The Arena District

While enjoying my Thanksgiving Break the last thing I wanted to think about is school. It is hard to do though when upon arrival after the 3 days off we students have two weeks left to finish up those last projects and papers. Although, thinking about school came in an indirect way. Tonight I went to the Columbus Blue Jackets game, before entering we ate at Boston’s, a gourmet pizza shop. While partaking in these events I thought back to our class a couple weeks ago and how we talked about how professional sports are good for the community. Also how teams move to areas where the sport will strive the most. Although we talked most about how teams move from one city to another in this case it was about bringing one sport back to a city that left 14 years prior, this sport is hockey. I connected the ideas of class discussion and the book and about what the Blue Jackets coming to Columbus has done for our city. I feel it has made a huge impact. When the Blue Jackets came they built the arena in a run down part of Columbus. No one ever really visited nor wanted to. Once the arena was built they labeled the part of the city The Arena District. This brought a lot of business to this area of Columbus. With the arena many different classier big name restaurants came also like Clotters, Boston’s, Boca di Beppo, O'Shaughnessy's and many more. Hockey came to town in 2000 and ever since this area has been growing. They just recently put the Columbus Clippers a minor league baseball team across the street from the arena. This is a new beautiful stadium with more attractions than the previous location of the Clippers stadium. There is also many different music venues for people to attend and condos so people can enjoy living in the city. Overall bring hockey to Columbus was a great idea and it has helped the city so much. The only problem will be keeping it here and winning!

A story of a hero

Last night news across Ohio even the world announced the passing of Stefanie Spielman. Stefanie Spielman was the wife of Ohio State’s all-time great linebacker and Lombardi award winner Chris Spielman. Stefanie was a lady full of courage and strength. Stefanie has been fighting breast cancer for the past decade and has had 5 different lapses with it before it ultimately took her life. Chris and Stefanie were public figures in the Columbus area for their work with Ohio State University's Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. They also made Race for the Cure a big event in Columbus many people wear pink wigs in support of Stefanie’s fight. Stefanie even started the Stefanie Spielman fund for breast cancer research. Stefanie was not only fighting the battle of her own cancer but also helping to fight the battle for all the other women with breast cancer. Chris and Stefanie have been married for many years and were high school sweethearts. They have 4 children Madison, Noah, Macy and Audrey.

Chris had a great football career. He was top linebacker of his time and was drafted to play football in the NFL with the Detroit Lions, then traded to the Buffalo Bills and a quick stint with the Cleveland Browns. Chris ended up putting his career on hold during the 1998 season to take care of his wife and his family. After returning to football in 1999, it ended quickly with a neck injury. Chris has done a great job with holding everything together and supporting his wife. This love and commitment is what many fans would love to see more professional athletes possess.

Overall Stefanie’s fight was a public fight gaining support from all of Columbus. This news was really sad for me and for many in the Columbus area. These two were the leaders for the fight for breast cancer. Their initial goal with this fund was to raise about a quarter of a million dollars and before Stefanie’s passing they raised more than $6.5 million. I wish Chris and his family the deepest respects and hope that they continue to raise money for The Stefanie Spielman Fund. She was truly a great leader and had a great compassion and love for people. She will be truly missed.

This is a picture of the Spielman family during Chris Spielman's induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

The Big One

“The big one” this often time is described as a crash that happens during a NASCAR race. Most of the times these big accidents happen when the drivers are racing at a restrictor plate race. Restrictor Plate races are often bigger tracks that drivers can reach maximum speed before making it one complete lap around. The two tracks that are most known for these races are Daytona and Talladega. These two tracks are where most of the accidents happening. Recalling back to 2001, when Dale Earnhardt crashed on final laps, which ended up costing his life. Talladega is the fastest track in the NASCAR circuit and drivers can reach up to speeds of 200 mph. Talladega racing is tight and can get up to 3, 4 and sometimes even 5 cars wide. At extremely fast tracks this can cause for big crashes that involve many of the cars. This causes a problem with the connection fans have with the race and drivers have during and after the race.
They race at Talladega twice a year and last weekend NASCAR had their final race at Talladega. This race also was the first race at Talladega where NASCAR officals were going to watch closely on aggressive driving. They did not want to see any bump drafting or passing in the corners. This made the drivers more cautious because they did not want to get penalized for an accident. With the drivers being more cautious it caused more tension and with 5 laps left many of the cars were fighting for position which caused a crash. This crash was between about 4 but it caused Ryan Newman’s car to flip so the NASCAR officials decided to red flag the race so they could get everything cleaned up. A red flag means that all cars have to stop which creates an equal shot at winning the race. If a red flag was to happen in the last couple laps then they would just automatically have a 3 lap final, basically an overtime. This gives the teams 3 laps to fight for first place, which is what happened this weekend. After going back to a white flag an even bigger crash happened between about 13 cars. These cars were closer and fighting for position right after the white flag which caused many cars to go spinning. This crash happened to the racers that were 6 cars back from the lead. The race cannot be red flagged twice so it caused the last 2 laps to end in a caution. “The Big One” always is known at this track and it is not the first time that they had to red flag the race so that they could finish with an “exciting ending.”
The problem is as a race fan I don’t like watching this 3 lap overtime; I don’t find it exciting at all. I feel like NASCAR needs to create more rules at tracks like Talladega so that fans can see an exciting end to a race. Basically all the laps that happened on Sunday did not count because many of the people involved in the crash were lap leaders and those who dominated the race. If fans just wanted to see a three lap finish they would watch drag racing. Caution endings does not make racing exciting, some of the other tracks have photo finishes but at tracks like Talladega this never happens, most of the time it ends in a caution. Officals tried to find the answers this weekend but the "big one" still happened and fans went home unhappy. They need to find a solution to this so they can keep the fans involved and wanting to come back to Talladega.

A clip that I added was a serious accident at Talladega,It happened at the spring race in 2009.



-Megan Meade