Senior Facilities Maintenance Technician Ian Varo has been an important piece of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group team for the last 10 years. His skillset and expertise continually help make TD Place a premier sports facility and destination.

Ian was first hired on a contract basis but quickly moved to a permanent role. Primarily responsible for the painting you see throughout the facility, Ian is now the Senior Maintenance Technician, which also involves assisting with various repairs.

Like anyone else who works in the building, sometimes Varo is called upon to do things that are outside of his normal scope, particularly on the day of an event.

“There are bits and bobs that we’re asked to do when we work in events,” Varo said. “You might do some minor plumbing or some other minor stuff that might be out of your scope, but you have to get done, and you learn as you go.”

“A normal day here isn’t really normal, because one project just comes after the other,” Varo said. “One project just starts before the last one is finished, and often, you have to prioritize each job. Then, there’s regular maintenance.”

Working with a building the age of TD Place, fixing things isn’t always a straightforward procedure. When it comes to painting, Varo says it was a convoluted process throughout the entire building to even redecorate the walls.

“Most of the painting here was done with oil paint,” Varo detailed. “That was a challenge when we were repainting, because you can’t just paint water-based paints over oil paints. They all had to be specially primed with oil primer and then repainted with water-based paint.”

For all of the hard work, Varo’s love of sports brought him to OSEG in the first place, and that candle of passion has kept alight for the past 10 years.

“The attraction of the sports here was the primary thing for me at the beginning,” Varo said. “I grew up with football, as I call it. Once I learned that a pro team was coming here and I was going to have the chance to work here, it was like manna from heaven, and coming to see the Fury in the first couple of years was just one of the best experiences.” Varo highlighted, “I even got the chance to meet two giants of the game, Liverpool legends Bruce Grobelaar and Sir Kenny Dalglish!”

Having grown up in Rotherham, England, it’s soccer that piques his interest the most. For him, the opportunity to contribute to the Atlético Madrid organization, even in a small way, is a cool experience that many will never have. “They’re one of the top 15 teams in the world, so having that kind of backing was amazing,” Varo said.

Varo additionally credits the Ottawa REDBLACKS for creating some of his most fond memories at OSEG. From the exhilaration of winning the Grey Cup in 2016 to clearing snow from the field in preparation for hosting the 2017 Grey Cup, he has treasured every experience along the way.

If the sports themselves weren’t enough for Varo, the team he works with keeps him coming back every single day. He says his boss is the best he could ask for, and the crew as a whole is a blessing.

Simply put, there’s nowhere he would rather be.

“I guess I’m coming to the twilight years of my working life,” Varo said. “I hope to be here through Lansdowne 2.0 being built, and to see the 67’s win a Memorial Cup. That’s all I want to achieve. I want to be here when that is done and see it.”

“I’m happy coming here. I love being around sports, the work is so miscellaneous and eclectic that you never get bored. Every day is a different challenge, and it might look repetitious, but it’s not. Every job is slightly different, and they have to approach it differently.”

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s easily the best place I’ve ever worked in my life, for sure.”