’ long non-elevated bleachers which would end up seating approximately 510 spectators.

Located just a couple miles north of Trenton, Ontario, lies the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Trenton, operating primarily as an air force base by the Royal Canadian Air Force. Opened in 1931, CFB Trenton is now a major hub for tactical and strategic airlift aircraft and a major training institution. The base is home to the Canadian Forces Land Advanced Warfare Centre (CFLAWC), formerly known as the Canadian Parachute Centre (CPC) and the Canadian Army Advanced Warfare Centre (CAAWC).

The CFLAWC is now known as the “Centre of Excellence”, embodying thirteen different parachuting courses, including aerial delivery, mountain operations, rappelling, patrol pathfinder and all parachute rigger qualifications.  

Over the past decade, there have been some much needed changes and updates applied to major legislation here in North America regarding accessibility for people with disabilities. These changes have paved the way for facilities to create environments that go well beyond simply retrofitting a physical location with wheelchair access.

These changes take into account those living with disabilities by allowing all participants and spectators equal access to our sports equipment and infrastructure, providing a safe and inclusive environment for all.

Ramps, Landings Stairs and Guard Rails

These are obvious areas of concentration when converting an existing bleacher system to meet current requirements or designing a new bleacher system. Ramps are designed to provide adequate space and access to those in wheelchairs or scooters and should be equipped with a slip-resistant coating and provide ample protection along edges.

The larger the property and the greater number of venues on it, facility operators are presented with the challenge of providing spectator seating where and when required. While it is possible to install bleachers at each and every venue, for many budgets, it just simply is not a feasible option.

Transportable bleachers provide a solution to this problem, as they can be easily hitched to a maintenance vehicle and towed to the selected location. These mobile bleachers are available in 5 and 10 row heights and are safely equipped with chain link guardrail systems when configurations exceed 5 rows in height.

In the event, however, your facility did not initially purchase a mobile bleacher system, we do have a unique solution to quickly retrofit your existing bleachers into a safe and easy-to-move transportable seating system.

Effectively converting your existing bleacher seating into a mobile seating solution involves two bleacher tow kits; a bracing kit and a wheel and tongue kit. Here’s how they work: