I run a large basketball stadium in Melbourne. In Australia, domestic basketball is a yearlong sport, with breaks between seasons only occurring during the school holidays. As the basketball stadium is pretty much a big tin shed, you can imagine how hot it gets in summer. We have heat policies and what not for the players and spectators safety, but this doesn’t make the stadium any cooler. We also have a temperature gage inside the stadium and it displays the temperature on a big screen inside, however I’m pretty sure it’s faulty. I’ve walked into the stadium on a 30 degree day only to be hit with a wave of heat that has literally left me breathless. Despite all our safety precautions, I really don’t think the stadium is safe in summer.
The main problem is, we don’t have any fans or air conditioners inside the stadium, and we can’t even get any air flow because the windows physically can’t be opened. I’m no expert, and this is just a massive guess, but I’m predicting that to cool the stadium we’d need some sort of system that works off evaporating cooling. Melbourne stadiums in my area, I’m pretty sure, use this sort of system. But also I barely caught the name of the system they use so I need an expert to help me as soon as possible. I’m pretty much researching systems blind because of my lack of knowledge.
Part of the reason we didn’t install an air conditioning system when the stadium was first built was because we were worried about the upkeep. We also didn’t think it would get as hot as it does in the stadium and assumed the heat policy would be enough to deal with the problem. We now know we were very wrong. It turns out we’re going to have to put up with the inevitable services and necessary air conditioning repairs. Melbourne basketball has a very strict code of conduct and safety regulations, and we definitely need to adhere to them.
I guess it’s time I go and find the most cost effective and durable systems. I need them installed before the players come back from holidays.