Sports & Recreation
A charter MLS club that built the league's first stadium made just for soccer, an NHL team whose entire identity is drawn from actual Ohio Civil War regiments, a Triple-A club with back-to-back national titles, and a 102,780-seat on-campus stadium that's been a National Register landmark since 1974.
Columbus Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets began play as an NHL expansion team in 2000, with a name and logo chosen through a public naming contest to honor Ohio's Civil War history -- the state raised 23 volunteer infantry regiments for the Union and produced commanders including William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant. Before every home game at Nationwide Arena, and after every Blue Jackets goal and win, the team fires a hand-built replica 1857 Napoleon cannon nicknamed "the Cannon." In 2019 the Blue Jackets became the first team in NHL history to sweep the reigning Presidents' Trophy winner in the first round of the playoffs, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Columbus Clippers
The Columbus Clippers have played Triple-A baseball in the International League continuously since 1977, moving into the $56 million Huntington Park in the Arena District in 2009. Now the Cleveland Guardians' top affiliate, the Clippers won back-to-back Governors' Cup and Triple-A National Championship Game titles in 2010 and 2011 -- beating the Pacific Coast League's Tacoma Rainiers and Omaha Storm Chasers, respectively -- part of 11 International League championships in franchise history.
Columbus Crew
The Columbus Crew were founded in 1994 as one of Major League Soccer's 10 charter clubs and began play in 1996. On May 15, 1999, the Crew opened Columbus Crew Stadium -- the first stadium in the United States built specifically for soccer at the major-league level, a model the rest of MLS later followed -- and the club has since won three MLS Cups (2008, 2020, 2023). Supporters gave the team its enduring nickname, "the Massive," during a rough 2006 season, and the club now plays at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, renamed in a November 2025 naming-rights deal.
Ohio Stadium
Ohio Stadium, nicknamed "the Horseshoe" for its open-ended shape, opened on Ohio State's campus in 1922 as the largest poured-concrete structure in the world at the time, and it's been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974. Its current capacity of 102,780 makes it the largest stadium in Ohio and the third-largest on-campus college football stadium in the country. Before the Crew built their own stadium, Ohio Stadium served as the club's home field from 1996 to 1998, and in March 2025 it hosted the NHL's Stadium Series, with the Blue Jackets beating the Detroit Red Wings in front of 94,751 fans.