New Baseball-Softball Outfield Fence Receives Patent Pending Status

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sacramento, California, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) April 5, 2011 -- Sacramento fencing contractor, Gary Siewert, received confirmation from the United States Patent and Trademark Office that his new portable outfield fence invention has officially received patent pending status. Siewert's invention, which he calls the “SportaFence”, is a highly versatile twist on traditional outfield fence designs, and may one day prove to be the new standard for multipurpose athletic fields.

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New Baseball-Softball Outfield Fence Receives Patent Pending Status

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http://www.sportafence.com

“The SportaFence is an expandable, highly durable, strong, tough, portable outfield fence that any baseball or softball-related sports activity can use at any level of play,” says Siewert. “It is designed to provide greater opportunity for athletes by turning single-use sports fields into multipurpose fields that can be used for a wide variety of sporting activities.”

Baseball may be the national pastime, but space-eating baseball and softball diamonds can often limit the ability of the facility that owns or runs the sports field to only one sport: baseball or softball. Because the outfield fence can't be moved, it gets in the way and doesn't allow for other athletic activities like football or soccer; nor does it allow for girls' softball because of the dimensional differences between softball and baseball fields.

Anyone who is familiar with school-age sports programs – be they players, coaches, parents or administrators – has usually experienced a lack-of-space dilemma at one time or another. And unless the school or athletic facility was extremely well funded or located in an affluent area, strange and unusual solutions and field configuration compromises are often the end result. A make-shift football field may be “squeezed” into the outfield, for example, or a soccer field may have an odd asymmetrical shape.

The other side of the coin is to have no fences at all or rip out existing outfield fences in the name of “fairness” to making room for the other sports activities. This solution does work as now there are no outfield fences to get in the way; but it generally is not a lot of fun for the baseball team as there is now no fence to hit the ball over for a home run, and a hard hit ground ball can easily turn into a “homer” if it gets past the outfield.

Some recreation and parks districts as well as a small percentage of schools have tried to deal with the space-crunch problem by installing synthetic turf. Many synthetic turn fields have the lines for various sports activities already pre-drawn onto the surface of the turf. Such fields can look very beautiful and modern, and in the long run there can be a real savings in terms of care and maintenance. But there is one major problem with synthetic fields: You can't puncture it or put holes in it without ruining the synthetic turf. As a result, if you wanted an outfield fence for baseball or softball, your choices of temporary outfield fence solutions were not very satisfactory.

In fact, this is how Siewert first stumbled upon the need for a SportaFence-like device in the first place. The city of Woodland was in the process of building their state-of-the-art multiple sports facility when they ran into a problem. Dan Gentry, the head of the Woodland recreation and parks district at the time, wanted an outfield fence for the softball games and tournaments that were to be played at the facility once it was completed. The problem was that the multiple sports fields at the new complex were going to be covered with expensive synthetic turf, and puncturing the surface of the artificial turf was simply not a viable option.

Gentry had spent a significant amount of time researching possible solutions to the synthetic turf problem but to no avail. He wanted an outfield fence that was portable and could be easily moved on and off the field in a short period of time; but he also was looking for something that was very strong and durable, operated for all intents and purposes just like a conventional outfield fence when in use, and most importantly, did not in any way damage the surface of his brand new turf. After searching far an wide across the nation, the solution to his problem turned out to be in his own backyard just down the road in the neighboring city of Sacramento.

Gentry and the city of Woodland put out an open bid hoping to find a contractor who might be willing to design and build what he was looking for since he could not find it on the open market. Siewert and S&S Fence has a long history of building various sports-related projects from tennis courts to baseball and softball diamonds, but this was the first time that he had ever seen this kind of bid specifications for an outfield fence.

“I knew of several kinds of temporary fence solutions that existed on the market, but Dan had already checked into those solutions and he really wasn't interested in that kind of thing – and I couldn't blame him as what was out there was pretty fragile and even unsafe,” Siewert recalls regarding the plastic and vinyl temporary outfield fences that most baseball and softball facilities resorted to in times of need. He did, however, feel that he could indeed design something that would fulfill the specifications called for in the bid. Factoring in all of the necessary elements, Siewert designed and built a prototype.

Siewert was uniquely qualified for designing and building a new kind of portable outfield fence. A lifelong sportsman and athlete, Siewert was a highly experienced baseball and softball player. This sports experience had been very useful to him when called upon to design and build other sports-related projects in the past. As a result, for the new portable outfield fence design, he had an immediate sense of what would work and what would not .

“After creating the initial prototype, we went through a series of different designs, but we finally came up with something that satisfied Woodland's needs in the area,” recalls Siewert. “It took some doing, but the end result was something I knew that I would be confident in if I were on the playing field and ran into it. The SportaFence turned out to be much tougher and -- in my opinion -- much safer than anything else that's out there. In fact, I would say that it is probably much safer than permanent outfield fences because the SportaFence 'gives' and has a certain amount of flexibility and a cushion-effect when you collide with it. That isn't the case with a permanent fence. And it definitely won't break apart like a plastic or vinyl outfield fence would. So I feel very good about it from a safety point of view.”

The basic design of the SportaFence is the expandable panel unit--generally 6 feet tall by 10 feet wide-- that can be connected together with other panel units, and has a wheel system built into each unit. The wheels retract once the SportaFence is in place and ready for use. This is the device that was manufactured and installed at the Woodland sports facility and it works like a charm. The SportaFence can be quickly and efficiently moved on and off the the playing fields very quickly using only a small crew. This has made Woodland a unique and dynamic multipurpose sports complex – at that time, the first its kind anywhere in the world – and, perhaps, a harbinger of the future of sports as cities and municipalities wrestle with dwindling resources.

“Woodland was very successful and has turned out to be a kind of 'showcase' for the capabilities of the SportaFence,” notes Siewert. “Everyone seems to love it – the city, the players, visiting teams – and I've been very happy with its performance as well.”

That was almost two years ago. Since that time, a sports marketing company, SportaFence Marketing Enterprises, and a manufacturing company, SportaFence, Inc., have been created, and Siewert has received and filled several orders from all across the country – including the prestigious Amateur Softball Association national headquarters in Oklahoma City, Okla. Additionally, sports field designers and architects from around the country are already starting to pencil in the SportaFence as the recommended outfield fence to be used – particularly where synthetic and artificial turf is involved. But success hasn't stopped Siewert from continuing to improve on his original; design.

“Our most recent patent application is a design that's meant to go head to head with the temporary vinyl and plastic outfield fences that currently exist on the market,” Siewert explains. “It has the same basic concept as the original SportaFence design, but we've purposely created a more economical and affordable version that we feel is far superior to vinyl or plastic.”

Although the basic SportaFence concept is the same, the design elements are different enough that a separate U.S. Patent has been submitted. The most obvious differences when compared to other temporary outfield fences are the toughness, stability, and relative strength of the design. In fact, as if to illustrate the point, there is a YouTube video of a girl making a spectacular catch in the outfield while simultaneously crashing into and flattening the plastic outfield fence during a high school softball game. How the girl who crashed into the fence didn't get seriously injured is something of a mystery, but according to Siewert, this just wouldn't happen with the SportaFence.

“There is just no way that the SportaFence would fall apart like that,” Siewert says in reference to the video of the girl catching the ball and smashing though the fence. “It's a great catch, but it is also dangerous. If there were the SportaFence, she could've gone after the ball, and if she collided with the SportaFence, she wouldn't have knocked it over like that. Ours may be a temporary outfield fence, but it is very, very hard to knock over when correctly configured.”

For more information email Gary Siewert at gary@fencing-contractors.com or call him at 916-682-1100. Or visit the SportaFence website at www.sportafence.com .

More information can be found online at http://www.sportafence.com

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