How to Choose Venue Seating for Sporting Events

A comfortable audience is a happy one (and will come back for more)

Spectators being comfortable at any type of sporting event is essential, of course. You want paying customers to enjoy the event and to come back for more. They'll only do that if they've been able to fully concentrate and enjoy the sporting event they've attended, without having to cope with an uncomfortable seat or other irritations, such as:

• Being unable to find their seat in the first place, due to poor seating numbering.
• Arriving at their seat to find it's dirty, cracked, ripped or even the wrong colour. Really. Try getting a footie fan to sit in a blue seat at a Man United or Liverpool home game, when all their mates have, of course, been allocated a red one! Colour does matter. It can add to aesthetical appeal as well as helping to reinforce club colours/branding.
• Not having enough seating space and leg room, once they've found their seat and sat down.
• Feeling that their seat is unstable and fixed insecurely to its base (e.g. a concrete bleacher).
• Getting wet or damp due to rainwater having pooled in their poorly moulded seat. Sure, plenty of sporting arenas are covered or can activate a roof in bad weather, but some aren't, making it essential that any rain water runs off a cleverly designed seat that can be quickly and easily wiped dry, if needs be.

Note: Most outdoor grandstand seating is plastic. For indoor venues, plastic, fabric or wooden seating are all options. Other irritations include:

• Having a blocked view (or partially so), and being unable to hear the performance properly due to a poor seat position.
• An example of a visibility nightmare is missing a match point or winning goal in the dying seconds of a game, simply because your view is blocked by a girder, pillar or other part of a ground's construction. Aargh! Spectators must have a full view of a whole pitch, court or playing field from whichever section of the venue their allocated seat is situated.

And:

• Arriving at a venue as VIP – or having paid for an executive match day package, for example – to find that their chair isn't higher grade than the rest of the stadium's seating.

All these irritations can be easily avoided by opting for a bespoke seating solution from a sports venue seating specialist. Of course, they won't 'just' look at seating design from a spectator satisfaction perspective, the venue staff will also be considered; after all, they're the grafters who'll be cleaning the seats before and after events.

Hard-wearing yet visually appealing seats will be designed and manufactured with durability, ease of cleaning and a clear numbering system all in mind.

Retractable seating – a REVELATION

Commonly known as telescopic seating systems, retractable seating systems can be tailor-made to suit a sports venue's size and layout perfectly.

Telescopic seating systems, also known as telescopic stands or telescopic platforms:

• Have the flexibility and ease of use required for today's demanding world of live sport
• Need no external equipment
• Can have motorisation built in
• Can be installed with FIFA & UEFA-compliant fold up seats in colours that blend into the arena or stadium environment. Whether seats are fold up or set, the height of the seat back usually allows your retractable bleachers to be closed without having to fold down the seats.
• Can be fully automatic – press a button and your venue is ready to receive the public. WOW. The fully automatic retractable stand system folds and unfolds the seats, railings and end panels (which are all telescopic).
• Can be complemented with a vertical system Master Lift
• Can be further enhanced by MASTER Industrie's innovative MASTER Eurêka system, providing even more mobility to its retractable seating, creating a new dimension in which the client can operate. By adding Eurêka, a retractable seating system can be configured differently as needs be at a venue, meaning that even more events can be held there, helping to boost profits and raise profile.

A stadium, arena and sports seating system that's fabulously functional

Installing a telescopic seating system (a custom-made structure) can increase a venue's capacity and event diversity, helping venue managers to maximise potential revenue. It's about getting spectators to return to your venue again and again. They'll do that if the seating is welcoming, comfortable, 'hassle-free', and their seating position offers enhanced sight and hearing at sporting contests.

Telescopic seating systems are built to last

A durable seating system isn't just about having plastic seats that are as super-strong as they're aesthetically pleasing. The platform structure needs to be highly resistant to wear and tear, as well as having the strength to withstand high impact. This is best achieved by:

• Opting for stainless steel, with a high quality welding process
• Coating frameworks with thermo-setting polyester paints, after some phosphating and degreasing operations
• Strengthening and steadying the entire structure by including telescopic platform decking designed with 2+ cm width treated timber plywood.

Job done!

Seeing is believing...

Take a look at this grandstand motorised retractable seating system at Le Havre (Seine Maritime), in northern France's Upper Normandy region, where the Seine River meets the English Channel. This is just one of numerous seating projects successfully undertaken by MASTER Industrie.