Arena #11 - Nationwide Arena

My mission is to see the Flames play in all 30 NHL arenas, a mission that began in October of 2005 while at a local pub watching the Flames take on the Oilers. With the previous season’s work stoppage, and the season before’s run to the Stanley Cup Finals, Flames tickets had become a very hard item to come by. I was then struck with the idea of combining two of my favourite activities; watching hockey and travelling. You can follow my quest to visit all 30 arenas right here…

March 18, 2008 – Columbus, OH

A game against the Blue Jackets in Columbus was the final stop in a trip that had already seen games in Washington DC, Atlanta, and Chicago. We left Chicago on Monday afternoon, giving us plenty of time to make the five hour drive to Columbus. The game itself took place on Tuesday night, and I killed time that afternoon at the Jack Nicklaus Museum on the Ohio State University campus. If you’re ever in Columbus, and a fan of Nicklaus or golf, I’d highly recommend a stop there.

Nationwide Arena is in downtown Columbus and part of a new entertainment district called, quite fittingly, the Arena District. The Arena is the focal point, and the plan is to one day have it surrounded by restaurants, bars, and shops, but right now it is still in the development stages, with only a couple of facilities nearby. One of these, a pub called O’Shaughnessy’s, was no more than 50 paces from the main entrance to the arena, so we headed there for a pre-game beer. Much like Dutton’s in it’s proximity to the arena, O’Shaughnessy’s is a great place to head for a drink before the game. Unlike Dutton’s however, it was empty, even though puck drop was only a little over an hour away. When it cam time for the doors to open we headed over to see the arena.

Entering through the main doors of Nationwide, there is a large three storey atrium with floor to ceiling windows facing outside, and the concourse is open to the rink and seating bowl on the other side. We began our walk around the building to see what it had to offer, and went to find our seats. We had purchased tickets in section 219, which was the arena’s “All You Can Eat Seats.” For $30 each, we received tickets in the 200 level and a wrist band for unlimited concessions, which you could redeem at the concession booth right next to our section. Unfortunately this did not include beer, but it did included pop, hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, nachos, candy, and ice cream.

After getting our wrist bands, and a couple of dogs, we headed back to the main concourse to continue walking around. There are a couple of unique features in Nationwide Arena on the main level. First off, there is a full practice facility on the east side of the building, which includes a full sized rink and seating for 1500 people. It is not only used for Blue Jacket practices, but can also be rented out for tournaments or rec leagues. From the concourse you can see the facility through large picture windows. On the other side of the concourse, facing the rink, there is a large Civil War-era cannon, which is fired every time the Blue Jackets score. This answers the question of what exactly is a Blue Jacket. I thought it might be some kind of insect, but it is in fact a Union solider from the Civil War, hence the cannon.

As we were finishing our lap of the concourse we were approached by a man and woman in Flames jerseys, who asked us where we were sitting. They had driven to Columbus from Hamilton and had purchased their tickets on eBay. It turned out that he had bought four tickets in the third row behind the Flames’ bench, and as there was only two of them, had planned to give them to the first Flames fans they saw; which happened to be us! The new seats would be farther away from our all-you-can-eat section, but I’d never sat behind the bench like that, so I was willing to make the sacrifice.

As puck drop neared, we made another run upstairs to our concession stand and picked up some hot dogs, nachos, and candy for our new friends from Hamilton. When we arrived at the seats in our new section, 104, we immediately saw the upside and downside of the seats being so low and behind the bench. The proximity to the bench meant you could see more of what’s going on behind the scenes, so to speak. We could see the coaches tapping the next players to head out, and observe all the interaction between the players during play. The downside was, we couldn’t really see much of the game, as there were people standing on benches, five feet in front of us. As a result, we ended up watching much of the game on the jumbotron. Fortunately, we didn’t miss much, as this turned out to be probably the worst performance I’d ever seen by the Flames in the post-lockout era. The Blue Jackets dominated every aspect of the game, and ended up winning 3-0. It was a terrible end to what turned out to be a terrible road trip for the Flames.

After the game, as a result of needing to get back to Calgary, we left Columbus, and began the drive back to Toronto. We ended up spending the night in Ashtabula, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie. If you only get one vacation a year, make sure it isn’t to Ashtabula, the kind of broken down town next to the Interstate, that if it weren’t for a couple of gas stations, a few motor inns, and a couple of restaurants, would cease to exist. The next morning, we were up at the crack of dawn, to finish the drive to Toronto. When we arrived at the car rental drop off, the trip odometer read 4,998km; only two off from my pre-trip prediction of 5000! Despite the Flames’ poor performance, it was still a great trip, where we were able to not only see four hockey games, but a lot of the country that we had never seen before.

The Washington-Atlanta-Chicago-Columbus Trip by the numbers:

4,998km driven
8 Nights
14 States
7 State Capitals
4 NHL arenas
10 Flames’ goals
14 Goals Against
1 Win
3 Losses
7 Stops at White Castle/Krystal


Eleven arenas down, nineteen to go…


-TheRev

Nationwide Arena Fast Facts

Seats: Section 218; $35, all-you-can-eat seats; Ticketmaster
Score: Flames 0, Blue Jackets 3
Arena Rating: 7.6
Unique Concession: All-You-Can-Eat Seats
Souvenir Stick: Blue Jackets, blue, wooden
Public Transit: unknown
Unique Arena Trait: Practice rink in the concourse, goal cannon
Swag: none

Photos