Posted by John Vrooman on Thursday, May 31, 2018 in National Hockey League.

Interview with Columbus Dispatch.

Back in 2012, the city and the county purchased what was then a privately held arena, relying on casino tax money to prop up arena operations, repay loans used in the purchase and pay for capital repairs. Those tax receipts have fallen well short of projections, and the arena has no money for its capital needs.

The reason I’m contacting you is that I’m trying to put together a database of NHL arenas so that I can look at whether those built around the same time as Nationwide Arena are undergoing major updates.

I’m talking about large-scale refreshes of the arenas, not new seats or scoreboards or cooling systems. The question is: when will Nationwide Arena, already in dire financial straits, need an eight- or nine-figure update itself? And are its peers already doing them?

My plan right now is to just do some searching through media reports in the respective cities where those stadiums sit, but I thought you might know if anyone (perhaps yourself) is tracking that sort of thing already?

You have a good slant. The build it or we will leave extortion revolution has come full circle and is now threatening to recycle with a planned economic obsolescence of about 20 to 25 years. 

The Columbus story is unique in the Sun Belt expansion extortion game, because of the quickly assembled private funding group (including the Dispatch) that originally rescued the Blue Jackets in the 4-team expansion derby of 1997 after a public arena referendum had failed just before the expansion decision.

I would probably go with hockey only anchor arenas in this Nationwide Arena cohort group of 6:

National Hockey League Arenas
NBA Franchise	NBA Arena	Year	Cap	Suites	Club Seats	Cost	Public	Public %
Phoenix Coyotes	Jobing.com Arena	2003	17.7	89	400	$220	$180	81.8%
Minnesota Wild	Xcel Energy Center	2000	18.8	64	2800	$190	$142	74.7%
Columbus Blue Jackets	Nationwide Arena	2000	18.1	74	3200	$179	$29	16.2%
Carolina Hurricanes	RBC Center	1999	18.8	75	2000	$158	$138	87.3%
Florida Panthers	Bank Atlantic Center	1998	19.5	74	2300	$212	$185	87.3%
Nashville Predators	Bridgestone Arena	1998	17.5	72	1850	$144	$144	100.0%
Source: John Vrooman/Vanderbilt

Check with Baade and Matheson at Holy Cross. They are usually up to date.

http://college.holycross.edu/RePEc/spe/MathesonBaade_FinancingSports.pdf

New NHL Arenas since 1990
Team	Stadium	Built	Cost	Public	Public %
Phoenix	Jobing.com Arena	2003	$180	$180	100%
Dallas	American Airlines Center	2001	$420	$210	50%
Columbus	Nationwide Arena	2000	$175	$0	0%
Minnesota	Xcel Energy Center	2000	$130	$130	100%
Toronto	Air Canada Centre	1999	$265	$0	0%
Atlanta	Philips Arena	1999	$214	$63	29%
Denver	Pepsi Center	1999	$160	$35	22%
Los Angeles	Staples Center	1999	$375	$59	16%
Carolina	RBC Center	1999	$158	$98	62%
Ft. Lauderdale	BankAtlantic Center	1998	$212	$185	87%
Washington	Verizon Center	1997	$260	$60	23%
Nashville	Bridgestone Arena	1997	$144	$144	100%
Baade & Matheson/ Holy Cross