10/16 - Maple Leafs v. Blue Jackets.
two win-less teams at 0-4...something has to give.

We went to visit my GF daughter who is college student at bear-by Wittenberg University. I tried being very objective in my visit and would say there was good, bad, and reality.
- Columbus is a nice, small city. Easy to get in and out...no traffic.
- Tickets available for $28 each!
- pre-game dinner and drinks at Gordon Biersch Brewery. Beer was decent...burgers...incredibly average
- Arena was very nice. Seating and view was very good.
- Blue Jackets team for 2015......wow do they suck
- Final score of 6-3 Maple Leafs. I do like the home goal music for the Blue Jackets. Horn -> For those about to rock with loud canon -> the Whip by Locksley
- As much as I do like Columbus and OH does deserve an NHL team somewhere, Columbus is not a big enough market for an NHL franchise. This is has relocation and un-used arena all over it.

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I think what they saw in Columbus was a nice, medium-sized midwestern city with no professional competition and a very educated, white-collar population -- it's a college/government/insurance town, Madison on steroids without the pesky radicalism. Of course, "no professional competition" means nothing when you have Ohio State as "amateur" competition. I would have gone with Cincinnati, myself, but they don't have an NBA/NHL-ready arena. Columbus didn't either, but they built one. The problem is Ohio State built one too, and it's only a mile away or so, and this cannibalized the market such that OSU ended up having to take over management of Nationwide Arena to keep the Blue Jackets from failing.

Columbus has been okay for the league, but I believe the expansion slot would have been better used somewhere else, perhaps Milwaukee or Hamilton. Of course, good luck getting Hamilton through against opposition from Toronto, Buffalo, and most of all Boston.

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Shouldn't they have picked a city with a hockey gay population, instead?

Despite what Dan Bernstein would have you believe, the NHL's target market is tech-savvy professionals. That's why the NHL absolutely drooled over Seattle for this latest expansion and then threw a big public bitchfit when Seattle didn't even apply for a team.

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Cinci does have an ice arena right next to the baseball and football stadiums, is it just not big enough?

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

I believe it's a carbon copy of the North Stars' old Met Center, so no, wouldn't cut it.

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I went to a game in a box a few years back against the Blackhawks in Columbus. They've done a decent job developing the area around the stadium. The Hawks won the game 7-2, and I found it silly that they shot off a cannon after scoring to make it 5-1. Until then, I didn't realize why the team was called Blue Jackets.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Yeah, when everything was going sideways for the Jackets a few years ago, everyone there was screaming about how they had to save their precious Arena District. It used to be a state prison, you know. Unlike the arenas in Atlanta and Broward County, they actually couldn't survive without an NHL team because events were running at OSU instead. Now the county owns the arena and the university runs it; there's some complicated system of loans and financing that probably just means taxpayers get screwed.

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I love Columbus, especially the Easton area, but putting an NHL franchise here was a big mistake.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I do not like Columbus at all. I'll be there next week. The downtown area is pretty run down but for the area I described. It's drab. Maybe you're referring to the areas outside the downtown?

I find Cincy much more to my liking, but I am partial given the beautiful building that houses my employer overlooking our aptly named baseball stadium.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Stay in Easton on the NW side at the Hilton and thank me later.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Stay in Easton on the NW side at the Hilton and thank me later.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I'm a Marriott guy. We're flying in and out this trip.

I try to be open minded about other cities as it is tough to compete with Chicago especially in the Midwest. Ranking them, I think I like the Twin Cities best followed by Milwaukee and then Cincy. Louisville has grown on me. Cleveland was better than I thought it would be, but that's not saying much. You can keep St Louis, Columbus, anything else in Illinois (i.e. Peoria).

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Columbus' arena is the nicest I've been to. It's also the newest......so there's that.

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Dude........Cleveland sucks. I mean Detroit-level sucks. Maybe worse.

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That is what I thought before I went there. It exceeded my very low expectations. We went to a Cavs game, and they had that fun bar district. I'm not moving there, just relaying my inconsequential visit.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

We went there on July 4th weekend last year for Indians game and R&R HoF, plus whatever else.
It was a ghost town, except for inside the actual game. Every place was empty.

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I wouldn't be surprised if Cleveland is worse than Detroit now, or about to be. Detroit, for all its faults, does seem to get people jazzed about making it better again. Cleveland just gets neglected.

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Ever go to The Top steakhouse in Bexley? You're a big St. Elmo's guy. This place is better in certain ways. Step inside and it's like a trip to 1958.

Columbus is a great little city. That downtown/arena district is like Rosemont though. There's a lot of great places if you get out of there.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Kash, and Don

Cleveland is like Joliet's really big brother, in that every 10 years or so the Powers That Be try to do something to "revitalize" the downtown area to attempt to lure everyone back; the public's response is always "Meh".

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Not a mult.

I like Minneapolis/ St. Paul too. Underrated.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Never been to The Top Steakhouse. I'll check it out the next time I'm in Columbus. I like St. Elmo's alot, but as much as I love hot spicy food, their shrimp cocktail sauce is so hot it isn't enjoyable.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan