The Best Seats
In The House

Located roughly 16 miles southeast of the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas is Henderson, Nevada, home to residents that work in and around Las Vegas who enjoy the lifestyle southern Nevada affords them. With beautiful Lake Mead to the east and nearly 40 miles of trails through the Las Vegas Valley, Henderson is a wonderful place to make a home and to live an active outdoor lifestyle.

It was here that we  were recently contracted to take on a project, a first for us in that area of the country. During the height of the pandemic, we were brought in by a design group out of the state of Florida who was in search of partners for a project in the region. Set at the Pinecrest Academy’s Cadence campus, the Florida design group had been involved in a number of projects for the school and was looking for an experienced partner for a big project.

Founded in 1967 in the Greater Toronto Area, Durham College is located in Oshawa, Ontario. The college currently has roughly 95,000 alumni and offers programming including business, information technology, media, art, design, general arts, science, skilled trades, justice, emergency services, health and engineering technology.

Having designed and built many bleacher systems for clients around the world, when large colleges and universities are in need of  large outdoor seating solutions, Sport Systems is always among the first contacts made. 

The midwestern region of the United States is often associated with open land, hearty meals, unique accents, and friendly, hard-working people. When it comes to education, however, the school systems in these states have historically been regarded as mediocre. Disproving this assumption, however, are the schools found in Valley, Nebraska.

Overlooking Lake Nipissing in northern Ontario is Nipissing University, a primarily undergraduate university recognized for smaller class sizes, unbeatable student living conditions and accessible support from faculty members.

Located in North Bay, the school reached out to us in late 2017 as they were in some preliminary discussions regarding the design of a new bleacher seating system and press box. Known for their athletic prowess in soccer, basketball and hockey (among others), the school’s athletic pride is green and black representing the Nipissing Lakes across the province.

Built in 1967 and currently serving approximately 750 students, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario offers a variety of enriching programming. By offering students a safe, structured and nurturing environment, the school’s student body is able to truly develop to their full potential.

A member of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, the board serves over 49,000 students across over 100 schools in southern Ontario. Serving as home to the Bulldogs athletics department, the school supports a number of sports and athletics programs which is where our team was commissioned to help out.

Located smack dab in the middle of the Keystone State is Juniata County and home to Juniata High School. Serving as home to the Indians, the school’s athletic programming is handled by Athletic Director Joe Skura and includes teams representing the school in cheerleading, baseball, basketball, soccer, football, tennis, track and field, wrestling and more.

Working with our partners at School Installers of Pennsylvania (SIPA), this exciting project was presented to us for evaluation. Given SIPA’s affiliation with the Co-Stars Purchasing Plan in Pennsylvania, SIPA was involved from an early stage in the development of this project.

Located in the world-renowned Niagara Escarpment, made famous by the towering waterfalls that have made the region so popular in both Canada and the United States, is Bishop Tonnos Catholic Secondary School.

Just north of the falls, the school is located in Ancaster, Ontario, a former municipality of Hamilton, which was one of the oldest European communities established in present-day Ontario.

Founded in 2004, Bishop Tonnos provides an excellent broad-based, balanced education to help young people grow to their fullest potential, with a deep-rooted focus on the Catholic Faith. While there is certainly a great deal of focus on academics, the school is also home to the Titans, who represent the school athletically in the community.

One of our most recent projects brought us to beautiful Brantford, Ontario, a city home to some very famous former residents.  Often referred to as ‘telephone city’, Brantford is home to the telephone’s inventor Alexander Graham Bell who invented the popular device at what is now known as the Bell Homestead National Historic Site.  It is believed that the first long-distance telephone call, from Brantford to Paris, was conducted in this location back in 1876.

Brantford is also made ‘great’ as the home of one of hockey’s all-time best players, Wayne Gretzky.  The “great one” was born and raised on his backyard rink in Brantford and he continues to be an integral part of the community to this day.

Photo: Our installation team lowering a customized press box atop a grandstand bleacher at Millennium Park

We’ve all been treated to the sight of a large-scale grandstand bleacher rising from an athletic field waiting to be filled with throngs of avid fans eagerly waiting to support their favourite team.  While these structures alone give us a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, nothing completes these marvellously engineered structures quite like a press box affixed to the upper portion of the stands. 

In addition to giving fans a comfortable seat and great vantage point for viewing their favourite sporting events, bleachers completed with a press box give timekeepers, staff and members of the press a hub from which they can operate. 

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.