Detailed planning and careful evaluation of the different facility activities are needed when you are selecting a perfect arena dasher board system. The type of sports to be played, the spectator seating and the maintenance requirement will dictate the lay-out, quality, portability and heights your system needs. Below are some of the things you need to consider in the selection and design of your dasher board system.

Size

Nowadays, most facilities install large ice surfaces but you have to remember that the size of your ice surface is set by many factors. You should consider the rules of the hockey association that will be playing in your arena to help you decide on the size of your hockey dasher boards. Other things to consider are the type of events or tournaments that will be held in your arena, the size of the facility and the budget. These four items need to be reviewed prior to deciding on your arena dasher board requirements.

Flexibility

Flexibility needs to be considered before designing the facilities required for arena football, indoor soccer, trade shows, concerts and hockey programs. In addition, different arena equipment and arena products such as aluminum frames, overhead gates, soccer goal sections, lift-out concert gates, lift-off access gates, plastic or steel ice dam, goal judge boxes, board and glass carts, portable boxes and dasher board advertising may also be required.

Height

The height of the viewer's shielding is often times poorly addressed by most arena management. Most arena viewer's shielding focus on little direction. Most arenas also use heights of 8 inches on the end and 6-8 inches on the side. This is regardless of the number of spectators or viewers in the rink.

Support and Safety

Because of the many people going to the arena whenever a certain event is to take place, safety should never be taken for granted. Safety should be considered when making gates, wings and the overall facility. In the past, heavy arena equipment was used in gates, wings, rinks and the arena dasher boards. However, safety was often neglected as priority is placed in durability. Nowadays, facility managers have been more aware of the safety requirements their arenas should follow.

Installation

This is especially true when designing hockey dasher boards. A more preferred method of installation is the placement of dasher boards on a refrigerated and concrete floor. This ensures expansion and contraction of the dashers along with the ice surface. It is also important to consider the method of installation of the dasher boards for a better utilization of the sand floors.

The arena dasher board is a major part of an arena project. To most paying customers, the dasher board is the most visible and the most important thing they notice inside an arena. Above anything else, one should consider a design of dasher board that will provide long term of service with only minimum maintenance required.