Things Learned About Columbus (The City)

The city of Columbus, Ohio, is an oasis in a sea of wheat. I find the state of Ohio to be painfully flat and dull, dotted with famous cities that all happen to start with the letter C. Columbus just may be the nicest of those cities--although to be fair, I haven't been to Cincinnati, mainly because it's so difficult to spell. My family went to Columbus, along with ten thousand or so other hockey fans, to see the Pittsburgh Penguins play the Blue Jackets.

We rolled in to the city Friday afternoon and the streets were clean and empty. The boulevards of Columbus are wide, and on a simple grid system. I got the sense it was a leisurely sort of town; it didn't have the cold, stressful atmosphere of, say, Harrisburg. We spent most of our time in the Arena District, a part of town that's almost entirely owned by Nationwide Insurance. This side of town has the look and feel of a high-end shopping district--think Pittsburgh's South Side Works. It was as if city planners actually thought through the lay of the land.

Columbus was even better because it was swarming with Pittsburghers. At every intersection, we saw Pens fans marching around. Of course we were all wearing our various jerseys, including my mom, whose Ron Francis jersey got random cheers from passersby throughout the evening-- "Ronny Franchise!" As Pens fans passed each other, they exchanged a quick "Go Pens" and kept moving. The bars that surrounded the arena were packed with gold, black, and powder blue. We even saw two kids carrying around a homemade Stanley Cup.

That's not to say that the Blue Jackets fans didn't show up. Not only does this young hockey franchise have a devoted following, but it has a fairly friendly fan base as well. A lot of folks we talked to were former Pittsburgh residents who moved out to Columbus. It was a relaxed atmosphere, even with 19,000 people streaming into the arena. Before the game, Nationwide even had a little party tent set up outside with lots of free stuff (Blue Jacket blankets, cozies, cups, etc). I can't pass up free stuff.

This was all secondary, of course, to the task at hand: the Pens game. We had been planning this trip for a while, ever since we heard how many Pens fans turned out for last year's game against the Jackets. This year's attendance was made even greater because the Jackets' pre-season ticket code leaked online, allowing the Penguins blogs to spread the word.

I'd like to mention that the Blue Jackets have a cannon in their arena.

The team has a Civil War vibe going for it that's really cool, and they use it to great effect throughout the game; the best use of the theme is with the giant cannon they fire after every Jacket goal. They blast AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock" and fire a blank into the crowd. It's awesome. I was sort of glad the Jackets were able to score three goals on us just so I could witness this thing in action (it's okay, because we won.)

This was probably the most intense hockey game I've gone to. Sure the playoffs last year were incredible, as was the banner-raising game opener this year, but imagine two sets of fans, at about equal intensity, screaming for their respective teams at the same time. Chants for "Let's Go Jackets" and "Let's Go Pens" alternated almost the entire game. Things stayed friendly, at least in my section; when an overly-served Pens fan sitting in front of me lost his footing in a drunken exclamation, stepping on a Jackets fan's beer and falling on the woman in front of him, everyone was more concerned about the guy's well-being than about punching his lights out.

Even after the game, when the Pens came back in stunning fashion to tie it and then win in a shootout, Jackets fans were pleasant. The thousands of Pens fans marched around the arena, high-fiving one another, chanting and celebrating. An elderly couple, both wearing Blue Jackets jerseys, passed by me, and the man turned to his wife and exhaled, "Honey, we blew it." That just about made my night.

The Blue Jackets may have lost that game, but the city of Columbus came out big. The influx of thousands of Pens fans, all hungry and thirsty, surely made for quite a revenue bounce that evening. After the game, the streets, bars, and restaurants were packed with Pens fans of every ilk (even a dude wearing the bizarre "00" Zamboni jersey). It was a great evening for hockey, and it couldn't have happened to a more pleasant city.

Posted by MikeRubino at November 3, 2009 8:09 AM