When you come to TD Place for an event, whether it’s a concert, an Ottawa REDBLACKS or 67’s game, or something special, like The Links at Lansdowne, you expect the facility to be top-notch.

One of the people responsible for creating a great experience is the Manager of Facilities, Brian Giles.

“I oversee the trades department,” he explained. “Things like electricians, HVAC people, maintenance group, plumbers, skill trades, etcetera. If the lighting goes out, or a bathroom is blocked, I have the right people here to make necessary repairs.”

As you can imagine, Giles’ scope is quite large. Taking care of a stadium alone is intensive work, but throw an arena underneath the stands, and suddenly, it’s a whole different ballgame.

Not only that, but the two aren’t operating exclusively for the majority of the year. While there is rarely more than one game on any given day, there is plenty of overlap, meaning Giles must remain on top of things in both buildings.

That, of course, is a complicated task for anyone, but Giles says that it takes a lot of studying to be efficient with an aging building, where retrofitted equipment sometimes has funky quirks that you wouldn’t see in a new building.

With the additions of the Ottawa Charge and Ottawa Rapid FC, Giles has been asked to make changes to the building to best support the city’s newest franchises, on top of altering things to support the asks of the teams who have called TD Place home for many years.

“It’s very common around here,” Giles said. “What may have been suitable for prior coaches might not be the same for the group coming in. You’re altering spaces, sinks, paint, flooring, things like that to suit staff needs.”

Giles has left no stone unturned in his 10 years working with OSEG, which comes in handy right around now, with Lansdowne 2.0 being on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days.

Using his experience in the current building, he has been sharing his thoughts to make the unseen side of the new facility easy to work with.

“We see things in this building that are working, and things that don’t,” Giles said. “There are small things that can be altered or addressed to benefit his team.”

There’s a lot to do to get the stadium ready for a game, but Giles says that you can’t stress test everything like thousands of people can, and things come up. The key, however, is to act accordingly and solve any issues on the fly.

“We live by our radios,” Giles explained. “We have a basic checklist that we go through, and then we wait for the calls to come in, and we offer assistance to other departments as well.”

The owner of his own company before accepting his role at OSEG, Giles says he’s thankful for the leap of faith he took 10 years ago. “There are no regrets whatsoever, I love working here and I love the people I’m with.”

“I’m very fortunate to have the team I do. Everyone works together and gets along. Everyone brings their separate skill set.”

It goes without saying, but a big reason for the love he feels is helping put on a show, whether it’s on the ice, court, or field.

“I love sports,” Giles said. “It’s fantastic, whether it’s the different events we bring to TD Place, or the tenant teams, its all great.”

The first time he ever helped stage a football game stands out as a memory he’ll never forget, and something that brings an incredible amount of pride to him.

“My most satisfying moment was the REDBLACKS home opener in 2014,” Giles said. “It wasn’t because of the game, but because of everything we had gone through to get there. It was chaotic, we were running right up until kickoff, so to see the fans pile into the stadium to watch the opening night was amazing. The hard work that everyone put in was really cool to be a part of.”