The $42 million purchase price for the arena is slightly lower than the $44 million value
Nationwide placed on it during court proceedings to set the taxable value of the building in 2006,
a case in which it was in the company’s interest to set the price as low as possible. The county
auditor had valued the arena at $129.7 million. It cost $147.1 million to build in 1999, Nationwide
said at the time.
The state of Ohio would help out with the purchase through a $10 million loan, half of which can
be forgiven by the state.

Recently talk radio host Glenn Beck has been covering the story of the 16 year old handicapped girl that was beaten and raped on videotape at Mifflin High School in Columbus, Ohio. (Audio can be obtained here. Registration required. Free audio avaliable here.)
While the actions of the students are obviously outrageous, what is even more appalling is that the administration at the school tried to convince the girl’s father to not call the police in order to “avoid media attention.” Surprise surprise, the father called the police anyway and now the school is getting even more media attention for that little gaffe.
But what is simply unbelievable is the fact that the school board decided to fire the principal, but only suspend the assistant principals and then move them to other schools. This, despite the fact that one of the assistant principals was the one that told the girl’s father not to call the authorities.
Glenn Beck was finally able to get Michael B. Coleman, the mayor of Columbus, Ohio on the phone today. (After he tried to back out of his promise to call in two days ago.) The conversation was quite interesting and perhaps indicative of why Columbus has such a problem with their school system.
Glenn attempted to talk to Coleman about the school board’s decision to keep the assistant principals on, and Coleman talked about the criminal side of the investigation and said that he was not allowed to reveal anything about it while it was open, but he was sure everything would be taken care of. Glenn kept trying to steer him back to the subject of the school board and their actions towards the assistant principals and Coleman kept insisting that he couldn’t talk about an open police investigation. About the only thing he said about the schools was that they had paid policemen there and that he, the mayor, had no control or influence over what the school board did.
The best part of the interview was when Glenn attempted to ask him a question, “Doesn’t it offend you as a man….” He didn’t get a chance to finish, but I’m assuming the end of that question was something like, “that the schools would allow something like this to happen to a girl and then do nothing to the people who allowed it to go on.” However, he didn’t get a chance because Coleman interrupted him with “Are you attacking my manhood?”

Tobias Fünke;896569 wrote:What's the goal here? Own the arena and help keep the Blue Jackets? I suppose locking them in a room would work just as well, as you say.

queencitybuckeye;897082 wrote:The people spoke on this subject five times, IIRC. Doing this deal is about as blatant as it gets in terms of not caring about the wishes of those who elected them.

Writerbuckeye;897095 wrote:More money to Columbus schools is just about as bad. Talk about throwing it down a rat hole.

Writerbuckeye;898416 wrote:I don't believe big city schools are fixable as they now exist. The teachers union contracts, and the lack of parental involvement combine to make a pretty toxic environment. One thing I know for certain won't fix them: throwing more money at them.

Once the schools were taken out of the neighborhoods under the guise of desegregation, they lost any community support that had been there, and that even further complicated the issue.

Vouchers at least give options to those parents who are involved but don't have the resources to move or put their kids in private school; but they aren't going to fix the problem. Then again, nothing can.

Gblock;898472 wrote:columbus city schools actually outperforms districts of similar size and demographics

Writerbuckeye;898475 wrote:So of those that suck, they suck the least. got it.

LJ;896326 wrote:http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/09/14/Proposal-to-keep-Blue-Jackets-in-town-to-be-released-today.html Funded by Casino taxes....Now, here comes the part as to why I posted this in the Politics forum. In 1999 Columbus voters said NO to using taxpayer funds to build the arena. Now, there will be no public vote. What's even worse, is that the residents of the Arena District got a ballot issues to get the Casino out of their backyards. Now they are going to use that very same tax revenue to "SAVE" the same area? This smells like a whole bunch of underhanded BULL**** to me. Mayor Mike "you attackin my manhood" Coleman making another financial decision that that taxpayers already said no to, as well as money they area said they didn't want.

Writerbuckeye;921782 wrote:The city nor county should be using tax dollars to help a PROFESSIONAL team stay solvent. If the team can't afford to do it, or figure out a way to get a better lease, then let them move.

I'm betting if push came to shove and Nationwide thought the team really would pull up stakes, they'd negotiate a better lease. They've got too much invested in the Arena District to just let its biggest tenant walk.

They played poker, bluffed, and the city folded -- but went all in with out money before they did so.

This is more about a city crying poor to get a tax hike passed and then turning around a year or so later and doing this than anything else.

I hope you fools who voted for that tax increase are happy. You gave those idiots a license to steal from all of us. There's no way they'd be doing this with ANY tax dollars if that increase hadn't passed.