Postcard | Columbus, the city of the Buckeyes

(Columbus, Ohio) It is often said of the Blue Jackets that they have the misfortune of playing in a market much more inclined towards university sports than professional sports. An evening in the capital of Ohio during a Buckeyes football match helps to understand why the Jackets, despite honorable results at the box office, are incapable of replicating the success of the Predators in Nashville or the Lightning in Tampa.

This is Buckeyes town.

You can feel it around 5 p.m., three hours before the kickoff of the Ohio State-Tennessee duel. Although the mercury is -4°C – feeling like -9 due to the pesky wind factor – pedestrians line up on Neil Street, converging on the Horseshoe, Ohio Stadium's affectionate nickname due to its shape. horseshoe.

In front of us, Austin and Virginia, two health care students, walking with red sheets on their backs. Caped superheroes whose magical power is to fight the cold.

“Were you looking forward to freezing them to get here so early?”

— No, we're going to the Skull Session, the marching band rehearsal. They do this in the old basketball arena, so it's indoors! »

We allow ourselves to follow them, only to come across an unreal scene. The lower bowl is packed, mostly to watch the hundreds of musicians rehearse their pre-game songs. Four days before Christmas, they treat themselves to holiday classics, but nothing from Bündock, unfortunately.

The players, two hours before their match, then make their entrance. It's head coach Ryan Day's turn to speak. “Only one thing matters today: beating Tennessee!” », he says into the microphone. The crowd roars.

Imagine for a moment Martin St-Louis taking a detour through the Verdun Auditorium to shout into the microphone that the Canadian is going to beat the Minnesota Wild. We are far from the truisms about the importance of “having a good start” or “playing 60 minutes”.

Full bars

The pre-match barbecue is no different from what is done elsewhere. Here, a giant tent in which dozens of supporters are crowded.

There, two guys who installed a 55-inch television (just an estimate, we didn't carry a measuring tape) in the trunk of the car to watch Texas-Clemson, the late afternoon duel.

The only surprising fact: Tennessee orange is almost as widespread there as Buckeyes red. That's because the Volunteers play in Knoxville, a five-hour drive from here.

But at the Varsity Bar, the good Brett, an electrician from Detroit who came to Columbus with his partner, Kristin, for a “weekend getaway” (his words, not ours), reminds us that high-rise buildings where students live in residence are closed for the holidays. This potentially frees up thousands of tickets usually coveted by young adults who go to spend Christmas with the family.

Whatever it is, there's plenty left in town – and the Horseshoe can accommodate more than 100,000 spectators. The Varsity Bar is packed, even though the small can of Coors Light sells for $7. The legendary Out-R-Inn is also overflowing despite its second floor and its still open terrace. Still for $7, however, we are entitled to the large format of Coors, a more optimal quality-price ratio for the local student clientele. And it shows when a slightly tipsy German student comes to tell us that football is boring, before raising his markers and wishing us to fail, “because I'm German”.

Ohio State scores on its first possession. Will Howard hooks up with Jeremiah Smith in the end zone, and the Out-R-Inn explodes. Something tells us that a Boone Jenner goal, with all due respect, wouldn't provoke the same euphoria, even if it was scored in the second round of the playoffs.

With a clear 42-17 victory for Ohio State, the game allowed a series of explosions of joy in Columbus. Throughout the evening, the red of the Buckeyes was worn proudly in the streets of the city.