Event Centre manager bringing professional sports experience

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This article was published 16/10/2023 (590 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Southeast Event Centre has employee number one, as Jeffery Bannon has been hired as the building’s manager.

Bannon is no stranger to important jobs in sports. He worked as the director of marketing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as they opened Investor’s Group Field in 2014 and closed CanadInns Field.

Before taking the job at the Event Centre, Bannon was the Edmonton Oilers’ director of retail operations.

“I really learned the larger sports scene,” Bannon said, noting Edmonton has had some of the largest sales of any NHL franchise over the past few years.

“It doesn’t hurt when you have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl as the top two jersey sellers in the world. It wasn’t rocket science, but we did a lot of creative things.”

Before those high-profile sports stops, Bannon spent years working at various restaurant chains and retailers, including acting as a training liaison for McDonald’s in western Canada, opening an Old Navy store, managing multiple Tim Hortons at the same time and running a Canadian Tire store.

“The NHL was all about business, and all about dollars and cents, and that’s the high-profile stress of working in professional sports,” Bannon said.

“At the end of the day my heart was back here… I’m a Manitoban. That’s who I am, and who I want to be.”

Bannon was tempted back to Manitoba by his family, as his son plays for the Manitoba Bisons and his daughter just graduated high school. He also is the current commissioner of the Winnipeg High School Football League.

“My heart is home,” he said.

“Sometimes a pay-cheque is not a pay-cheque, and when I saw this opportunity, it was somebody read the entire job description of my life.”

Bannon said the transition from managing and being a part of big teams to being the lone employee at a job has been an odd one, although that will soon change as the building becomes closer and closer to reality.

“It’s a lot of planning, it’s a lot of meetings,” he said.

“It’s just not hockey. I have to learn arts and entertainment, I have to learn the trade show business. I’m meeting with people from wrestling to agricultural fairs, to concert promoters across North America. It’s about learning the process.”

The South East Event Centre will be positioned well to attract some top acts outside of sports, as it will seat between 3,500-4,000 for concerts, a unique setup for Manitoba.

“It’s understanding where we fit in, that’s the biggest thing,” Bannon said.

“You have to make the right decisions, for example, between Coke and Pepsi. It doesn’t make a difference for what I like, it’s what’s best for the community, what’s best financially for the centre, what’s best for us to grow in a partnership.”

Decisions like that go well beyond what kind of soda the Centre will feature, as every aspect of the experience inside the building is currently under consideration, a challenge as most places have those decisions and connections already in place.

“The other day, I kid you not, I woke up in a sweat like, ‘take out bags, what size of take out bags do I need,’” Bannon said, laughing.

“I went to a restaurant we took dessert home. I don’t see it as a normal customer now.”

Bannon said he feels a responsibility to perform for the community. He’s even continuing to learn, taking time away from a event/festival course to answer the call for this interview.

“When people come to this event centre, I want them to leave and go ‘woah,’ and not just because they’re walking out and it’s minus-40,” he said.

“The residents of Southeast Manitoba deserve this, and I think they’re going to be proud of it, and I’m very honoured to be the first person involved.”

Bannon’s history of opening a premier facility at the University of Manitoba in the new Bomber stadium provided lessons he’s taking into the South East Event Centre.

“In the best way, I learned what not to do,” Bannon said, laughing.

“Opening day my mom was caught on a bus on the way there, so I’ve heard all the stories… Now as a fan when I go there, it’s amazing now how you see people navigate.”

The next step for Bannon and the South East Event Centre is to start hiring for other positions, which is expected to start early in 2024.

Finally, Bannon wasn’t able to commit to a timeline for when the facility would open, but said he would be keeping the community up to date as construction progressed.

“I use the term world class, and I mean that with every fibre of my heart,” Bannon said when talking about the future of the centre.

“This will be a shining example of events centre in the future across this province.”