With the CFL season on pause, it offers the opportunity to shine a light on some of the heroes within the Blue Bombers organization. Carol Barrott is the first in what will be a series giving the spotlight to our hard-working employees.

“Good afternoon, Winnipeg Blue Bombers… this is Carol speaking. How may I help you?”

If you’ve ever bought season tickets, game day tickets, or spoke with fan services at a Winnipeg Blue Bombers game, there’s a good chance you recognize her voice.

Carol Barrott is the Manager of Ticketing and Fan Services for the Bombers, but her history with the club goes way back. She’s been a season ticket holder since 1970 and has seen the team win four Grey Cups (1984, 1988, 1990 and 2019).

She was already retired when her late brother, Robert, approached her in 2005 to start volunteering with him as part of the Bombers’ Fan Ambassador volunteer program. She started working part time, moved to the ticketing department and it turned into a full-time gig when the team moved to IG Field in 2013.

She graduated nursing school in 1973 and worked for McDonald’s marketing department in the ‘80s before retiring.

Barrott will be the first to tell you she loves to talk, and she said that’s exactly what she gets paid to do now.

“Working in ticketing I still have that opportunity in the offseason to talk to fans and you really connect,” said Barrott. “Most people like working for a sport team because of the players and the coaches, and don’t get me wrong I do as well.

“But it’s the fans and the relationships that you develop and nurture, and you celebrate their personal successes, whether it’s becoming a grandfather, having a daughter get married, grandma’s first grandchild, that kind of stuff you celebrate because they become family.”

Season ticket pickup day is Barrott’s favourite day of the season because she gets to see the fans and it means the season is starting.

Barrott calls the fans her ‘Bomber family’, but that family started long before she was working for the team — it started when she became a season ticket holder 50 years ago.

She’s kept her season tickets ever since, even if she wasn’t living in Winnipeg at the time. Barrott would give her tickets to her brother and get him to take their parents to the games.

Barrott’s seats were in section W at the old stadium and a lot of people from their section made sure their seats were together when the team moved to IG Field.

“We were able to maintain that relationship and that string from one place to another,” said Barrott. “So, a lot of us have grown up together, we’ve celebrated weddings, birthdays, unfortunate passings of parents. My mom is 95 and she still comes to all the games, she’s very happy at the start of the season because she gets to see what she calls her ‘Bomber boys,’ the guys she’s sat beside for years.”

The 50 years of building relationships with the fans is why Barrott said the recent Grey Cup victory will always be the most memorable for her. A lot of season ticket holders she’s developed relationships with over the years have never seen the Bombers win a Grey Cup and she was at the game in Calgary to see some of those fans see it for the first time.

“I’ve always felt a little guilty having seen them win but watching it through their [the fans] eyes, it was pretty cool,” said Barrott. “I mean, I was happy for the guys and the coaches, but it’s the fans I was happiest for.”

Barrott is now working from home and social distancing like many others during the COVID-19 pandemic, but even at home she’s still thinking of the fans. She said she’s excited to see their faces when the 2019 Grey Cup banner is raised and when the players get their championship rings.

“There are a lot of things to look forward to, so the sooner we can beat down this thing, the sooner we’ll be able to share all this stuff with our fans,” she said.

Barrott said she misses doing the extra things at the stadium that aren’t necessarily in her job description: helping people pick out gifts at the team store and showing tourists the beauty of IG Field.

Selfishly, Barrott said she can’t wait for the pandemic to be over because she’s a hugger.

“Shaking hands is great, but there’s nothing that’s going to beat a hug from Bob Irving, Doug Brown, or any one of the fans that walk into the store and I haven’t seen in a while,” said Barrott. “I’ll know the world’s back to normal when I can go out and hug.”

Working the 2020 CFL season wasn’t originally in the cards for Barrott, she said she told herself she’d retire after the Bombers won a Grey Cup.

“I know we won it, but I’m not ready to retire yet… I don’t know whether I could walk away right now, it’s really hard to leave.”

So, for now, if you’re buying tickets or asking fan services a question, Barrott will be there to take care of her ‘Bomber family.’