Workers of many trades, disciplines keep Bell MTS Place running

A group of Grade 6 students from Clifton School recently got to meet the people behind-the-scenes who keep Bell MTS Place running year-round.

This is the second year that teacher Antonio Di Geronimo brought students to the entertainment facility as part of his class’s yearly community heroes project.

“This is basically showing students professions that aren’t your typical jobs,” Mr. Antonio said. “I want them to see the hundreds of jobs and workers behind-the-scenes that make those few hours of a game or concert possible.”

Students got to meet many skilled workers during their recent tour of the facility: engineers manage the on-site ice plant; carpenters, welders and maintenance workers who keep the building running; a master chef and crew of culinary arts staff that keep the Jets, Moose, various celebrities and patrons attending the facility well-fed; IT and computer technical staff that manage on-ice production and coordinate with the various broadcast media in attendance; and more.

Despite working in a venue with many star attractions passing through, Mr. Di Geronimo impressed upon his students how focused Bell MTS staff are on their own part of the facility’s day-to-day operations.

“In class, we talk a lot about hard work, we talk a lot about attention to fine details and working with an end goal in mind,” Mr. Di Geronimo said. “A lot of the people here have done exactly that. They’ve started from the bottom and worked their way up.”

Ed Meichsner, Vice-President, Facilities Operations for True North Sports and Entertainment, gave Clifton students a personal tour of Bell MTS Place.

A perfect example of that career trajectory is Ed Meichsner, Vice-President, Facilities Operations for True North Sports and Entertainment. Mr. Meichsner began his career in facilities operations in 1980, working part-time at the now-demolished Winnipeg Arena.

One aspect that has helped Mr. Meichsner along his career path is finding role models along the way.

“When I first started out, my mentor was Bud Korne, he was a hardworking guy who knew how to do everything. He placed a very hard emphasis on customer service. The fan that comes to the building is our customer, we have to treat them well, they have to have a good time and we have to make sure they are safe,” Mr. Meichsner said. “We don’t have control over what happens on the ice, but we have control over how that fan feels when they are in our facility.”

That philosophy has stuck with Mr. Meichsner as he progressed into his role at True North Sports & Entertainment. He cites his Kevin Donnelly, True North’s Senior Vice-President of Venues & Entertainment, and True North President and COO John Olfert as mentors that he continues to aspire to.

To give you an idea of how many staff can work at Bell MTS Place for a given event, during the recent WWE RAW live telecast,  the facility had approximately 1,200 staff working operations, concessions, kitchens, security and other areas. That’s in addition to a few hundred workers involved in setting up and tearing down rigging, staging and lights for the event, post-event cleaning staff and WWE’s own event staff.

As managing such a large-scale facility can have its own unique challenges, building managers draw upon each other’s experience and expertise when it comes to problem-solving.

“Us building managers in the NHL are closely connected. It’s a pretty good network…we’ll often ask questions back and forth, about how someone dealt with a certain big event, or even things like washroom turnaround times. We converse back and forth often.”

Mr. Meichsner has a Clifton connection, as all three of his children attended school there—including daughter Olivia, who is currently in Mr. Di Geronimo’s class.

“I’ve never seen behind the scenes what happens here, I’ve only seen shows and Jets games,” Olivia said. “I’ve never knew how much work goes into making those happen.”

At the moment, Olivia hopes to one day transfer her love of horses into working with an animal rescue. She said students should have many chances to learn about the jobs out there in the world.

“It’s important for people to see these different kinds of jobs,” she said. “You never know what you’ll be interested in unless you go out and learn about them.”

Mr. Di Geronimo’s class have plans to do a similar tour of the Burton Cummings Theatre, which is also owned by True North Sports & Entertainment.

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