Toadvine Blog

As the new academic year swings into action, many student athletes will begin swinging bats and field hockey sticks, shooting basketballs and spiking the volleyball net. It is important as to be compliant as a school and an organization with state standards and regulations to ensure the safety and well-being of your students, school personnel and your loyal fans.

As an Athletic Director, you are responsible for overseeing and monitoring safety and compliance through regular inspections and proper upkeep, routine maintenance and keeping an awareness of changing regulations. By downloading our content offer, the Athletic Director's Survival Guide, you will receive key information to help you stay on top of legal and safety aspects of maintaining your facility, along with useful tips on extending the life of your school equipment, so that you can enjoy a maximum return on your investment.

At Toadvine Enterprises, we not only provide you with quality athletic seating and equipment options, we also care about safety. For more information on maintaining safety in your school equipment, check out our Vine and Branch program.

Severe weather and exposure caused a host of problems for South Point High School stadium in Belmont, North Carolina. After an intense inspection, the bleachers showed signs of distress from weather damage and were deemed unsafe. This determination threatened graduation ceremonies last year and cost the school district in excess of $500,000 to make repairs.

Regular inspections of those bleachers could have caught that damage before it became threatening to the safety of spectators and sports fans. Instead, an unforeseen inspection by the district's insurance company shut down the stadium for graduation and even created uncertainty that the repairs would be complete in time for football season to begin.

Kentucky and Southern Indiana also experience severe weather patterns similar to those in Belmont each season. We’ve had flash flooding, damaging winds, and severe thunderstorms. That severe weather could be bad news for outdoor sports equipment and grandstand seating.

In order to protect your facility's grandstand seating, Toadvine Enterprises not only provides and installs your grandstand seating, we also service it. If you have a question about the safety of your bleachers, contact us for a complete safety inspection. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

There are a number of ways you can get in touch with us and set up an appointment:

• Use our contact form online. We have a 24-hour guaranteed response system in place so you can be sure someone will follow up with you promptly.
• Fill out our maintenance and safety interest form.
• Give us a call at 502.241.6010.

We look forward to making sure your seating and equipment is safe and in good working condition.

Lacey Township High School officials in New Jersey never imagined the dilemma they would face on the evening of September 17, 2011 as a routine high school football game turned quickly into an investigation and the closing of a portion of the stadium. A game spectator broke through one of the stadium bleacher seats and although no injuries were reported, the stability of the stadium was in question and turned the future of Lacey Township High School upside down.

A thorough investigation followed and structural engineers were called in to evaluate the future of the stadium seating. With the stadium closed for investigation, school officials were left scrambling wondering how to remedy this situation. As with most small athletic programs, funds were very tight and extent of the pending repair work could be more than their small budget could accommodate. 

This scenario in New Jersey is not uncommon. Athletic departments and school districts choose where their limited dollars will be spent and often routine stadium maintenance is either overlooked or eliminated and most schools take their chances on the structural stability of their facility and opt out of spending money on routine bleacher maintenance. As with the officials in Lacey Township, this can be a very risky and costly decision.

Toadvine Enterprises offers guaranteed safety and peace of mind with our maintenace and safety inspection program for all indoor and outdoor seating and equipment. Certified and trained manufacturer technicians perform visual inspections of your facility and/or school equipment which includes a detailed report of any findings or actions that need to be taken. Toadvine can perform your annually-required maintenance inspection and can provide yearly contracts that work around your needs.  

To secure the safety of your school families and patrons, let Toadvine perform the maintenance necessary to keep your school free from physical injuries or accidents. Fill out our Maintenance and Safety Interest Form to get started. 

After six-year-old Toby Lee fell between a 13-inch gap between the footboard and the seat of a bleacher set at a community sports area in Minnesota and died of his injuries, legislators decided to pursue greater scrutiny in the area of bleacher safety. 

In 1999, after the the tragic death of Toby Lee, Congress petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue national safety standards for bleacher and grandstand facilities due to numerous injuries to children at basketball and hockey arenas resulting from falls between the gaps of bleacher seats and guardrails.

Congress stated in a letter to the CPSC that uniform national standards were needed to help efforts at the state level to prevent injuries and deaths due to poorly designed or out of date bleacher facilities. The recommended national standards to be implemented were to include:

• Minimum spacing requirements for gaps between bleacher guardrails and between seats and footboards for new construction

• Side and back safety features

• Guidelines for retro-fitting older facilities

Although Congress emphasized the importance of watchful parents during sporting events, they also stated the responsibility venues have to insure that their facilities are safe. The desire for safer facilities not only locally, but nationwide, created the desire to press for strengthening safety standards legislatively in order to quickly inact the establishment of safe bleacher standards.   

House Bill H.R. 836 was created in 1999 and entitled, “The Bleacher Safety Act” proclaiming that new and safer standards would be adopted within six months. Minnesota was the first state that required the issuing of this federal standard.

To help your school meet those required safety standards, Toadvine Enterprises has created Vine & Branch, a maintenance and safety inspection program for all your indoor and outdoor seating equipment. Our maintenance and safety program can help you maintain your required annual inspections and can also help you with any upgrades or written records. For more information on keeping your school bleachers safe, fill out our Maintenance and Safety form and a member of our staff will get back to you. Let Toadvine help you keep safety the name of the game.

Before the first buzzer of the game sounds and players begin to hustle on the court, they have been made keenly aware of the risks that go along with playing organized sports. Just as those risks are legitimate, schools and sporting facility managers are becoming even more alert to risk off the court. Great attention has been brought lately to the risk involved to spectators and fans sitting on the sidelines. More focus than ever surrounds the liability that sports facility owners and schools face due to faulty or stray equipment and accidents that can occur while attending a sporting event. 

In order to protect your school or facility against devastating injuries or accidents, strong consideration should be paid to obtaining liability insurance. Liability insurance in sports acts like an umbrella protection for everyone involved in the sporting event, including spectators who may get hit by a wayward ball or fall on your property due to an unstable bleacher issue.  

Besides the benefits of providing medical and legal protection if an incident should occur, liability insurance includes sports equipment insurance which gives support for repairs on equipment and facilities that may have been damaged during a game or practice. Facilities can request reimbursement for repairs or purchase brand new machines or equipment. 

The insured can also take advantage of this insurance to request repairs or renovations done on bleachers, fields, sound systems, lights, and food services. Liability insurance also covers repairs, renovations, and replacements on damaged sports equipment and facilities after a fire, flood, or earthquake. 

Insurance is often referred to as one step in the risk management process. By securing liability insurance for your sports facility, you are managing the probability that risk will come your way and taking steps to protect your employees, players, and owners from further damage.

Are your bleachers and stadium seating up to code? There are new requirements for bleacher safety, and any facility with bleachers and public seating (indoor or outdoor), must be inspected annually. 

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends the following bleacher safety guidelines: 

• Provide routine inspection and maintenance, at least twice a year, in accordance with the bleacher's owner's manual.
• Use only trained personnel to open and close bleachers following instructions provided in the owner's manual. DO NOT ALLOW STUDENTS OR UNTRAINED PERSONNEL TO OPERATE BLEACHERS.
• Install bleacher guard rails as a safety precaution and as an indication that the bleachers are fully extended.
• A licensed professional engineer, registered architect, or company that is qualified to provide bleacher products and services should inspect the bleachers and provide a written certification that the bleachers are fit for use.
• The option of replacing bleachers as opposed to retrofitting should be considered.

Toadvine Enterprises and Vine & Branch introduce a maintenance and safety inspection program for all of your indoor and outdoor seating and equipment. Vine & Branch is fully staffed with manufacturer-certified service technicians to ensure the safety of your seating. If you have not complied with your states regulations, you run the risk of having your facility closed. 

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) also requires that all outdoor grandstands and folding or telescoping seating be inspected annually by an engineer, registered architect, or manufacturer-certified inspector. It just makes sense to have your equipment inspected by someone who is an expert of that equipment. Call us today to schedule an inspection of your bleachers. (502) 241-6010