Blue Jackets Still Spending On Players Despite Arena Woes

Blue Jackets Say Arena Situation Will Not Impact Contract Talks With LW Rick Nash

Nationwide Arena "might be bleeding money" for the Blue Jackets, but the team on the ice is "as talented and promising as it has ever been," according to Aaron Portzline of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. The Blue Jackets "view their business operations in two distinct parts" -- arena and hockey -- and the team has made no moves to "slash payroll or halt spending." This could seem "incongruous, that the club would surely make cuts to one side's budget to cover the other side's losses," but Blue Jackets President Mike Priest said that has "never been the Blue Jackets' approach." Priest noted that the team last summer was "among the NHL's most active clubs," and player payroll grew from $38M during the '07-08 season to about $50M last year, "by far the highest in club history." Priest noted that during the time of increased spending, the "arena side was losing millions." Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson indicated that the team's budget for next season will be "roughly the same as this past season." The team in July can offer a contract extension to LW Rick Nash, and Howson said, "The situation with our arena will not have any impact on what we do with our club on the ice, and it most certainly will not have an effect on our contract talks with Rick" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 6/7).

NOT ON YOUR SIDE: BUSINESS FIRST OF COLUMBUS' Jeff Bell reports a plan to sell Nationwide Arena using higher taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to help fund the deal "appears dead for now," as Franklin County (OH) commissioners and state legislators claim that they "lack enough facts to get behind the plan." A coalition of "trade groups and companies with stakes in alcohol and tobacco sales" expressed opposition to the plan, fearing that a provision allowing the county to "impose an excise tax would be slipped into" next year's state budget. The lobbyists "drove the proposal into the public spotlight, where it drew fire from residents opposed to a government buyout of a privately owned arena during a recession and raising beer and tobacco taxes to pay for it." Blue Jackets Senior VP & General Counsel Greg Kirstein said that the "outcome was surprising" to the team. Kirstein: "We thought the plan was articulated well. We had some support in the state Senate and with the county commissioners until the beer lobby became aggressive" (BUSINESS FIRST OF COLUMBUS, 6/5 issue).