Who would pay for Blue Jackets’ billionaire owner’s $250m arena subsidy: a FAQ

Not sure if this is a sign of how few readers here care about the Columbus Blue Jackets, but when I wrote on Friday that the team owners are “receiving $200 million in state money plus $25 million each from the city and county,” nobody pointed out that this is still just proposed by the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, not yet approved by city, county, and state legislators. Apologies for the misconstrual, but now that we’re here, let’s take a closer look at what exactly Ohio taxpayers are being asked to spend on the Blue Jackets. Want to do it in FAQ format? Sure, that could be fun:

What are the Columbus Blue Jackets?

Wow, really starting with the basics, huh? Okay: The Columbus Blue Jackets are an NHL team that plays in an arena in Columbus, Ohio. It was built with private money in 2000 — not team money directly, mind you, but money from Nationwide Insurance and the Columbus Dispatch, repaid by the team in rent — and widely seen as a successful example of a sports venue that didn’t require public funding. Until, that is, the team owners negotiated a bailout in 2011 where public money was used to exempt the team from the whole “having to pay rent” thing, so now it’s just another publicly owned facility where the team owners keep all the revenues.

Who is the team owner?

John P. McConnell, a billionaire who worked his way up from a laborer at a steel plant to chairman of the company, with nothing to help him except his dad owning the place.

Why are they asking for arena money now?

Nationwide Arena is 25 years old, and its locker rooms aren’t glamorous enough anymore. Also team execs want to create “new spaces for fans to gather and enjoy their company” and “wide-ranging improvements that ultimately focus on improving the experience” and “improving and securing the future of the building.” In other words, wine bars, probably.

How much tax money are we talking about, and where would it come from?

“Where would it come from?” is always a dangerous question with tax money, because ultimately it always comes from taxpayers: Even if it’s only a tax on fellows behind the tree, that’s still money that could have been used for services to benefit everyone, or even just to cut other taxes on other residents. But here’s what we know so far:

• $100 million from that state slush fund of money from unclaimed funds like uncashed checks and inactive bank accounts that the state was just sitting on for private individuals, and decided to dedicate to local sports team owners instead. Yes, there is a lawsuit pending against this, but that isn’t stopping the state from handing out the money anyway; if the lawsuit is successful, presumably the state will have to find another source for this spending, but why worry about things that may never happen, right?
• $100 million in “public bonds” issued by the stadium authority and paid off by increasing the amount of city and county casino tax revenue siphoned off to the authority, from 32% to 50%, as well as increasing the arena admission tax from 5% to 7%. A spokesperson for the Columbus Department of Development called this “dedicated revenue streams that have long supported the arena and do not impact the city’s General Fund,” which is funny way of describing casino taxes that are currently going to the city and county general funds.
• $25 million each from the city of Columbus and Franklin County, which would raise the funds by, uh, hmm. Any decision about the city’s direct funding, Bankston said, won’t be determined until 2026. Columbus councilmember Nick Bankston said he thinks the city can pay its share through an existing tax increment financing district for the arena, but he also called redirecting casino taxes “user-based fees” because they’re paid by casino patrons, so maybe we shouldn’t be taking his word for anything involving how money works.

Who has to approve this $250 million subsidy?

Everybody! The Columbus city council will discuss the proposed casino tax diversion and admissions tax increase at its next meeting today, though it may run out of time for a vote before it adjourns for the holidays next Monday. The county is expected to first take up the casino tax at its January 13 meeting. The state legislature hasn’t put its $100 million on the agenda yet, and may not have to, since it already allocated $1 billion to its sports stadium slush fund and has only used $600 million of it on the Cleveland Browns so far.

So this is going to take much of 2026 to decide?

Yeah, probably. Early reports don’t show a ton of opposition, with elected officials largely arguing that the public money isn’t really public money, though Franklin County Administrator Kenneth Wilson did hedge a bit by saying that “there are many large funding requests on the table” and the county has to consider them all. Wilson also touted all the economic benefits that come from the arena, however, benefits that if the Blue Jackets played in an arena with more glamorous locker rooms would increase by, uh, hmm. There are maybe still some questions to be answered about this proposal, maybe it’ll be good if lawmakers take much of 2026 to answer them.