Remember when buying an NHL team felt like the ultimate rich-guy toy? Back in the late nineties, eighty million dollars could actually get you one. That’s exactly what happened in Columbus – a city that barely knew hockey existed outside of Ohio State’s campus games. Fast forward to this morning, and the latest numbers dropped like a perfectly timed one-timer: the Columbus Blue Jackets are now worth $1.4 billion. Let that sink in for a second.
Yes, the same franchise that has never hoisted the Cup, hasn’t sniffed a playoff spot this year, and plays in front of rows of empty seats some nights just jumped 40% in value over the past twelve months. In a league where Toronto, New York, and Montreal usually hog the headlines, little old Columbus quietly became one of the best-performing assets in all of professional sports. I’ve been following these valuation reports for years, and I can’t remember the last time I saw a jump this dramatic from a non-traditional market team.
The Quiet Billion-Dollar Success Story Nobody Saw Coming
Let’s be honest – when people think NHL powerhouses, Columbus rarely cracks the conversation. The glamour markets dominate: the Rangers with their Madison Square Garden magic, the Maple Leafs printing money despite decades of heartbreak, the Canadiens carrying that century-old mystique. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets have been the league’s favorite punchline for years. Zero Stanley Cups. One playoff series win ever. And yet, here we are staring at a valuation that would have seemed absolutely insane even five years ago.
The numbers don’t lie, and they’re actually pretty stunning when you break them down.
Breaking Down the $1.4 Billion Price Tag
First, the headline figure: $1.4 billion enterprise value. That puts Columbus dead last among the NHL’s 32 teams – exactly where they’ve been for years – but the growth rate is what makes financial people sit up straight. A 40% year-over-year increase is the kind of return that makes private equity guys weep with joy. Most stock portfolios would kill for half that performance.
Here’s how the financial picture actually looks:
- Annual revenue clocking in at $164 million – respectable, if not earth-shattering
- EBITDA of $22 million, which actually represents a solid operating margin
- Debt sitting at just 10% of enterprise value – remarkably clean balance sheet
- Still owned by the same family that bought the team for that famous $80 million in 1997
That last point deserves its own paragraph. The McConnell family has held this asset through thick and mostly thin for nearly three decades. In the sports ownership world, that’s practically forever. They’ve watched their initial investment grow by more than 1,650% while never having to deal with the headache of actually winning anything significant. Sometimes the tortoise really does beat the hare.
Why Columbus Defies Traditional Hockey Logic
Here’s where it gets really interesting. If you judged NHL team values purely by on-ice success, Columbus would be worth maybe half this number. The traditional power markets dominate the top of these lists for good reason – massive corporate support, generations of fans, media markets that make advertisers salivate. Columbus has none of that pedigree.
So what’s driving this valuation explosion?
Part of it is simple mathematics. The entire NHL has been on a valuation tear lately, fueled by new television deals, gambling revenue, and the league’s growing international appeal. But Columbus is outperforming even that rising tide. The secret sauce appears to be a combination of smart arena economics and being in exactly the right place at the right time.
The real money in sports ownership these days isn’t always about winning championships. Sometimes it’s about controlling the building and capturing all the ancillary revenue that comes with it.
Nationwide Arena remains one of the best examples of this principle in action. Built with virtually no public money – a rarity in sports facility construction – the arena is fully controlled by the team ownership. Concerts, college basketball, whatever events they can book all flow straight to the bottom line. In a league where many teams are still fighting with municipalities over arena leases, that’s pure gold.
The Attendance Paradox
Now, I have to address the elephant in the room: those attendance numbers. The building holds 18,500 for hockey. Average attendance this season? 17,040. That’s actually pretty decent – about 92% capacity – and it’s barely changed from last year despite the team being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention before American Thanksgiving.
Think about that for a second. In many markets, fans punish bad teams by staying home. In Columbus, they’re still showing up. Not in Toronto-level numbers, obviously, but consistently enough that the building feels full most nights. There’s something genuinely impressive about a fan base that keeps coming back despite never really getting the ultimate reward.
Perhaps that’s the real Columbus story – resilience. The fans have it. The ownership has it. Even the organization seems to have developed a certain comfort with being the underdog that never quite becomes the favorite. And strangely enough, that consistency has become its own kind of strength.
What This Means for the NHL’s Future
The Blue Jackets’ valuation jump matters far beyond Ohio. It proves something that league executives have been saying for years: hockey can work in non-traditional markets. When the NHL expanded to places like Tampa Bay, Anaheim, and Carolina in the 1990s, plenty of people called it crazy. Columbus was part of that same expansion wave, and the early years were rough. Really rough.
But here we are in 2025, and almost all of those “non-traditional” markets have proven viable. Some have even produced champions. The fact that Columbus – arguably the least likely success story of that entire expansion era – can be worth $1.4 billion speaks volumes about how far the league has come.
It also changes the conversation about future expansion. If Columbus can reach these heights, suddenly cities that seemed completely off the radar start looking interesting. The league’s valuation floor keeps rising, which means even the “worst” NHL market is still an incredible business opportunity.
| Team | Purchase Price | Year | 2025 Value | Multiple |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | $80M | 1997 | $1.4B | 17.5x |
| Vegas Golden Knights | $500M | 2016 | ~$1.5B (est.) | 3x |
| Seattle Kraken | $650M | 2021 | ~$1.2B | 1.8x |
Look at that first line again. The original Columbus ownership group has achieved the kind of return that makes even the most successful expansion teams look modest. Patience, it seems, really can pay off in sports ownership.
The Personal Side of Sports Ownership
I’ve always found the McConnell family’s story particularly fascinating. They’re not the flashy billionaire type that dominates sports ownership headlines. They’re Ohio business people who made a bet on their hometown and stuck with it through every imaginable challenge. No Cup final appearances to boost the brand. No superstar savior (sorry, Rick Nash fans). Just steady, methodical growth in a market that many experts thought would never work.
In an era where team ownership often feels like musical chairs among the ultra-wealthy, there’s something refreshing about owners who actually seem to care about the community they’re in. The fact that they’ve never threatened to move the team – despite having every financial incentive to consider markets with more upside – says something about their character.
Where Do They Go From Here?
The big question now: is this the peak, or just another step? The NHL’s national television deals keep getting richer. Gambling revenue continues to grow. International interest in hockey is higher than ever. All the macro trends point toward continued appreciation across the league.
For Columbus specifically, the path forward seems reasonably clear. Keep the building busy with non-hockey events. Continue developing young talent through the draft (something they’ve actually done quite well in recent years). Maybe – just maybe – put together a team that can make some playoff noise in the next few years.
Even if they never win the Cup, the financial success is already secured. The Blue Jackets have become the ultimate proof that you don’t need to be a glamour market to build something valuable. Sometimes all it takes is staying power, smart business decisions, and a fan base that shows up even when the wins don’t.
In a league obsessed with the bright lights of the big markets, Columbus has quietly built something remarkable. One billion four hundred million dollars worth of remarkable, to be exact. And honestly? That’s a pretty good success story, Cup or no Cup.
The next time someone tells you that only the big traditional markets matter in hockey, remember the Columbus Blue Jackets. Remember that $80 million investment from 1997. Remember that 40% jump in a single year. Sometimes the best stories in sports aren’t about who wins the trophy – they’re about who builds something that lasts.
