May 03, 2010
Blue Jackets find $1m a year, still seeking $11m more
In case you've been wondering, the Columbus Blue Jackets are still looking for that lease bailout, but for now they'll have to settle for this: The team and Ohio State University have agreed to merge their booking and operations units for the arena, each saving about $1 million a year in the process.
"This could be an important step, but it represents only about a 10 percent fix to our problem," Blue Jackets president Mike Priest told the Columbus Dispatch. "If we have a $12 million problem and we fix it by $1 million, that's at least a step in the right direction."
Other steps the Blue Jackets owners could be seeking, according to the Dispatch: having the government take over the privately owned Nationwide Arena, and absolve the team of paying rent; having Nationwide, the current arena owner, accept a cut-rate buyout and pay for naming rights; or just Ohio giving the hockey team a bunch of tax money, like they're an auto company or something.
Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman cautioned that none of these ideas were close to becoming reality, saying: "It's not soup yet." You gotta love a mayor who knows his classics.
