The Sale/Purchase of Nationwide Arena

[Walker Evans]

Schoolboy said:
Wait a second? So you think Penn National kept the same designs after being forced into the ghetto?

It was announced that it was going to be branded as a “Hollywood Casino” prior to the relocation. So while the site plan may have changed a bit with the different parcel, the branding, theme, marketing and structure was predetermined to fit with their other Hollywood Casino locations.

Schoolboy said:
Its pretty hard to prove now, but the rumors were flying that Columbus was being designed as a national texas holdem tournament location. One of the original investors pre-move was a texas holdem champion. Allegedly was designing the poker area himself.

That sounds like a great rumor. ;)

If they had planned for an awesome Arena District casino, you’d think they would have revealed details about it to combat the public perception that it was going to be an underwhelming rendition of their Hollywood Casino brand. There were renderings and details about the nicer casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati. The fact that they failed to do this for the Downtown Columbus location means that either they never had plans for it to be any nicer, or that they made an incredibly foolish marketing mistake by never announcing it. My guess is the former. The rumors were just rumors.

[Walker Evans]

cheap said:
Perfect city for a casino.

That should be the new tagline for the Cleveland Tourism Bureau.

[Coremodels]

Snarf said:
except that casinos are super tacky and don’t belong downtown, ew.

Yeah, I’d hate for them to bring down the class factor Nationwide provides with events like:

http://www.nationwidearena.com/schedule/news/disp_release.php?id=466

or

http://www.nationwidearena.com/schedule/news/disp_release.php?id=457

or

http://www.nationwidearena.com/schedule/news/disp_release.php?id=455

or

http://www.nationwidearena.com/schedule/news/disp_release.php?id=444

That kind of high brow entertainment clearly can’t share the same neighborhood as a casino.

[Pablo]

^What are you talking about Core – those are the exact type of “family friendly” entertainment options the Dispatch was trying to protect by moving the casino to the west side! :-D

[cheap]

Walker said:
That should be the new tagline for the Cleveland Tourism Bureau.

some friends in garfield heights tried to get in last week,place was packed.

had to stand in line,and just left

[Walker Evans]

Cleveland: Everyone in the city is down on on their luck… so come on down to the casino!

Cleveland: There’s nowhere to go but up! Let’s gamble!

Cleveland: Clinching our spot as leading the nation in drifters for years to come!

Cleveland Casino: At least it’s not the Detroit Casino!

[Snarf]

Coremodels said:
Yeah, I’d hate for them to bring down the class factor Nationwide provides with events like:

http://www.nationwidearena.com/schedule/news/disp_release.php?id=466

or

http://www.nationwidearena.com/schedule/news/disp_release.php?id=457

or

http://www.nationwidearena.com/schedule/news/disp_release.php?id=455

or

http://www.nationwidearena.com/schedule/news/disp_release.php?id=444

That kind of high brow entertainment clearly can’t share the same neighborhood as a casino.

Blah blah casinos are shit magnets.

[cheap]

Snarf said:
Blah blah casinos are shit magnets.

how would you know?

[JeepGirl]

Snarf said:
Blah blah casinos are shit magnets.

What about racinos? Same crowd, right?

[Schoolboy]

Walker said:
It was announced that it was going to be branded as a “Hollywood Casino” prior to the relocation. So while the site plan may have changed a bit with the different parcel, the branding, theme, marketing and structure was predetermined to fit with their other Hollywood Casino locations.

That sounds like a great rumor. ;)

If they had planned for an awesome Arena District casino, you’d think they would have revealed details about it to combat the public perception that it was going to be an underwhelming rendition of their Hollywood Casino brand. There were renderings and details about the nicer casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati. The fact that they failed to do this for the Downtown Columbus location means that either they never had plans for it to be any nicer, or that they made an incredibly foolish marketing mistake by never announcing it. My guess is the former. The rumors were just rumors.

Yeah I know. We’ve had this discussion about the poker rumors before actually.

All I can say is I saw the actual rough draft designs. During that time period I was a member of 3 poker “clubs” in Columbus. The same designs were floating around at all of the clubs. They were actually wanting to involve the clubs already formed in Columbus somehow. Owners were being asked to invest. Not sure how that worked out, but whatever. Once it was moved, the plans all changed.

I would definitely agree that this was bad PR on their parts… IF they were really going to follow through with it. Once they moved the location, the main person behind the push then sold his investments and bailed on the plans here in Columbus. I believe he was Lyle Berman, but I can’t remember anymore. That’s been too long ago, and I don’t care to google it. Anyone else who was a member of any of the same poker clubs back in 2010 definitely knows what I am speaking about though.

[pedex]

I am curious, since the city owns the arena why is it still called nationwide arena?

shouldn’t a name change be in order?

[MRipley]

pedex said:
I am curious, since the city owns the arena why is it still called nationwide arena?

shouldn’t a name change be in order?

I believe that Nationwide is now paying for the naming rights which one would think would go to the owners of the arena, but amazingly enough that money instead goes to the BlueJackets – a renter at the arena.

Why in the hell would the county give its naming rights revenue to a renter?

[cheap]

MRipley said:

Why in the hell would the county give its naming rights revenue to a renter?

because people keep voting for these corrupt douchebags

[Caleb]

Schoolboy said:
$1k says Cleveland’s downtown casino will bring in double the revenue over Columbus’ ghetto casino. Further more, many casino enthusiasts like myself will actually drive to either Cleveland or Cinci just to avoid our own.

I know it isn’t possible to prove, but had we placed the casino where it belonged, everything around it… especially the private shops in the short north… would have seen an immediate boom in revenue as well.

You know. Calling something the ghetto when its not the ghetto is very disrespectful. Maybe if you actually took your butt across the highway called I-270 you would see that only certains parts of the West Side are kinda bad. But ghetto? If you think our West Side is a ghetto than you’ve obviously never been to New York, L.A , Detroit, or Chicago. So from a resident of the west side to another misinformed citizen of Columbus, stop calling the West Side.. the ghetto.

[JeepGirl]

MRipley said:
I believe that Nationwide is now paying for the naming rights which one would think would go to the owners of the arena, but amazingly enough that money instead goes to the BlueJackets – a renter at the arena.

Why in the hell would the county give its naming rights revenue to a renter?

Better yet, the scam actually states that naming rights are to be purchased by Nationwide from the CBJ who as noted are simply renters, and free renters at that. Wish they would explain the justification for that one. As part of the overall scam Nationwide also becomes a 30% owner of the CBJ so they in effect are “purchasing” naming rights from themselves even though neither party (Nationwide or CBJ) own the arena.

From this site:
http://darkbluejacket.blogspot.com/2011/09/nationwide-arena-proposal-presentation.html

This public rip-off should cost every city/county politician behind it their job.

[Author]

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