Crowd Safety on and off the Court at LBSU
Since 2020, our site visit opportunities have been limited to Salt Lake City and surrounding areas. We’ve missed getting out in the field to see our products doing their work, so with the re-emergence of FestForums in Santa Barbara, CA (a long time partner of OTW Safety) we headed down to CA as event sponsors – the perfect excuse for some long overdue site visits to see our crowd barricades in action!
First stop? California State Long Beach Athletics Department!
Marina, CRO, and I (Becca), Brand Manager, met up with Marshall Welch, the Athletics Department Facilities Manager, for a tour of the facilities. Immediately, we were greeted by neatly stacked black crowd barricades in the Walter Pyramid gymnasium.
Crowd barricades serve a variety of purposes at LBSU. Primarily, they are used as a method of crowd control during volleyball and basketball games. To generate additional revenue, the athletics department sells the advertising space on both sides of the barricade.
In order to save time on transport, setup, and breakdown, the athletics department has divided their crowd barricades into indoor and outdoor barricades.
At the outdoor track, Andy Sythe, the Track and Field Director, waved us down and offered to show us their yellow outdoor barricades. While they served the LBSU track & field team, sand volleyball team, and baseball team well throughout the years, they kept running into one issue time and time again.
Andy explained that the paths guiding spectators between fields are very narrow. When event attendees are in the crowded chute, the likelihood of tripping over barricade feet is more of a risk. He wanted to know if it would be possible to swivel the feet inward but still maintain their stability. We had the answer!
Here’s the fix:
One barricade at a time, swivel the feet inward as if you were prepping to stack the barricades flat. Once the feet have been swiveled inward, insert a PVC pipe or stake through the interior receptor (not the receptor used for interlocking barricades – see below) and into the ground.
By staking every other barricade’s interior receptor in the continuous wall, you will achieve a stable wall with absolutely no tripping hazards!
This is why site visits are so valuable.
These visits provide us with new insights… insights we can share with you. One of the major benefits of seeing our products at work in their new homes is getting to know our customers’ needs better – where we might need to improve… and where we’re exceeding expectations! Andy explained that the barricades are great for providing directions at big games and track meets but they were stumped when it came to the barricade feet. We were able to provide a simple, cost-effective solution that now ensures that all individuals at LBSU games or meets will stay safely on their own feet!
We don’t make it to every site where our barricades are hard at work, but we’re always happy to hear about your experiences with our products. Reach out via phone or email if you’re struggling for a solution like LBSU or to let us know how well OTW crowd barricades have been working for you!
