This article is a smokescreen. The Dispatch wants to force Penn National Gaming to fund the public purchase of Nationwide Arena. The article has no new data of any kind, nor has there been any for a year. The Blue Jackets are not crying poor, nor are they asking for any kind of "bailout." They would like to reclaim the several million yearly in lost luxury suite revenues and get the ability to sell the arena's naming rights.
This would be a total non-issue if someone in power would actually call Ohio State on the garbage that they've pulled.
For those who aren't familiar with it, the early 1990s saw Columbus in need of an arena. The ECHL Chill played out of the Fairgrounds Coliseum, which sat less than 10,000, and Ohio State's campus housed St. John Arena, which held 13,000 and was falling into disrepair. There was plenty of back-and-forth, since the possibility of NHL expansion down the road was also a factor. The pro-OSU faction wanted a new arena built on their campus and a restriction on the ability to build a competing venue (thus forcing a primary tenant to pay huge amounts of rent to OSU), while the pro-sanity crowd was fine with renovating St. John with the possibility of replacing it only if there was no way to get an off-campus arena built.
Construction began on Value City Arena (on the OSU campus) with two stipulations:
1) They could not have luxury suites, and
2) They could not host non-NCAA or non-OHSAA (high school) events
Value City Arena has 52 luxury suites, and they host between 35 and 50 non-NCAA and non-OSU events every year. They've been able to get involved in bidding wars against Nationwide Arena, meaning that Nationwide either loses the event or loses money on a booked event. Value City Arena can do this, since they have theoretically unlimited coffers (namely the taxpayers of Ohio) to indirectly fund this chicanery. If someone in power would actually put OSU's feet to the fire, this crap would end real quick and there would never be another word about the Jackets being in any type of trouble. Period.
Your post is mostly accurate but there are some inaccuracies. There supposedly was a deal between OSU and the legislature around luxury suites and non-OSU/OHSAA functions. This was not contractural but rather a negotiated informal agreement between OSU, the Ohio Legislature and the City of Columbus.
As far as competing for events, that is no more. The Blue Jackets contracted with OSU to manage both facilities. Today they pretty much split events and there is no more competition over attractions. The nice part is that as a Blue Jackets PSL holder, I get the opportunity to buy tickets for any events in BOTH arenas long before they go on sale to the public. OSU isn't really the bad guy, it's sort of more like a certain Winnipeg supporter says, since there is no public contribution of any kind to this arena, and there were no deals for free land, Nationwide Insurance wants a fair return from their investment. The rent amounts to a 4.5% annual ROI, which is fair. Unfortunately, when many teams get subsidies it's difficult for the Blue Jackets. Even the Maple Leafs got essentially free land for the ACC, TNSE got $40 million for the MTS Centre, and then look at many cities where the local government owns the arena.
Wow, that's terrible. As a Badger fan it just gives me another reason to hate Ohio State.
OSU isn't so much the bad guy as a convenient scape goat.
2 teams vs 4 or 5? not really a comparison.
I can't tell you the count but the Blue Jackets are not on the list of teams in trouble. In fact, this past season they made a measured decision to forgo a significant part of revenue sharing by signing player contracts that took them past the mid-point. Does that sound like a franchise in trouble?
I sort of wish they were getting ready to move. I'd love to see this franchise keep this ownership, this management and hockey operations and move to some supposedly "hockey mad" city, then see how beloved they are and what attendance looks like after ten more seasons of futility.
The Blue Jackets want to get on the same subsidy gravy train that is so common today in the sports business. I think what really galls the Jackets is that the Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Cavaliers and Cincinnati Reds got stadia paid for by the taxpayers.
Think about that, the Blue Jackets are the ONLY "major league" team in Ohio that didn't get a facility paid for by taxpayers. The Columbus Dispatch is a minority owner in the team and they are beating the political drum to force casino interests to be good neighbors and pay a tax to allow the city to buy the arena.
