This past Monday night, the Columbus Blue Jackets were eliminated from the NHL playoffs. Despite that, the city of Columbus may have received more exposure than it has in (non-presidential election) years.
Before the City of Columbus brokered a deal to partially fund the Blue Jackets’ Nationwide Arena with Columbus’ Hollywood Casino revenue, Columbus was in real danger of losing its hockey team. I’ve never been the biggest hockey fan in the world, but I never wanted that to happen because I feel it would discredit Columbus as a major city and as a city that deserves any kind of professional sports league. For some people, Columbus’ position as the nation’s “smallest big city” is a positive, but it’s always annoyed the hell out of me. It always irks me to travel to somewhere else in the country, say I’m from Columbus and have the person I’m talking to say “Columbus, where?”. I know that part of that comes from the fact that “Columbus” is associated more with the famous pillager and doesn’t have a strong identity, but you don’t get that kind of response from people if you say you’re from Cleveland. You’ll get other responses if you say you’re from Cleveland, but I digress…
This season brought the first overall feelings of goodwill to the Blue Jackets in years, rallying their base of loyal fans and drawing in the casual hockey fan
Because the city invested so much in keeping the Blue Jackets and because the team’s home games have had poor attendance as of late, this season’s success couldn’t have come at a much better time. The team was irrelevant for many in the city, and it wasn’t on the best terms with many people who they were relevant with because of the recent controversial arena deal. This season brought the first overall feelings of goodwill to the Blue Jackets in years, rallying their base of loyal fans and drawing in the casual hockey fan (like me) who just want to see a Columbus team to do well. This season also took another piece of ammunition away from those who constantly point towards the casino deal as a huge waste because the team it supports isn’t worthy of its benefits.
Game 4 of this season’s first round Stanley Cup playoffs series between Columbus and Pittsburgh was one of the top 3 sporting events I’ve ever attended in person. I’ve never been in a louder sports atmosphere, and I’m glad it was with the CBJ because I wasn’t the only one that took notice and it showed that Columbus is a city that can support a big-4 professional sports team. Being a Cleveland sports fan doesn’t create many opportunities to witness playoff games, so that added to the positives for me as well…
Questions/Comments? Shoot me a comment.
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Tonight’s Box Score: 27 points, 2 boards, 5 dimes, 3 Blocks, 4 Steals, 2 Turnovers.
Jeremy King Marketing 