Big league hockey comes back to Ohio

Big league hockey comes back to Ohio
When the Columbus Blue Jackets take to the ice tonight against the Chicago Black Hawks, they will be opening a new chapter in the history of professional sports in Ohio. After two decade gap, NHL fans will once again have a Buckeye team to support.
Not since 1978, when the short-lived Barons slipped out of Cleveland to merge with the Minnesota North Stars, has the National Hockey League had a presence in Ohio -- notwithstanding die-hard Pittsburgh Penguin fans.
But if ice hockey can be played in places like Phoenix, Ariz., Tampa Bay, Fla. and Los Angeles, where most folks haven't seen ice outside a glass of something to cool them off on a typical 70-degree winter's day, then Columbus, Ohio, where it actually freezes during hockey season, is as good a place as any for an expansion team.
And while Cleveland and Cincinnati have gone to the state well for the buckets of cash they needed for their new stadiums, the Blue Jackets will be playing on a privately built arena -- financed by Nationwide Insurance, 90 percent, with the Dispatch Printing Co. picking up the other 10 percent.
The downtown facility seats 18,524 -- 18,126 showed up for an exhibition game against the Detroit Red WIngs on Sept. 20 -- and has already boosted business in Columbus bars and restaurants.
Whether the city can sustain the excitement remains to be seen, but with the hockey season lasting until April -- well after the Ohio State football and basketball teams have played their last games -- there's plenty of time to build a base of support, even if the Ble Jackets don't play well their first couple of years. After all, what new teams do?