Nationwide Arena

Nationwide Arena is a multipurpose arena in Columbus, Ohio, United States. Since completion in 2000, the arena has served as the home of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is one of two facilities in Columbus, along with Greater Columbus Convention Center, that hosts events during the annual Arnold Classic, a sports and fitness event hosted by actor, bodybuilder, and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Nationwide Arena
Address200 West Nationwide Boulevard
LocationColumbus, Ohio, U.S.
Coordinates39°58′9.42″N 83°0′22.00″W
Public transit 3, 6, 8, 9, 72, 74
CoGo
OwnerFranklin County Convention Facilities Authority
OperatorColumbus Arena Management
CapacityBasketball: 19,500
Concerts: 20,000
Ice hockey: 18,500
Construction
Broke groundMay 26, 1998[1]
OpenedSeptember 9, 2000
Construction cost$175 million
($275 million in 2019 dollars[2])
Architect
Project managerMiles-McClellan[3]
Structural engineerThornton Tomasetti[3]
Services engineerM-E Engineers[3]
General contractorTurner Construction[3]
Main contractorsBarton Malow[3]
Tenants
Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL) (2000–present)
Columbus Landsharks (NLL) (2001–2003)
Columbus Destroyers (AFL) (2004–2008, 2019)
Ohio Junior Blue Jackets (USHL) (2006–2008)
Columbus Wild Dogs (IFL) (2022–)

History

Nationwide Arena was built near the site of the former Ohio Penitentiary, which had an eastern border of West Street. The arena itself is built over the prison's former parking lot. The arena's parking lot and an apartment complex are built where the prison formerly stood. The arena was constructed in 2000.

On March 16, 2002, 13-year-old Brittanie Cecil was struck in the head by a deflected puck during the Blue Jackets' game against the Calgary Flames at Nationwide Arena. She died two days later, becoming the only NHL fan to be killed in a game-related accident. As a result of her death, the NHL mandated safety netting in all its arenas.

In May 2012, Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman made a pitch to the National Basketball Association (NBA) requesting an expansion or relocated team be moved to Nationwide Arena.[4]

Ownership
Arena bowl during a Blue Jackets game in 2007

The venue is named for the arena's original majority owner, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, whose world headquarters are located across the street. On March 30, 2012, arena owners Nationwide Insurance and the Dispatch Publishing Group sold the facility to the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority (FCCFA). As part of the sale, Nationwide agreed to lend the FCCFA $43.3 million to finance the arena's purchase which will be paid back by 2039 with casino tax revenue collected by both the City of Columbus and Franklin County. In addition, the Ohio Department of Development agreed to a 10-year, $10 million loan to the FCCFA to assist with the facilities purchase. If the Blue Jackets meet annual roster payroll requirement, $500,000 of this loan per year will be forgiven. Nationwide Insurance will also pay the Blue Jackets $28 million to retain the arena's naming rights until 2022 as well as $58 million to purchase 30% ownership stake in the franchise. The Blue Jackets, in turn, agreed to remain in the city until 2039 or pay $36 million in damages.[5]

Management

While the Blue Jackets held sole operational control of the arena from 2000 to 2012, the team contracted day-to-day operations and event booking to venue management corporation SMG from the arena's opening until June 30, 2010. On May 12, 2010, the Blue Jackets announced that SMG would not be retained as arena managers and further announced that a one-year, annually renewable, management contract had been signed with The Ohio State University.[6] The contract called for the university to take over both day to day arena operations as well as booking non-athletic events, with the Blue Jackets booking athletic events and maintaining overall control of the arena.[7] This arrangement made Nationwide Arena a sister venue to OSU's on-campus arena, Value City Arena. The university started booking acts in May 2010 and assumed day to day control of the arena on July 1, 2010.[6] As part of the 2012 sale of Nationwide Arena, the Blue Jackets and OSU joined with Nationwide Insurance and the FCCFA to form Columbus Arena Management (CAM). Columbus Arena Management currently operates both Nationwide Arena and Value City Arena and oversees budgeting and event booking at both arenas.[5]

Design

The arena is of a brick design and serves as the center of an entertainment district located about one-half of a mile north of the Ohio Statehouse. Seating capacity is approximately 18,500[8] for hockey, 17,171 for arena football, 19,500 for basketball, and up to 21,000 for concerts. The death of Brittanie Cecil from injuries sustained from a hockey puck flying into the stands at a Blue Jackets game on March 16, 2002 led to the installation of nylon netting to catch pucks that fly over the acrylic glass at all professional ice hockey arenas in the NHL, AHL, IIHF, and ECHL.

Location

The area surrounding Nationwide Arena, called the Arena District, is a mixed-use neighborhood developed by Nationwide Realty Investors featuring restaurants, bars, offices and residential buildings. The Columbus Clippers, a Triple-A baseball team of the International League, play in Huntington Park, also located in the Arena District and developed by Nationwide Realty Investors. Columbus uses the arena as a drawing point for the city with the other establishments feeding off of the foot traffic. The Express Live! concert venue adjacent to the Nationwide Arena property, completes the entertainment complex.

Facilities
Blue Jackets locker room

Nationwide Arena includes a smaller ice rink called the OhioHealth IceHaus, which serves as the practice rink for the Blue Jackets and is also used for youth hockey games and open skating times for the public. This facility made Nationwide Arena the first NHL arena with an on-site practice facility and, as of 2019, one of only four such facilities in the NHL, along with KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York, Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

Events

Sports
  • On October 7, 2000, the arena hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets' first game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Bruce Gardiner scored the franchise's first goal in the first period (which was also the first goal scored in the arena's history), but the Blackhawks won the game 5-3. Twenty days later, on October 27, 2000, the Blue Jackets picked up their first home win at the arena by defeating the Washington Capitals 3-1. [9]
  • The PBR's Built Ford Tough Series bull riding tour has held an event every year at Nationwide Arena from 2000 to 2012 (events prior to 2000 the event were held at the Ohio Expo Center Coliseum; there were no BFTS events in Columbus from 2013 to 2017 and in BFTS events since 2018 have been held at Value City Arena). It was the last event of the BFTS regular season (not counting the PBR World Finals) between 2000 and 2007.
  • The arena hosted first and second-round games of the 2004, 2007, 2012, 2015 and 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournaments
  • The arena hosted the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
  • On Tuesday, April 21, 2009, a record hockey crowd of 19,219 watched the Blue Jackets play their first postseason game at home, where they lost to the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings by a final score of 4–1 in a Western Conference Quarterfinal game.[10] They would eventually get their first postseason win at Nationwide Arena on April 23, 2014, against the Pittsburgh Penguins, by a final score of 4-3 in overtime.
  • The arena hosted the 2015 National Hockey League All-Star Game,[11] having previously been set for the 2013 edition that was cancelled due to the lockout.[12]
  • The arena hosted the second and third-round games of the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.[13]
  • The arena hosted the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions in 2016.[14]
  • The arena hosted the semi-finals and National Championship games of the 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament.
  • The arena has hosted multiple pre-season Ohio State University Buckeyes men's basketball and pre- and post-season Buckeyes men's ice hockey games when Value City Arena has been unavailable for use.
  • The arena also hosts the Ohio High School Athletic Association state championships for high school hockey.
  • The Blue Jackets set an attendance record for a home game on April 19, 2018 when 19,395 attended Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs.[15]
  • On March 11, 2020, the Blue Jackets announced that they would play all of their remaining home games in the 2019–20 season behind closed doors due to an executive order by governor Mike DeWine that banned public gatherings of 1,000 people or more inside the state, which was enacted in order to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.[16]
  • The arena is hosting all games of The Basketball Tournament 2020, a 24-team winner-take-all tournament with a $1 million prize, in July 2020.[17]

MMA
UFC 68 produced a number of attendance records for a mixed martial arts event. It was the first MMA event outside Japan to have at least 15,000 people in attendance. This record has since been outdone on a number of occasions, with the current holder being UFC 193 which had 56,214 people in attendance.

Professional wrestling

Concerts
List of concerts

Other events

Reception

ESPN The Magazine declared it “the No. 2 stadium experience in professional sports.”[23] The Ultimate Sports Road Trip rated it the best arena in the NHL saying "This newer arena in downtown Columbus is the anchor for the emerging Arena District, already burgeoning with shops, restaurants and hotels. The venue is spectacular, from its nostalgic brick and stone veneer to its sweeping concourses with blue mood lighting and modern amenities. The arena bowl has state of the art scoreboards and surround LED graphics boards which look 21st century high tech. With a separate practice rink built right in the facility, theme restaurants and great food selection, not to mention a raucous hockey atmosphere, this NHL venue is a must see!"[24]

gollark: And good luck getting hold of the chipset and such.
gollark: You... probably can't, yes.
gollark: Actually, ASRock probably has, knowing them...
gollark: > is there a micro atx motherboard for epyc cpusI don't think anyone has been insane enough to make such a thing.
gollark: Within 10 years or so 32-core epyc systems might come down to where, what, R710s are today.

References
  1. "2 Arenas in Columbus Boost Redevelopment". Toledo Blade. Associated Press. May 27, 1998. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  2. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  3. "Nationwide Arena Facts and Figures". SportsBusiness Journal. October 2, 2000. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  4. "Mayor Asks NBA to Consider Columbus". CBS Sports. May 11, 2012. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
  5. Caruso, Doug (March 30, 2012). "Taxpayers Now Own Nationwide Arena". The Columbus Dispatch.
  6. Pyle, Encarnacion; Joy, Kevin; Portzline, Aaron (May 12, 2010). "Deal Signed for OSU to Help Manage Nationwide Arena". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  7. Jurich, Jami (May 16, 2010). "OSU to Manage Schott, Nationwide; Ticket Prices Likely to Fall". The Lantern. The Ohio State University. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
  8. "Nationwide Arena Quick Facts". Nationwide Arena. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  9. https://www.hockey-reference.com/boxscores/200010270CBJ.html
  10. "Zetterberg Nets Two as Wings' Dominance Puts Jackets' Season on Brink". ESPN. Associated Press. April 21, 2009. Retrieved April 21, 2009.
  11. "Columbus gets 2015 All-Star Game". Espn.go.com. 2013-11-02. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  12. "The 2013 NHL All-Star Game and NHL Skills Competition Refund Policy". The Columbus Blue Jackets Hockey Club. December 18, 2012. Archived from the original on November 29, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  13. "2012 NCAA Tournament Schedule". ESPN. February 27, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  14. "2016 Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions takes center stage beginning Sept. 15". usagym.org. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  15. "Capitals even series against Blue Jackets in Game 4". nhl.com. April 19, 2018. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  16. "Blue Jackets statement regarding upcoming game schedule". NHL.com. March 11, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  17. Wynn, Sarah (June 30, 2020). "The Basketball Tournament releases game schedule for 24-team event at Nationwide Arena". WSYX. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
  18. "It's Official! WEC 47 set for Columbus, Ohio on March 6th". watchkalibrun.com. December 14, 2009.
  19. ""Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson" scores 7,123 attendance; Ohio return likely". mmajunkie.com. 2011-03-06.
  20. Johnson, Mike. "COMPLETE 2015 WWE PPV SCHEDULE". pwinsider.com. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  21. Ravens, Andrew. "Date And Location Officially Announced For 2018 WWE FastLane PPV". pwmania.com. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  22. "Tournament Info".
  23. "The Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, home of the Columbus Blue Jackets". HockeyArenas.com. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  24. "NHL Venue Rankings". The Sports Roadtrip. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
Preceded by
first arena		 Home of the
Columbus Blue Jackets
2000–present		 Succeeded by
current
Preceded by
Scotiabank Place		 Host of the
NHL All-Star Game
2015		 Succeeded by
Bridgestone Arena
Preceded by
American Airlines Center		 NCAA Women's Division I
Basketball Tournament
Finals Venue
2018		 Succeeded by
Amalie Arena
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