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With snow flurries in the forecast, winter is upon us (most of us anyways) and with that comes the busy season in hockey rinks and ice surfaces across Canada and the United States.

As the fastest game on ice, hockey is also considered to be one of the most high-impact sports on the planet and with good reason.  In addition to quick-moving skaters and errant hockey sticks, the game is centred on a gliding puck that at times, can be travelling at over 100 miles per hour.

While the majority of hockey rinks are equipped with boards and proper spectator protection using heavy-duty glass, the risk of spectator injury in the game is still rising due to deflected pucks.  With up to 12 sticks being on the ice at any time, the risk for a deflected puck to clear the boards and head into the crowd was and is still, very high.  In fact, it was not until 2002 that the National Hockey League finally made a ruling stating that all ice surfaces were to be equipped with additional netting surrounding both goals above the height of the glass.

A new and rapidly growing sport has just touched down in Canada’s capital region as Archery Games recently opened Ottawa’s very first Archery Tag location. Archery Tag is a sport that resembles dodge ball, but without the balls. In this intense game, participants are equipped with bows and patented foam-tipped arrows.

Two teams are separated by a ‘safe zone’ and are equipped with specialized targets. Each team battles to tag opponents with their arrows and also knock out the five discs that make up the opposing team’s target. Much like dodge ball, players are eliminated once tagged with an opposing arrow, but are eligible for return when a target spot is knocked out or when one of their teammates is able to catch an opposing team’s arrow.

Our netting department is one of our most versatile product lines, with applications across a number of sports and general uses.

While we carry traditional sports netting such as hockey goal netting, soccer goal netting, volleyball netting and the like, we also provide our customers with completely customized barrier netting solutions. Our barrier netting solutions are also used in many sports applications, to reduce the risk of flying objects and protecting spectators and equipment.

Enclosing areas such as hockey rinks, tennis courts, golf driving ranges and fairways and baseball fields are a few of the most popular types of netting we design and install. This being said, there is never a one size fits all approach to netting as the barrier needs vary from sport to sport. To remedy this we carry three main varieties of netting, each designed to fulfill certain requirements for a particular application or sport.

It’s February, and Major League Baseball fans know what that means...it’s Spring Training time!

Our favorite MLB players have been working hard all winter long during off-season training.  Though they have been out of the sight of fans since October, our teams were always on our minds.  It is finally almost time again for nightly baseball broadcasts!

Spring Training is not just a time for Major Leaguers to suit up and take to the field for a new season.  It is also an exciting time for MLB fans to get a first glimpse of their favorite teams’ rosters, uniforms, batting orders, last-minute trades, and all sorts of surprises before opening day this year.

As we approach the start of the 2014 baseball season, it seems that Toronto Blue Jays fans in particular can hardly contain their excitement for the start of regular season games.  On January 31st, tickets for the Blue Jays home opener went on sale to the public, and on January 31st the tickets completely sold out.  

This winter season has been one for the record books.  The weather forecast has brought one polar vortex after another, sandwiched between bitter cold arctic blasts.  It seems like everywhere - even the southern US - has been buried with wintry precipitation this season.  Luckily, we will be rounding the bend into springtime soon enough!

After the Thaw

As many of us dig ourselves out of this particularly cold and snowy winter, it’ll soon be time to take to the fields again for outdoor sports.  The best way to shake cabin fever is to get outside and get moving.  With spring sports right around the corner, be sure your outdoor fields and nets will be ready to receive the warm-weather rush.

Extreme winter weather like this certainly takes its toll - on our sanity as well as our sports equipment!  Outdoor nets and goal posts are often left out in the cold during the off-season, allowing for a great deal of winter wear-and-tear. 

All of this arctic moisture can sneak into cracked paint, causing extensive rust damage on goal posts.  Not only is rust unsightly, it can compromise the structure and safety of your goal posts as well.  The wet winter weather along with biting winds rips at sports netting, often making them brittle and weak.  Once the damage of winter is done, netting is more susceptible to holes and tears.

Be Prepared!

Before eager athletes reclaim the field from Old Man Winter this spring, invest in quality goal systems that will last.  From goals and nets for soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey to football and rugby uprights, Sport Systems has the long-lasting gear you need. 

Our goal posts and frames are sand blasted and powder coated for a chip-resistant finish, preventing against rust-causing moisture damage.

Knotless nylon netting can absorb the blows of athletic equipment as well as the winter wind.  Our quality sports netting installs in a snap, making it an simple part of spring field maintenance.  

A common question as most of us can recall a time or situation where we have seen both the diamond hung design as well as the square hung design with regards to netting. Here are a couple of ways to tell the difference, and the advantages to each:

Diamond Mesh

Because of the way this mesh is hung, it drastically reduces the amount of netting needed to cover a certain area, and hence, can often be the less-expensive option between the two. This being said, there are also problems that arise from hanging your net in this fashion.

Diamond hung meshed nets do not typically hang as straight, and it’s pattern will often cause the netting to be pulled in from the sides. This design often is equipped with poorer seams as well. The main reason for this being, the rope border has to be sewn diagonally across the meshes, which leaves an irregular net border to sew to.

Sport Systems provides essential services and products for a wide range of sports venues and athletes. From the moment your order is placed until it is delivered, (even returning for annual inspections and check-ups), Sport Systems is proud to serve the facilities that make people happy by keeping them active. But our mission doesn’t stop there; our goal is to serve the community as a whole, including those in the stands as well as on the field.

While it is readily apparent how our sports equipment systems serve athletes of all sorts, from peewee to pro, it might be easier to forget how much their biggest fans appreciate having Sport Systems behind the scenes of their favorite sporting event.

When spectators roll up to to see their favorite team play, they are relieved to find a secure, galvanized steel rack to secure their bike outside the facility. With a wide variety of design options and an array of customizable features, bike racks from Sport Systems satisfy the need for form and function.

Sports netting and more importantly the material it is made out of is subject to a variety of tests before it is put to use in its chosen application. In the sporting world, we see this applied with golf cage, batting cage and barrier netting applications.

Testing the strength of the net is done in a couple of different ways; break strength testing and burst strength testing. Here we will explain the differences between the two types of testing.

Break Strength

In its simplest form, break strength testing determines the how much tension a strand can endure before “necking”. Necking is simply when the material’s cross section begins to bend significantly. Basically identifying the materials tensile strength by pushing it to its limits is what is accomplished by using Break Strength testing.