The United States Hockey League announced today that the Ohio Junior Blue Jackets have ceased operations for the 2008-09 season, ending the team's two-year run in Ohio's capitol city.
"Many people, from Tom Goebel and his ownership to others around the USHL worked tirelessly to find a location where this franchise could be a success. But with the timing and the lack of an adequate facility in potential new centers, it was decided that it was in everyone's best interests that the franchise cease operations," said USHL president Gino Gasparini.
This is hardly a shock. They didn't draw very well in their entire stretch in Columbus. It's a quality league (highest level of amateur hockey in the US beneath the NCAA), but between the NHL Blue Jackets and the Buckeyes, the local appetite for hockey is pretty well sated.
It's almost more surprising that they didn't fold up before last season, after Doug MacLean was fired. It was a fairly widely held belief that this was a vanity team he created in order to get his son into the USHL...
Clippers ballpark, scheduled to open next season, is beginning to take shape
Sunday, May 11, 2008
BY JIM MASSIE
Huntington Park suddenly is more than a $56 million dream or hole in the ground sandwiched between Nationwide Arena and the Buggyworks building. The Clippers will move their triple-A baseball operation from Cooper Stadium to this state-of-the-art ballpark for the 2009 season.
"You can start to feel it," he said. "It is starting to have a shape and a form to it. You're starting to see all the drawings and things you've been doing start to come to life."
Stop us if you've heard this before: Buckeyes top Dawgs
May 5, 2008
By Dennis Dodd
Against the tide of an emerging preseason consensus ... against the wishes Fox, which frowns on televising re-runs in January ... against my better judgment... Ohio State is No. 1.
James Laurinaitis is returning to feast on the weak Big Ten. (US Presswire) For now, in the CBSSports.com post-spring top 25, but maybe right up until kickoff. Yeah, I know, you've already seen this movie. The outcome is more predictable than an M. Night Shyamalan film, and twice as scary. The Buckeyes are good enough for the Big Ten, but hopelessly outclassed in the big game. Oh, the humanity.
I know, it's getting bo-ring. How long, you ask, can this cow be milked?
Cooper Stadium To Become Track For Auto Racing
Thursday, May 1, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The crack of the bat at Cooper Stadium may soon be replaced by the roar of automobile engines. Franklin County is selling the west side ballpark for conversion into a racetrack, 10TV Kevin Landers reported.
With the Columbus Clippers moving into a new ballpark in the Arena District, the county has been seeking a new use for the stadium.
10TV has learned that a Columbus developer intends to turn the 47-acre site into a track for auto racing. An announcement is expected to be made Thursday morning.
Roosters may rule roost at ballpark
Friday, April 25, 2008
by Doug Buchanan
Roosters wings are a fixture at Columbus Clippers games on Thursday nights and now, with the team moving to a new stadium next year, the restaurant chain's franchising arm is looking to make the relationship more permanent.
Shannon Foust, president of Roosters Franchising LLC, confirmed the two sides are negotiating a deal to put a Roosters restaurant in Huntington Park. He declined to go into detail on the negotiations.
Industrialist, Blue Jackets owner John H. McConnell dies
Friday, April 25, 2008
BY MICHAEL ARACE AND RON CARTER
John H. McConnell, son of a steelworker, father to a new branch of the steel industry and majority owner of the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team, died today after a long illness. He was 84.
Despite his business success, he never forgot his hardscrabble beginnings, the iconic industrialist who ran Worthington Industries as if he still wore coveralls. He was known as “Mr. Mac” to one and all, and when he removed the cigar from his mouth, he talked plain.
“It just came natural,” he said in a 1996 interview. “You don’t cheat. You don’t lie. You help your neighbor.”
Bob Hunter commentary: Rumblings
Friday, April 18, 2008
BY BOB HUNTER
The announcement by Cleveland Indians and Buffalo Bisons officials that they won't negotiate an extension to their affiliation agreement until after the season seems to confirm the widely held belief that the Tribe's triple-A team will land in Columbus next season.
Major-league teams aren't permitted to negotiate with new potential affiliates until mid-September. When teams don't re-up early, it's usually a sign that one side or the other is looking elsewhere.
The Clippers, in the second year of a two-year deal with the Washington Nationals, haven't re-upped for beyond 2008.
Crew Earns Impressive 2-1 Victory Over DC United at RFK Stadium Thursday
Thursday, April 17, 2008
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Columbus Crew went into RFK Stadium Thursday night and left with an impressive 2-1 victory over Eastern Conference rival D.C. United. With the win, the Crew improves to 3-1-0 on the season and moves into first place in the East.
Alejandro Moreno continued his scoring spree in RFK Stadium as he notched his third goal of the year and fifth career against goal vs. United. He also played with consistent tenacity the entire night. He is now tied for the league lead in goals.
The Crew returns to action on Saturday, April 26, when it plays host to the defending MLS Cup-champion Houston Dynamo at Crew Stadium at 7:30 p.m.
Hundreds of Ohioans mix it up in the cage, pursuing the ultimate fight
Monday, April 14, 2008
BY JOSH JARMAN
It was over in 34 seconds. A single wave of the referee's latex-gloved hand, and eight months of training had ended in defeat for Aaron Caw.
Now, the 28-year-old Zanesville native will have to work twice as hard to develop the winning record he needs to move up the ranks of the fastest-growing sport in the country: mixed martial arts.
Caw is one of almost 2,500 amateur fighters throughout the state who can be found, on any given weekend, climbing into a cage to compete. Ohio leads the nation in amateur fighters. Most are lured by the sport's sudden popularity and dreams of a big payday.
It is no coincidence that the Ultimate Fighting Championship chose Columbus for its first fight in the Midwest. And no surprise that the March 3, 2007, show was the highest-grossing event ever in Nationwide Arena.
Columbus arena a blast
BY DANIEL LEE
Sunday, April 13, 2008
On game nights in Columbus, fans throng the downtown Arena District, a historic section that once held a 19th-century train station and a prison, but which is now reborn with boutique shopping, restaurants, a theater, upscale hotels and a thriving nightlife. A strong police presence is on hand to help with traffic, questions and security, and parking garages just across the street from Nationwide Arena are well-lighted and secure.
Inside, the clean, modern arena is filled with concessions and souvenir stands, paintballs slap against canvas at a target-practice tent, trucks destined to be given away glisten under the lights, and the walls are lined with mementoes of the Destroyers, who won their division last season, and the National Hockey League Columbus Blue Jackets.
But the action isn't all on the field. Nationwide Arena anchors a bustling retail and entertainment district that gives visitors plenty to do and see without ever hearing that first referee's whistle. From breakfast specialists Rise & Shine Restaurant to BD's Mongolian Barbeque, there's no shortage of dining options.
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