![Bleachers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Bleachers.jpg)
Bleachers (North American English), or stands, are raised, tiered rows of benches found at
sports
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...
fields and other spectator events. Stairways provide access to the horizontal rows of seats, often with every other step gaining access to a row of benches.
Benches range from simple planks to elaborate ones with backrests. Many bleachers are open to the ground below so that there are only the planks to sit and walk on. Some bleachers have vertical panels beneath the benches, either partially or completely blocking the way to the ground.
Name origins
The open seating area in baseball was called the "bleaching boards" as early as 1877.
[ The term "bleachers" used in the sense of benches for spectators can be traced back to at least 1889;][ named as such because the generally uncovered wooden boards were "bleached by the sun".][
''The Dickson Baseball Dictionary'' lists as a ''secondary'' definition the fans sitting in them. By the early 1900s, the term "bleachers" was being used for both the seating area and its occupants.
In modern usage, the term "bleachers" almost always refers only to the seating area, and those sitting there may be called "bleacher fans" or "bleacherites". Terms such as ]Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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's "bleacher bums" or Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...
's Bleacher Creatures
The Bleacher Creatures are a group of fans of the New York Yankees who are known for their strict allegiance to the team and their fierce attitude towards opposing fans and teams. The group's nickname was coined for the first time by '' New Yor ...
are also used.
Types
Bleachers structures vary depending on the location, but most outdoor modern bleachers have either an aluminium tube or steel angle understructure (known as frame-type bleachers) or steel I-beams (known as an I-beam bleacher). Most smaller bleachers are frame-type bleachers and most larger bleachers are I-Beam bleachers. Bleachers range in size from small, modular, aluminum stands that can be moved around soccer or hockey fields to large permanent structures that flank each side of an American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
field. Some bleachers have locker rooms underneath them. In indoor gyms, bleachers can be built in so that they slide on a track or on wheels and fold in an accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
-like, stacking manner. These type of bleachers are known as telescoping bleachers.
Baseball
In ballpark
A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...
s, the bleachers are usually located beyond the outfield fences. However, center-field bleachers are located in the line of sight of the batter, and the presence of fans makes it difficult for the batter to pick out the ball. As a result, most stadiums have vacant areas or black backgrounds where the seats would be. This is known as either the "backdrop" or the batter's eye
The batter's eye or batter's eye screen is a solid-colored, usually dark area beyond the center field wall of a baseball stadium, that is the visual backdrop directly in the line of sight of a baseball batter, while facing the pitcher and awai ...
. The old Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...
featured black-painted vacant bleachers, nicknamed "the black" by baseball fans.
Many ballparks, especially those in Minor League Baseball, offer only bleacher seating. In those that offer both seats and bleachers—such as in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
—the bleachers are typically in less desirable locations and/or have lower ticket prices, giving the term "bleachers" a connotation of lower-class seating.
American football
The popularity of American football has made seating on outdoor and indoor football fields a necessity. Professional football, colleges, high schools, and even middle schools have bleacher systems set up to accommodate their fans. Bleachers vary in size from wide, seating 25, all the way to full stadiums that seat thousands and wrap around the entire field.
As one example of their dimensions, Crystal Lake South High School
Crystal Lake South High School, often referred to as "South" or "CLS," is one of three high schools in Crystal Lake, Illinois, and currently has a body of roughly 1916 students. As Crystal Lake's second oldest school, it was constructed from 1976 ...
in Illinois built some football bleachers that were about high. American football bleachers are commonly made from concrete or aluminum with concrete footings or superstructure underneath.
In popular culture
*Bleachers feature in the film Grease, during the song “ Summer Nights” (shot at Venice High School in Venice, California
Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California.
Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed b ...
).
*Bleachers are mentioned in the song "White Moon" on the album Get Behind Me Satan
''Get Behind Me Satan'' is the fifth studio album by the American rock duo the White Stripes, released on June 7, 2005, on V2 Records. Though still basic in production style, the album marked a distinct change from its guitar-heavy 2003 predecess ...
by the White Stripes
The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums with ...
.
*Bleachers are also mentioned in the song “You Belong With Me
"You Belong with Me" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her second studio album ''Fearless (Taylor Swift album), Fearless'' (2008). Swift wrote the song with Liz Rose and produced it with Nathan Chapman (record prod ...
” on the album Fearless
Fearless or The Fearless may refer to:
Psychology
* Lack of fear
* Courage or bravery
Film, television and audio Film
* ''Fearless'' (1978 film), an Italian film directed by Stelvio Massi
* ''Fearless'' (1993 film), an American drama directed ...
by Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...
*Bleachers are also mentioned in the song "Highway 61 Revisited (song)
"Highway 61 Revisited" is the title track of Bob Dylan's 1965 album ''Highway 61 Revisited''. It was also released as the B-side to the single "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" later the same year. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked t ...
" by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
See also
* All-seater
An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in professional association football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most association football and Ame ...
* Mobile bleacher
A mobile bleacher or portable bleacher is a type of bleacher that can be moved to different locations to fulfill a need for temporary or reconfigurable seating. Some units incorporate a built-in hydraulic or electric actuation system for raising a ...
* Grandstand
A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...
* Terrace (stadium)
A terrace or terracing in sporting terms refers to the standing area of a sports stadium, particularly in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It is a series of concrete steps, with intermittent safety barriers installed at specific loca ...
* The gods (theatrical)
The gods (UK English), or sometimes paradise, is a theatrical term, referring to the highest areas of a theatre such as the upper balconies. These are generally the cheapest seats. One reason for naming the cheapest seats "the gods" is because t ...
* Nosebleed seats
In the United States, Canada and Australia, the nosebleed section are the seats of a public area, usually an athletic stadium or gymnasium, that are highest and, usually, farthest from the desired activity. Also known as the O’Connell section. ...
References
{{Authority control
Nonbuilding structures
Outdoor structures
Sports venues