A Personal Amateur Photography Blog
Tucson was the site of a pre-season MLS soccer game featuring Chicago vs. Salt Lake. Fortunately they allowed the SLR camera with the 400mm lens for close up action shots.
This shot was coming straight towards the photographer, but I stepped out of the way just in time.
Today we take a look at the extensive history of sports venues in Columbus. While many are associated with Ohio State University, the city has a long history of professional sports.
For more than 150 years they have played professional baseball in Columbus – all at the minor league level.
The first true stadium in the city was one of the first in the country to be constructed of concrete and steel. Previously many were built of wood, and often burnt down.
The stadium was called Neil Park. It was located on Cleveland Avenue just north of downtown.
This stadium was the home to professional baseball until the 1930s. Today there is no sign of any history of the venue, now being a facility for Abbott Labs
The next stadium was built on the near west side of the city, along Mound Street. It was originally named Redbirds Stadium, as the team was a farm team for the St Louis Cardinals, and were called the Columbus Redbirds.
The stadium served the city until 2008, although it changed names a few times, usually when the team changed names. From 1955 until 1970 they were the Columbus Jets
Finally it was named after a county commissioner who was able to secure a team in the 1970s after a 6 year absence, Harold Cooper.
Today it sits vacant, partially torn down. It has been the subject of numerous schemes for redevelopment over the years, but nothing has come of it.
The current stadium is called Huntington Park (the naming rights were sold to a local bank). It is located much closer to downtown, in the middle of a large area of gentrification.
The National Football League generates the most revenue of any sports league in the world, with it’s 32 teams scattered across the United States. But the NFL did not start out that way – they started in an assortment of cities and towns scattered around the Great Lakes, including Columbus.
For 12 years their headquarters was in the historic New Hayden Building.
The Columbus team was comprised mostly of railroad workers who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Panhandle Division. So named because it traversed the Northern West Virginia panhandle, the railroad had a large yard on the south side of the city.
While most of the teams in the league were made up of former college players, the Panhandles were tough railroad workers who quickly became known for their physical play. Their logo was reflective of the Pennsylvania Railroad Logo
Because they worked for the railroad, and had free travel on the trains, they played most of their games in other cities. Their home field in Columbus was at Indianola Park, an amusement park located just north of the city.
Today the former Amusement Park and NFL home is a strip mall and church.
What Columbus lacks in professional football it makes up in college football. Ohio State football. The budget for athletics at Ohio State is over $200m a year, with the football program generating much of that revenue. But it wasn’t always that way.
The first team was fielded in 1890, with 22 players making the trip to the nearby town of Delaware, Ohio for a game again Ohio Wesleyan College.
Later that year they had their first home game. It occurred a few miles away from campus at a field in German Village – now home to a grocery store.
Football quickly became popular and the university built their own stadium – Ohio Field. This field was located on North High Street – near 17th Avenue.
Most people sat around the field until 1907 when the first stands were built. As college football continued to be very popular and by the time the stadium was abandoned in 1921 it has seating for 14,000.
Today a parking garage and campus buildings occupy the site.
With much debate and fanfare the university opened Ohio Stadium in 1922, with an astounding 62,000 seats. Many thought they would never fill it, but by the last game of the year again Michigan they did.
Today it seats over 105,000.
Ohio State football is such a big deal they have this airplane hangar sized indoor practice facility, complete with a statue of legendary coach Woody Hayes out front.
Columbus is home to a number of arenas that have served the city and university over the years.
The State Fairgrounds Coliseum (aka – Taft Coliseum) was built in 1918 with 5000 permanent seats. It has hosted everything from Ohio State basketball to minor league hockey games to horse shows, and one of the venues for ‘The Arnold’.
St Johns Arena
The Fairgrounds Coliseum served as the home to Ohio State basketball until the 1950s when St Johns Arena was completed on campus.
It was opened in 1956, named for a former basketball coach and athletic director. The 13,276 seats are very cool old school wood.
Once Scottenstein Center was completed, the arena has been relegated to secondary sports like gymnastics and volleyball.
Nationwide Arena
The only major league team in town, the Columbus Blue Jackets, play their home games at Nationwide Arena. Completed in 2000 for the expansion Blue Jackets it is typical of the arena’s built in the last 25 years – with a large number of luxury suites, and quirky designs including an ear piercing cannon that they shoot off when they score.
Schottenstein Center – Value City Arena
This 20,000 seat arena opened just a couple of years before Nationwide Arena, so the city has 2 very large indoor venues.
When they were planning both arenas the city wanted the site to be downtown, whereas the university wanted it on campus – 3 miles north. When the university didn’t get what they wanted they ‘took their ball and went home’.
Mapfre Stadium
When the MLS started in the 1990s all of the teams played in stadiums built for American football. The Columbus Crew was no different, playing in the 105,000 seat Ohio Stadium.
In 1999 they became the first MLS team to build a soccer specific stadium. This 20,000 seat stadium sits on part of the Ohio State Fairgrounds. Ironically they sometimes played high school football here as well.
In 2015 they sold the naming rights to an insurance company, hence ‘Mapfre Stadium’.
After shaking down the city and state with a threat to move to Austin, Texas the Crew has received 1/2 of the $200m required to build a new stadium downtown.
The artist renderings show what a difference it will be.
Jesse Owens Stadium
Our last venue is on the Ohio State campus, Jesse Owens Stadium. This facility is home to track and field, as well as soccer.
In front is a statue and Ohio Historical Marker detailing the amazing feats of Jesse in the 1936 Olympics.
One of the two most popular soccer teams in Buenos Aires is River Plate. It’s name comes from the era of the construction of the Port of Buenos Aires, when the workers disappeared to play soccer, the boxes they were unloading said the English name for Rio de La Plata – River Plate – and the name stuck.
Their stadium, and museum, is located in the Nunez section of the city.
The team’s logo has been fairly consistent in the 115 years of their existence.
As has their jersey’s.
They are one of the most successful teams, including a recent Libertadores Cup winner.
The museum has a list of all of the players who ever played for the team listed on the walls.
The museum also has replicas of their stadiums over the years, including the current one.
We went outside with a group for a tour of the real thing.
Including more trophies.
The initials stand for Club Atletico River Plate – CARP!
The stadium is officially known as Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, or El Monumental. At 70,000 seats it is the largest in Argentina, and home to the Argentina national team as well as River.
While Argentina has banned visiting fans from stadiums, the section they used to use is penned off in the upper deck.
It is very close to Aeroparque Jorge Newberry, giving it a ‘Shea Stadium’ feel.
Outside is a massive statue of a soccer player.
The tour guide was informative to most, and helpful to us translating some of the Spanish to English as we walked from stop to stop. Some though were apparently there to keep their husbands happy.
River Plate – In Buenos Aires they are either loved or hated, nothing in between.
Most people when they are in Buenos Aires want to see some soccer/football, as the Argentine fans are known as some of the most passionate. When they come to the city they usually want to see one of the two ‘big time’ teams, Boca Juniors or River Plate.
I however had the chance to go to a very cool old stadium in the Parque Patricios barrio to watch a game with friends and their neighborhood team the Huracan (Hurricanes in English). What an atmosphere.
The small crowd was passionate, with drums and singing occurring throughout the game. Soccer the way it is meant to be, and to attend it with my friends and her family (her father has been coming to games here for almost 70 years) was a bonus.
Throughout the winter, and now into spring we have been catching some Ohio State sports events to fill gaps when there is nothing else to do.
Women’s Rowing – Competition – Notre Dame, Duke and Michigan
Baseball – Opponent Purdue
Next door at the basketball arena they had a great mosaic in the floor of a baseball player.
Women’s Soccer – Opponent Kent State
Softball (a scrimmage to start)
Women’s Lacrosse – Opponent Cincinnati
Indoor Men’s Lacrosse – Opponent Detroit Mercy
Men’s and Women’s Swimming
Women’s Volleyball – Opponent Purdue
Women’s Hockey – Opponent Wisconsin
Indoor Track & Field
Men’s Volleyball – Opponent USC
Women’s Tennis – Opponent Alabama & Florida State
Synchronized Swimming
Gymnastics – Opponents Michigan and Rutgers
Once again we stayed close to home with a morning at Easton, a lifestyle shopping center in Northeast Columbus. A lifestyle shopping center is one that is built like a small city, with streets throughout instead of the traditional enclosed mall. On this day they had closed off most of the streets for a high end car show – Porsche, Ferrari, Lambo’s, and more.
They were parked along the streets in the normal parking spaces, as though they had come to shop. With the excellent landscaping providing shade, and the more relaxed crowd it was a delight to see, and a perfect setting for photography
It was all being held in benefit of Buckeye Ranch, a treatment center for the emotional, behavioral, and mental health services for children, young adults and families. A good cause and a great event.
Not far away in Westerville was the Women’s Premier Soccer League championship tournament. The WPSL is an independent highly competitive national league whose main focus is on the development of highly competitive premier women’s soccer teams.
We watched Chicago play Boston, with all of the players having been collegiate athletes before graduating and moving into the workplace. Some of the players are paid, others do it for the love, but all were very good soccer players.
RDZ Photography 