New Budweiser GM excited about venues future, and ‘confident’ in new partnership with Ticketmaster

Budweiser gardens switching to Ticketmaster General Manager Kelly Austin excited about renovations, however the venue is also switching to Ticketmaster. CTV’s Reta Ismail reports.

The new General Manager of Budweiser Gardens says she’s excited about the venue’s future, which incudes a significant renovation project that will be completed in two phases.

“When customers come into the building after this summer, they're going to see a brand new score clock at the center, which is really exciting for when they're coming for (London) Lightning or (London) Knights games," explained Austin. "They're also going to have a totally different experience when they visit our concession stand. So we're going away from that traditional belly up counter style and more to a market grab and go self-checkout.”

Austin began her career with the venue in September 2009 when it was still the John Labatt Center as a marketing coordinator, and said she worked her way up to director of marketing and prior to her current role, she was the assistant GM.

Austin hopes the new renovations help elevate customer experience and reduce line ups, getting people “back into the action as soon as possible.”

“Phase two of our renovations, which is going to be next summer, is what's going to expand our back of house. So we're not expanding our capacity, but we're expanding the space we offer to artists and to major sporting events or something like the Juno's back of house space,” explained Austin.

She added they are trying to keep up with what other new venues are doing and hopes to keep the standards in place that patrons have become accustomed to.

However, Austin is taking over amid a switch to Ticketmaster, one of the most controversial companies in entertainment.

“As of Monday, we switched our ticketing platform over to Ticketmaster. Our contract, with our previous ticketing company was up as of June 30th. So we did go through a competitive bidding process and in the end, Ticketmaster was the one that we felt offered the strongest platform for both ourselves and our customers,” said Austin.

When asked how the venue would ensure fair ticketing through the new vendor, Austin said “ we looked at all aspects of the ticketing platform when we were going through the process and we are confident that Ticketmaster is going to be great for this facility and great for our customers.”