Nationwide Arena Articles
Nationwide Arena Articles
BLUE JACKETS FANS DON'T FLINCH AT PARKING FEES
November 30, 2000
Copyright 2000 MediaVenturesColumbus, Ohio has proven it's ready for major league teams and major league prices. Nationwide Arena opened this year giving the city its first major league franchise in the NHL Blue Jackets. Not only did the venue find a huge demand for premium seating, the fans are willing to pay premium prices for parking.
Parking spaces close to the venue priced at $10 to $15 fill up while others, priced at $3 only a few blocks away, are empty. Even free spaces within blocks of the arena are easily found on nights when the arena is active. Most of the high-priced lots belong to Nationwide, the company that developed the arena. Mid-priced lots, priced at $5 to $7, do a strong business, but still have room for more vehicles. There are 14,410 parking spaces within five blocks of the 18,000-seat venue with more on the way.
NATIONWIDE ARENA PLANS OUTDOOR VIDEO SCREEN
July 8, 1999
Copyright 1999 MediaVenturesFans on the outside of Nationwide Arena in Columbus won't have to miss out on the action inside. All they need to do is look up at the 16-foot wide, 9-foot tall screen planned for the building's southwest corner. The screen is part of a larger signage package designed not only to heighten interest in the arena when it opens next year, but to bring excitement to the entertainment district being developed around it.
The screen will also be used to tout upcoming events at the arena and other area attractions.
Sordid History
Nationwide Arena is built on land that will forever hold a place of infamy in U.S. historical pages.The Jackets' $150-million arena is located on a parcel of property that was the site of the Ohio State Penitentiary until 1984.
On Easter Sunday, April 21, 1930, 322 inmates perished in a fire that swept through the prison when guards allegedly locked down the facility, or at the very least, delayed opening cell doors, fearing a mass escape -- reports suggest the disaster started when an inmate set several fires to divert attention in a bid to escape.
Folklore has it that the grounds of the prison, which date back to before the Civil War, are haunted by those who perished.
An excerpt from Ghosts of the Prairie reads: "You can hear the roar of the phantom flames coming from inside and the horrible screams of men burning alive in their cells."
A Fox Network special that aired around Halloween raised some eyebrows with the tale of the supposed haunting, although it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
"I've heard about it, but I can't say I've experienced anything like that," said one Nationwide Arena nightshift worker.
The death toll makes the 1930 fire the worst disaster in the history of the U.S. penal system.
June 3, 1999
Copyright 1999 MediaVenturesConstruction of the Nationwide Arena is on schedule for opening next fall. Designers say they intentionally limited the number of seats in the venue so glass can be used to expose the bowl to a view of the city. The 18,500-seat arena will be the home of the NHL expansion Blue Jackets.
DETAILS RELEASED ON NATIONWIDE ARENA FINANCING
May 13, 1999
Copyright 1999 MediaVenturesWhen voters rejected a plan to build a new NHL arena in Columbus, OH, a complex financing plan was put together to help Nationwide Insurance build a privately funded arena for the new team.
While the $150 million, 18,500-seat arena is being built by the insurance company, the county's convention authority invested $11.7 million in buying land for the arena. It will get $150,000 a year back during the arena's first 10 years, $165,000 a year back from year 11 to year 25, then $165,000 plus an inflation adjustment through the arena's 50th year.
The payments will be made from the $3 million a year the NHL Bluejackets will pay annually in lease payments. After 10 years, the team's lease grows to $3.3 million and any agreed-upon increases.
At the end of 50 years, the convention authority owns the arena unless Nationwide exercises an option to buy it.
Developers wanted a 'fabulous' home for the Blue Jackets
By Steve Wright
Dispatch Development ReporterApril 10, 1998
Like a proud papa fawning over a newborn, Dimon R. McFerson admired the scale model of Nationwide Arena yesterday.
The observation, made by more than one wag at yesterday's unveiling at the Crowne Plaza, was both good-spirited and dead-accurate.
McFerson said Nationwide officials pushed the arena designers to create a building that fit the site both in appearance from the street and in the context of the district the company wants to develop in the area.
The Nationwide chairman and chief executive said they also wanted a unique building with views of "the Downtown skyline and the wonderful riverfront that's going to be developed in the near future."
McFerson emphasized that the building will be open and "extroverted," not cold and introverted."
During the unveiling, a video montage showcased arena-stadium traditions of Joe Louis boxing in Yankee Stadium, Toscanini conducting at Carnegie Hall, Carlton Fisk homering over the Green Monster at Fenway Park and Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games mark at Camden Yards.
Those memorable images at the historic venues segued into Nationwide Arena's "glimmering glass, shining steel and burnished brick," in the narrator's words.
Robert Woodward, Nationwide's chief investment officer and point man for the day-to-day development of the arena, said the building's architecture and form -- with spots for shops and restaurants along Nationwide Boulevard -- "will set the tone for activity not just on event nights but 24 hours a day.
"We also wanted something unique in the country, something with fabulous sightlines from every seat and views of the city from the inside and of the action from the outside," Woodward said.
"We wanted something far more than four walls in a field."
Architect Brad Schrock of Kansas City-based Heinlein-Schrock said Nationwide officials "constantly challenged us to think outside the box."
The prodding resulted in distinct features. An area that typically would hold a section of seats, for example, was cleared so visitors get a dramatic view upon entering.
"The main entrance on the east side of the building sweeps right into a big clearing where you can see right into the rink," Schrock said. "Hopefully, that will be inspiring to the first-time visitor and the season-ticket holder alike."
Inside, Schrock said, the effect is that of an atrium in a grand old train station -- where people in the lower bowl can look up at asymmetrical designs and unique features and people up above can marvel at the vast array of seating below.
The arena will have 76 suites -- 52 on the main luxury level, 16 on the press level and four each within two video-screen towers that flank the western end of the stadium.
The western end will feature the stage for most concerts and the "attack twice" end in hockey -- where the Blue Jackets will fire on the goal two of the three periods.
Heinlein-Schrock's George M. Heinlein said compelling views -- from the seats inside to various areas in the arena district outside -- are a key part of the design.
"From the Hyatt (Regency on High Street), you'll be able to see through the top glazed window area above the upper seating level down onto the ice," he said.
Other premium seats include 26 lodge boxes, 1,675 seats on the club level and 300 rinkside seats opposite the home-team bench and linked to a private lounge.
The overall capacity, Heinlein said, is 18,600 seats for hockey, 19,850 for basketball and 21,000 for center-stage concerts.
Harry C. Howell III, president of Sports Facilities Marketing Group, the agent for the arena's personal-seat licenses, said plans for premium-seat purchases will be released May 11.
Ticket pricing plus the cost of and method for converting deposits on personal-seat licenses into payments -- 11,000 PSLs have been ordered so far -- also will be unveiled that day.
McFerson said the Nationwide Arena model will be on display at various public places, including Columbus City Council chambers and the Franklin County commissioners' meeting room.
When it's not on tour, the model will be displayed at the Nationwide Arena marketing center, 77 E. Nationwide Blvd.
Glitzy party showcases state-of-the-art model
By Steve Wright
Dispatch Development ReporterApril 10, 1998
Y'all ready for this?
Graying men in dark suits jitterbugged like teen-agers at a dance while funky music thundered from loudspeakers yesterday.
As Columbus' newest celebrity took the spotlight at a glitzy coming-out party, the only thing missing in the crowd filled with movers and shakers was a golden throat roaring, "Let's get ready to rummmbllle!"
When the wraps came off, the star attraction couldn't smile for the cameras or say thank you for the raucous applause. But the model that caught everyone's eye was an immodest beauty, unafraid to strut its stuff.
The future Nationwide Arena: brick and glass. Lots of glass. Airy and open and framed in classic brick.
The features drew raves at the model's unveiling yesterday at the Crowne Plaza, where the atmosphere was an unusual mix of ballpark on opening day and debutante ball on a Saturday night.
VIPs entering the Downtown hotel were greeted with sodas, popcorn and other stadium treats. Inside the ballroom, music boomed and slick video rolled, setting the stage for Dimon R. McFerson, chairman and chief executive of Nationwide Insurance Enterprise.
While talking about the many things the arena will bring to Columbus -- from sporting, concert and entertainment events to a redeveloped area on the north end of Downtown -- McFerson often borrowed from the Field of Dreams theme: "If you build it, they will come."
Then McFerson, the man behind the arena, corrected himself: It's not if,he said, but when.
He emphasized that the arena will anchor an area where people will work, live and be entertained 24 hours a day. He reminded people that on April 20, Nationwide will unveil its plan for a development district much larger than the arena footprint, where a mix of shops, offices, restaurants, residences and more will rise.
Nationwide will break ground for the arena in late May.
The model drew the rapt attention of Columbus' policy- and deal-makers.
Michael Coleman, president of the Columbus City Council, lauded the design for its beauty and said the arena "will be wonderful for the families of Columbus."
John H. McConnell, founder of Worthington Industries and principal owner of the Blue Jackets, is recovering from hip surgery and missed the event.
Reached by phone at home, McConnell said Doug McClean, Blue Jackets general manager, National Hockey League officials and others working with the expansion team "love the arena."
"Our own practice area next to the arena is unique in the NHL and also great for the people who will use it during open skating," McConnell said.
"I like sightlines where, in effect, you have no bad seat in the house, and we're pretty close to that, I think. We have the luxury seats, but we're going to have some areas built in for the average guy."
Columbus developer Ron Pizzuti -- a minority owner of the Blue Jackets, the future lead tenant in Nationwide Arena -- said the facility is more than a place for events.
"Downtown Columbus will never be the same after this building is up," he said. "From the inside, you can see the city; from the outside, you can see the light and the excitement."
The light will come from both the myriad windows and the marquee decorative feature, a 135-foot brick light tower near the main entrance -- near the southeast corner of the arena at Nationwide Boulevard and Front Street.
McFerson said the beacon of light will be visible from miles away. By the time the arena opens in September 2000, McFerson said, he hopes the tower will be the exclamation point on a revitalized corner of Downtown.
Along with all the glitz and glamour, the arena model comes with a higher price tag. McFerson said the arena investors -- Nationwide (90 percent) and The Dispatch Printing Co. (10 percent) -- will be paying roughly $150 million, up from the early $125 million estimate.
"We couldn't do anything less than the best," he said. "We believe Columbus deserves a first-class facility."
Stadium's rescue buoyed Columbus
COLUMUS, Ohio - David Paitson remembers the morning of May 7 when it seemed as if Columbus, Ohio's NHL expansion bid was close to being pronounced dead.
The night before, Columbus voters rejected a sales tax increase that would have provided money to complete financing for a new arena.
"All I could do that day was just clean off my desk,'' said Paitson, president of the East Coast Hockey League's Columbus Chill. "(The expansion bid) was absolutely dead. There wasn't any other plan.''
That's why Paitson and fellow Columbus expansion boosters were overjoyed Tuesday to receive news that their city was among the four recommended for expansion teams, subject to owners' approval June 25.
"I think there was just a good group here who saw that the NHL was going to pass us by, and they weren't going to let that happen," Paitson said.
Nationwide Insurance funded 90% of the new $125 million arena, putting Columbus back on the favored list.
Made clear from the NHL's Tuesday announcement was commissioner Gary Bettman's pledge that no team would be admitted without a solid arena plan in place.
The NHL, looking to become more attractive as a television market, wanted Houston's attractive potential, but opted against that city when possible owners were unable to satisfy all of the league's questions about their arena situation.
The four new franchises all tap into fresh markets for the NHL. Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul are attractive television markets, while Columbus and Nashville allow the NHL to move into markets that has no NBA, NFL or Major League Baseball team.
Although Oklahoma City officials made what committee members said privately was ``an impressive'' presentation, the market simply wasn't big enough to make it in this round of expansion.
With this expansion comes realignment that will be phased in over a three-year period. The biggest change is that there will be three divisions in each conference instead of two. Eight teams from each conference will still make the playoffs.
One important change: the Toronto Maple Leafs, long wanting out of the Western Conference, will be moved to the Eastern Conference in 2002-2003, or 2001-2002 if the Columbus team makes the playoffs in its first season. Columbus will take Toronto's place in the Western Conference.
"You have to think about the league, before individual clubs,'' Red Wings vice president Jim Devellano said. "They (Columbus) are a good rivalry for us, but it's logical to put them in the East with Montreal, Ottawa and Buffalo.''
When realignment is complete, teams will play divisional rivals six times, other conference teams four times and each team in the other conference one time.
That means teams in the West will visit teams in the East only once every other year. If that schedule were in place now, for example, fans in New York would see Anaheim's Paul Kariya only once every other year.
But one feature of the new scheduling is that each team will have three extra games to sustain old rivalries. Meaning, for example, Detroit and Toronto or Toronto-Montreal could maintain their rivalry.
By Kevin Allen, USA TODAY
About $81 million is to come from private investors
By John Futty
Dispatch City Hall Reporter
June 6, 1997
Investors in a privately funded Downtown arena are counting on revenue from seat licenses and luxury suites to cover about 35 percent of the construction costs for the $125 million facility.
"If everything goes as we'd like, it would leave us with an investment of about $81 million," said Robert Woodward, chief investment officer for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., the lead investor in the plan.
Under the proposal, Nationwide would own 90 percent of the arena, with The Dispatch Printing Company owning 10 percent.
The 20,000-seat arena would be built on Nationwide Boulevard west of Front Street, and arena developers would be given an option to purchase the neighboring Ohio Penitentiary site from the city for fair market value.
The deal, approved Monday by the Columbus City Council, hinges on the National Hockey League awarding the city an expansion team.
Speculation from league officials who gathered yesterday in Detroit for the Stanley Cup championship series continued to identify the likely expansion cities as Columbus; Atlanta; Nashville, Tenn.; and St. Paul, Minn.
The Columbus franchise reportedly would begin play in 2000, the year the arena is expected to open.
Investors in the city's NHL bid, led by Worthington Industries founder John H. McConnell, are reviewing an arena lease proposal under which the team owners would operate the arena and collect much of the revenue from the building.
While the arena owners would receive revenue from seat licenses, a portion of the luxury suites and parking on the Pen site, the team would receive revenues from:
* Ticket sales, including the sale of premium club seats. A ticket surcharge would reimburse the Columbus Public Schools for lost property taxes.
* Concessions.
* Advertising and signage.
* Preferred parking inside or on the arena site.
Woodward said the arena is likely to contain 85 to 90 luxury suites. The 15 largest, most expensive suites would be known as the "founders' circle," with the revenue going toward arena construction. Revenue from all other suites would go to the team owners, he said.
The team would pay the arena owners a base rent each year, which Woodward declined to reveal, and a share of profits if revenues exceed a certain level.
Nationwide also would put its name on the arena and control the naming rights for any facilities or concourses within the building.
Woodward said the cost of suites and seat licenses has not been determined.
Dimon R. McFerson, chairman and chief executive officer of Nationwide, spearheaded efforts to privately fund the arena after Franklin County voters last month rejected Issue 1 -- a 0.5 percent, three-year sales tax for a Downtown stadium-arena complex.
McFerson met Monday with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in New York to discuss the arena proposal, then faxed details of the plan to him Tuesday.
"They understand that Ohio is a wonderful market without an NHL team," McFerson said yesterday.
He said Bettman didn't seem worried about the prospect of getting a lease agreement between Nationwide and the city's NHL investors.
"He asked if we were going to be able to work out a deal, and I said I believe we will," McFerson said. "I don't think that's a critical issue."
McFerson said the lease proposal "is structured in a reasonable fashion consistent with what has been done in other cities."
The NHL investment group reviewing the lease has become unsettled in the wake of the Issue 1 defeat, with McConnell seemingly taking the reins from Dallas-based sports entrepreneur Lamar Hunt.
Woodward said Hunt and McConnell both have copies of the lease proposal.
Hunt was in Dallas yesterday and did not return a phone call from The Dispatch. McConnell has declined comment on the ownership situation.
Columbus real estate developer Ron Pizzuti, who helped put the original investment group together, yesterday said he couldn't comment on who will remain with the group. But Pizzuti said he is likely to remain an investor.
The sale of seat licenses -- which give buyers the right to purchase tickets for all events in the arena -- was not part of the Issue 1 plan, but is seen as an important element in the private funding proposal.
Woodward said he isn't concerned that the Downtown arena will be competing with Ohio State University's Schottenstein Center for the sale of seat licenses, and perhaps luxury suites.
OSU has raised $15.2 million by selling more than 3,100 seat licenses for its new arena, under construction at Olentangy River Road and Lane Avenue. Following the defeat of Issue 1, the university also indicated the arena is likely to include luxury suites.
"The market is deep and we're selling two different commodities," Woodward said in reference to the competing luxury-suite and seat-license sales. "There are enough interested corporate citizens not only in Columbus but throughout the state for us to achieve what we're after."
Design work has yet to begin on the arena, but Woodward said it probably will be scaled back somewhat from the Issue 1 plan.
"Maybe we can cut down on the square footage and the number of concourses to save money," he said. "It will still be a first class building that Columbus will be proud of and people from around the country will want to come to see."
Columbus' hat is back in NHL ring
By John Futty
Dispatch City Hall Reporter
June 3, 1997
One month after a defeat at the polls seemed to doom Columbus' hopes of becoming a major league city, plans for a privately supported Downtown arena have put central Ohio back in the hunt for a National Hockey League expansion team.
And Peter Karmanos, the man who chose North Carolina over Columbus as the relocation site for his Hartford Whalers, said he'll be in there fighting for central Ohio.
"I'm all for Columbus, but I'm only one vote," Karmanos said yesterday from his office in suburban Detroit. "Certainly everybody was impressed with Columbus."
Karmanos is one of five NHL owners who will meet Wednesday in New York to consider expansion applications from investment groups in six cities. The group could emerge from the morning meeting with its expansion recommendations, which will be relayed to the full NHL board of governors for action.
The board of governors' next meeting is June 25 in New York.
Columbus is one of six cities being considered for as many as four expansion franchises. The league is expected to add two teams to begin play in 1998 or 1999 and two more for 2000 or 2001.
The Columbus arena is expected to be ready for the 2000-2001 NHL season.
Investors in the Columbus effort had said the city was all but guaranteed a team by the league if Franklin County voters approved a sales tax increase last month for a stadium-arena complex.
Mayor Greg Lashutka said league Commissioner Gary Bettman called after the defeat to express disappointment and ask if the city could find another way to pay for an arena. The expansion committee met May 9, but decided to delay action to give Columbus and several other applicants more time to address their arena needs.
The call from Bettman, Lashutka said, prompted the private arena effort that was approved by Columbus City Council yesterday.
League insiders now speculate that, if four cities are selected for expansion, they will be Columbus, Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., and St. Paul, Minn.
Nashville opened a new arena in December and the other three cities are finalizing arena plans this week.Yesterday morning, just hours before Columbus City Council approved plans for a $125 million privately built arena, the St. Paul City Council unanimously approved a deal to build a downtown arena using $95 million in state and city money and $35 million from prospective team owners.
In Atlanta, a plan to build a $140 million arena with taxable revenue bonds that would be repaid with arena revenues awaits a vote Wednesday by the Fulton County Commission. The commission is expected to approve the plan, which has the blessings of the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority and the Atlanta City Council.
NHL observers expect that the losers in the expansion derby will be Oklahoma City, the smallest market among the finalists, and Houston, which is coveted by the league but can't seem to put together plans for a new arena.
The league entry fee for any group granted a team is expected to be at least $80 million.
John H. McConnell, founder of Worthington Industries, is leading the Columbus investment group, but it is unclear whether the rest of the group, which made a presentation to NHL officials in January, remains intact.
Dallas-based sports entrepreneur Lamar Hunt seemed to distance himself from the investment group last month after Franklin County voters defeated the sales tax issue, which would have paid for a Downtown stadium-arena complex. Under that proposal, Hunt's Columbus Crew would have played in the stadium and Hunt Sport Group would have managed both facilities.
McConnell and Hunt did not return telephone calls yesterday from The Dispatch.
Karmanos, who found himself in competition with Hunt for the Columbus market while shopping the Whalers, said the city's NHL bid remains strong even without the Dallas-based investor.
"The important one is John McConnell," Karmanos said. "The league has a great deal of respect for him and what he has done for the community. He is the local guy that they see as important. He is a class person and the owners like him."
Whoever owns the team must reach a lease agreement with the owners of the proposed private arena, which will get 90 percent of its money from Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.
Robert Woodward, executive vice president and chief investment officer for Nationwide, said no lease discussions have taken place between Nationwide and the NHL investors, but he doesn't anticipate any problems in reaching an agreement.
More important, he said, will be whether or not the NHL grants Columbus a team. Under the proposal approved by council, there will be no arena without an NHL team.
Council OKs
arena proposal
By John Futty
Dispatch City Hall Reporter
June 3, 1997
Calling it a second chance too good to refuse, Columbus City Council approved a plan yesterday for a privately funded Downtown arena that gives the developers control of the neighboring Ohio Penitentiary site.
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. will put up 90 percent of the arena's $125 million cost, with the rest coming from The Dispatch Printing Co.
The city will cover the cost of road improvements and other infrastructure around the proposed arena site at Nationwide Boulevard and Front Street and grant the developers a 10-year lease of the old Pen site, with an option to buy the land at fair market value.
The city estimates that providing the improvements will cost $20 million, including extending Nationwide Boulevard through the Pen site to Neil Avenue. But Mayor Greg Lashutka said most of the work would be required even without an arena.
The deal comes nearly four weeks after Franklin County voters rejected Issue 1 -- a 0.5-percent, three-year sales tax for a Downtown arena-stadium complex.
The opportunity to develop the 23-acre Pen site was a key ingredient in the private package, said Robert Woodward, executive vice president and chief investment officer for Nationwide. "It's no different than any developer who would take a high risk with the idea of capitalizing on the ancillary development. That makes it a reasonable investment."
The project hinges on having the National Hockey League authorize an expansion team that would play in the arena.
"If there's no franchise, there's no deal," Woodward said.
Nationwide is not among the investors in the local NHL expansion group, which is being led by John H. McConnell, founder of Worthington Industries, but a major league tenant is seen as essential to the arena's success.
The NHL expansion committee could make its expansion recommendations when it meets Wednesday in New York.
That deadline prompted the private-funding deal, which was hammered out over the past week, and the hurried consideration by the council.
Lashutka and Council President Michael B. Coleman offered strong support for the plan, while expressing regret over the brief timetable that was established by the NHL expansion process.
"Certainly I would have liked to have had more time," Coleman said. "But at the end of the day, we have a window of opportunity that may very well close. This is a tremendous opportunity to privately -- and I underscore privately -- finance a Downtown arena and, in the future, develop the adjacent Pen site as well. I don't want that window to close."
Also voting in favor of the plan were council members Jennette Bradley, Peggy Fisher, Matt Habash, Richard Sensenbrenner and Les Wright. John P. Kennedy was absent.
City Auditor Hugh J. Dorrian made a rare, lengthy speech on the floor of the council to express his support. In response to concerns that the project was being considered in haste, Dorrian held up a stack of 10 arena-stadium-convention center studies that he said have been compiled since 1973.
"After all those studies, you would think we'd all be entitled to some advanced degrees," Dorrian said. "The point is, there has been much, much ground laid for these kinds of decisions far before this past week."
Five citizens expressed concerns or opposed the plan during the meeting. They included Barbara Hager, a resident of Neil Avenue, who said neighbors of the proposed arena continue to worry about the potential for increased traffic and other problems.
Bruce Yarnell, executive director of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation, urged the council to insist that private developers be sensitive to the historic buildings that remain on the Pen site.
Joe Motil, a former council candidate, and two Columbus residents who have proposed other ideas for an arena or the Pen site -- Richard Ohanian and Richard Rodney -- criticized the council for not seeking proposals from other developers.
Coleman said the city is committed to conducting a traffic study as well as taking other steps to review the impact of the plan on the neighborhood.
The developers have not made any decisions about the future of the five remaining Pen buildings, Woodward said. "Those buildings have to be looked at to determine whether they can be reused and whether it would be economically viable to do so."
For now, the plan calls for having the city complete an environmental cleanup of the Pen site, then for the developers to pave part of it as parking for the arena. Woodward said the parking revenues from the Pen site -- as well as a parking garage Nationwide owns across from the arena site -- would help subsidize the arena operation until the Pen site is developed.
The developers will have seven years from the opening of the arena to exercise their option to buy the Pen site. They would pay 20 percent of parking revenues to the city during the life of the lease.
Other key parts of the agreement:
The council declared the arena site, which consists mainly of surface parking lots in private hands, to be a blighted area to be acquired by the Franklin County Facilities Authority, which has eminent domain powers.
The authority will lease the land to the arena developers for 99 years.
The developers will set aside a portion of ticket revenues to pay the Columbus Public Schools for any property taxes they would have received at the arena site. Mark Higdon, who served as a co-chairman of Voters Against Stadium Taxes, said the proposal vindicates opponents of the sales tax issue who said the arena could have and should have been privately built all along.
"Either there was a Plan B all along, or this has been cobbled together in haste with the consequences unknown at this time," Higdon said. "Who knows if we have a shotgun wedding that we will regret down the line? It's amazing to hear the highest ranking city officials say that the NHL is calling the shots here."
Lashutka said there was not a Plan B before the election and that private support materialized only when NHL officials called following the issue's defeat to express continued interest in Columbus.
"This would not have happened without Issue 1," Lashutka said.
Private arena proposed
City Council's support sought at meeting today
By Mike Curtin
Dispatch Editor
June 2, 1997
Mayor Greg Lashutka will present to Columbus City Council tonight a proposal for a privately financed Downtown arena.
The $125 million arena would be built near Nationwide Boulevard and Front Street. The owners of the facility would be Nationwide Insurance Enterprise (90 percent) and The Dispatch Printing Company (10 percent).
Lashutka confirmed last night that he will outline the proposal at the 5 p.m. council meeting, and seek council support for a deal that would develop the site of the old Ohio Penitentiary and most likely win a National Hockey League franchise for the city.
On May 9, three days after Franklin County voters rejected a 0.5 percent, three-year sales tax for an arena-stadium complex, the NHL expansion committee delayed recommendations on expansion cities.
The committee meets again Wednesday, when it expects to know whether Columbus has a plan for an arena by 2000.
Besides Columbus, the 26-team NHL is considering Atlanta, Houston, Nashville, Oklahoma City and Minneapolis-St. Paul for expansion franchises.
The league is expected to expand by two teams by the 1998-99 season and by another two teams before the end of the century. The league's Board of Governors ultimately will decide which cities receive teams.
Working against that Wednesday deadline, Nationwide fashioned a proposal that has been under discussion for the past week with Lashutka, council members and other city officials.
Dimon R. McFerson, chairman and chief executive officer of Nationwide, said planning for a privately financed arena "began Wednesday morning (May 7), as I was looking out the window at that empty land and feeling that a golden opportunity had passed us by, and that there had to be another way.
"We are very sensitive to the lack of time; all parties are trying to move expeditiously," McFerson said. "We are mindful that this (NHL) franchise is there. . . . Without (the NHL), we have no arena.
"We are the largest top-50 city in America without a downtown arena. We need it for the vitality of Downtown. We need it for work force development. We need it to support so many other things we are trying to do Downtown."
The proposal would have:
* The council declare the arena site a blighted area, which would allow the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority to acquire the land.
* The authority provide a 99-year lease to the arena owners, with details of the lease to be negotiated. The owners would have an option to purchase the land at the end of the lease.
* The city provide road improvements such as the extension of Nationwide Boulevard to Neil Avenue, sewers and other infrastructure.
* The city clean up the penitentiary site to allow commercial development.
* The city provide a 10-year lease of the pen site, with an option to purchase the land at fair market value.
* The city receive 20 percent of gross parking revenues from the pen site.
* The arena site exempted from real estate taxes, although a ticket surcharge would be used to provide revenues to Columbus Public Schools equal to the amount the system would have received in real estate taxes.
* The arena owners obligated to work with the Riverfront Development Corporation on planning the development of the pen site.
The arena is projected to have about 19,500 seats for concerts and 18,500 for hockey.
City Auditor Hugh J. Dorrian said he has reviewed the proposal and will recommend its adoption by council.
"Council members are aware of my support of this," Dorrian said. "I think this is probably one of the most exciting proposals for the city of Columbus in terms of quality development for the Downtown.
"I am primarily motivated by the fact that one of Columbus' best corporate citizens would take the lead in development of this large area. I look at Nationwide and the quality development that they have completed over the last 20-25 years . . . I don't hesitate to put my faith in them.
"How many times have we heard people say, `Let those who will use it (an arena) pay for it.' Well, here's their opportunity to get an arena in Downtown Columbus with no new tax . . . (and) the (ticket) surcharge would make the schools whole."
Dorrian said he will recommend that the city's 20 percent share of parking revenues be used to defray the costs of cleaning up the pen site.
Council President Michael B. Coleman said he intends to recommend support for the plan. "It gets a quality developer and development on that pen site that has remained dormant and an eyesore for a very long time. And it gets Columbus an arena that is privately financed," he said. "It turns a blighted area of our community into a positive opportunity."
John F. Wolfe, publisher of The Dispatch, said The Dispatch Printing Company "has unswervingly supported a Downtown arena because of the economic development and quality of life it brings to a city."
"To be competitive long-term, we need to have these facilities. An arena will help our convention center, will spur continued Downtown development, and will strengthen our central core. Cities must have strong central cores to be successful.
"We were delighted when Nationwide asked us to partner with them to help make this possible," Wolfe said.
John H. McConnell, founder and retired chairman of Worthington Industries, said the NHL committee has approved him as an owner of an expansion team.
"Lamar Hunt had the original deal, and I was one of the investors," he said. "I told the commissioner of the NHL that if he did not pick it (a franchise) up, I would.
"We're pretty darn sure that we have it (a team)," McConnell said. "I think we have a good shot at it, but we have to have the arena."
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