Once a state prison, Arena District is now a world-class sports experience
July 7th, 2021
Article originally published by Michael Arace in the Columbus Dispatch
Saturday evening brings the grand opening of the Crew’s new stadium. A sellout crowd and a national television audience will get its first look as the third and final jewel of the Arena District, which rates as one of the most beautiful sports complexes of its kind in the United States.
Is that an overstatement? No, it is not.
About a quarter mile, or 440 yards, separates the east plaza of the soccer stadium. Lower.com Field, from the west plaza of Nationwide Arena. In between is Huntington Park, home of the Triple-A Clippers.
What Columbus does have, as of today, is a parcel of three pro-sports facilities of architectural beauty, tightly compacted in a downtown setting. Nowhere else in the country will you find anything quite like it — not in driver-wedge distance, in a thriving, urban area.