Logan has helped make Columbus a destination city for sports

As the city of Columbus has grown over the past three decades, so has the sports culture. 

In November 1996, with the popularity of the Columbus Chill ECHL franchise showing no signs of abating, Columbus Hockey Limited submitted an application to bring an NHL team to town. Thirty years later, the Blue Jackets are celebrating their 25th season, delivering a hockey boom to the city and turning downtown into a destination. 

That same year, the Columbus Crew debuted as the first franchise in Major League Soccer, which was trying to build on the World Cup and establish itself in bringing the world’s game to the United States. In the past three decades, the Crew has won three MLS championships, brought some of the world’s biggest stars to Columbus and moved in down the street from Nationwide Arena. 

The Columbus Clippers also moved downtown in 2009, filling the award-winning Huntington Park throughout the summer and winning championships of their own. The Memorial Tournament continues to bring PGA Tour stars to Columbus, Ohio State athletics is thriving, the Arnold Sports Festival has become a cultural touchstone, and the city has become a destination for big events from NCAA championships to Olympic sports. 

Add in the Columbus Fury and Columbus Aviators and the sports scene has never been bigger in Columbus, and much of the story can be told by walking down Nationwide Boulevard. Built in the last three decades, Nationwide Arena, Huntington Park and ScottsMiracle-Gro Field are beautiful facilities that bring millions of fans to downtown Columbus on a near daily basis throughout the year.  

Just across the street from Nationwide Arena, Linda Logan has watched it all happen – and in many ways, contributed to the success. The CEO and president of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission has played a major part in establishing the city as a destination, bringing in marquee events and supporting Columbus’ sports institutions. 

In many ways, Logan was the perfect person in the perfect place at the perfect time. Her endless positivity, resourcefulness and creativity have created her reputation as a go-to host in the sports world, and she arrived in Columbus just as the population, corporate support and readiness for high-level athletics were exploding. 

“In the early days, I can remember waving the banner of Columbus at these sales trips or trade shows, and people would say, ‘Columbus? Which Columbus are you? Columbus, Ohio? Columbus, Georgia? Columbia?’” Logan said. “It would be like, ‘Oh my goodness, really? We’re in the top 20 cities (in population) in the country,’ but it took a while. 

“As people started to come here, people move here for a job and they want to stay. We’re a very cool city and I would rank us with just about anyone. So now compared to the early days, people are calling us, and we are really a great sports destination.” 

Blue Jackets Memories

In many ways, the growth of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, the Blue Jackets and the city of Columbus are intertwined. 

Nationwide Arena has been the linchpin of development in downtown, serving as the catalyst for the creation of the Arena District, which has since welcomed the Clippers and Crew. 

The Blue Jackets also made Columbus a major league city in the eyes of many, as the franchise was the first in one of the four major sports leagues to come to town. The tireless commitment from founder John H. McConnell and others to bring the franchise to Columbus was a watershed moment for the city, as the puck drop on the opening season in October 2000 represented something much bigger than hockey. 

“One of my favorite memories of the Columbus Blue Jackets is Opening Night and just the emotion that everyone felt for Mr. McConnell,” Logan said. “I still get a little misty thinking about it or talking about it. I think that night when he stepped onto that ice, he got this authentic ovation just from all of us to say, ‘Thank you. We knew we could do it, and now it’s happening.’ So I still point to that as one of my favorite moments.” 

In the years since, the Blue Jackets have continued to enjoy phenomenal support from the fan base, as well as contributed to a boom in youth and adult participation in the sport. NHL players have come up through the ranks in the city and even played for the Blue Jackets, while youth hockey teams have competed for and won national titles.

In addition, the NHL has come to view Columbus as a prime city for its biggest events. Columbus hosted the NHL Draft in 2007, welcomed the league’s best players during All-Star Weekend in 2015 and was the stage for one of the most-watched games in NHL history when the Stadium Series came to Ohio Stadium a year ago.

The Greater Columbus Sports Commission has taken on a supporting role in hosting each of those events, but when asked about some of her favorite Blue Jackets-related experiences over the years, Logan first pointed to 2002. 

In March of that year, the city hosted the Seventh Annual Willie O’Ree All-Star Weekend, which featured kids aged 10-12 who were participants in the NHL Diversity Task Force program. The game drew a record crowd in excess of 4,000 fans at Nationwide Arena and helped introduce the history of the game to Columbus, with O’Ree – the NHL’s first Black player – in attendance. 

“You got to learn about the history of the sport,” Logan said. “I love it being 25 years later and how sophisticated our fans are now with their knowledge of the sport, but we all had to learn. We had to learn about the history of the game and who were those pioneers, and just to hang out with Willie was a cool thing. We got to learn about him and the role he played in really trying to get more diverse players in the league, and that was very cool, and it was kind of a building block.” 

Logan also remembers the excitement of having such legends as Wayne Gretzky in Columbus for other marquee NHL events, and the crowning achievement over the years was last year’s Stadium Series game between the Blue Jackets and Red Wings. 

On a chilly night in one of the most iconic venues in sports, 94,751 fans – the second-largest crowd in league history – packed Ohio Stadium for a game more than two decades in the making. In a pivotal game in the Eastern Conference standings, the Blue Jackets delighted fans by scoring in the final minutes to post a 5-3 win over the Red Wings.  

“You think about the fact that the game really meant something in the standings, and all of the things that you hope for and they come to fruition,” Logan said. “Sometimes you can’t control the weather or the outcome of the actual games themselves, but now in looking back, you can kind of take credit for that, too. The fact that it all came together was amazing.” 

Making Columbus a Destination 

Logan always knew she wanted to work in sports; she just never could have imagined the path she ended up taking. 

Growing up in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, loving the then-Cleveland Indians, Logan dreamed of making a career out of her passion. Her goal was to become one of the first female sportswriters covering Major League Baseball, and after keeping statistics for her high school sports teams, she went to Ohio University intent on studying journalism. 

Logan quickly realized, though, that writing was not her forte, but she developed a relationship with Dr. Charles Higgins, who established the school’s highly ranked Sports Administration program. Higgins pushed Logan to get a degree through the program, setting her on a path for a job in sports. 

She began her career in Milwaukee and then moved on to Kansas City, which had one of the country’s first sports commissions and was a hub for hosting major NCAA events like the Final Four.  

Logan then moved to Columbus, first waiting tables and working in retail before taking a job working at the Greater Columbus Convention Center booking sporting events for the venue. She had family in town – her sister lived in Columbus and had two young children – and soon came to a realization. 

Logan saw firsthand what a sports commission could do in Kansas City, and with her experience hosting sports at the Convention Center, she saw an opportunity for Columbus to explode as a destination city. 

“The whole time, my friends were taking bets when I was coming back to Kansas City,” Logan says now with a laugh. “But then I got this job at the Convention Center, started really loving it here, and I felt like I could make a real difference. That’s the one thing about Columbus for most people who don’t know much about our city, you can move here with an idea like I did and get a seat at the table and start working on things. 

“People collaborate so well, and it’s one of the proudest moments for me is that I came to a destination that was willing to be so open-minded about creating something special.” 

Logan started working with Experience Columbus in 1997, and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission was founded in 2002 with Logan as its head. She credits such figures as then-Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith, Brian Ellis of Nationwide Realty Investors and Doug Kridler, then of Experience Columbus and now the president and CEO of the Columbus Foundation, as those who saw the potential and worked with the Sports Commission to make it happen.  

“I could never have imagined our city or even our sports commission could have grown by such leaps and bounds, but the timing was perfect,” Logan said. 

A Legacy of Growth 

Indeed, the events – thousands in all – that the Greater Columbus Sports Commission has either hosted or assisted with can hold its own with any city in the country. 

At the top of the list is the Women’s Final Four, which staged one of its most successful tournaments ever at Nationwide Arena in 2018 and is set to return in 2027. Columbus and the Sports Commission will also host the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball tournament in 2027 for the third time, while ScottsMiracle-Gro Field was recently announced as a venue for the 2028 Summer Olympics soccer tournament.  

The Sports Commission also has played a pivotal role in such events as the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and other U.S. Olympic sports competitions coming to Columbus, and the body has provided hosting and support for events both big and small.  

The three core principles of the commission are to enhance the image of Columbus, to enrich the quality of life for everyone who lives and works here, and to drive economic and social development through sports. 

In all, the Sports Commission has hosted or assisted with almost 1,400 events since its inception, bringing more than 45 different sports and nearly $2 billion in visitor spending to the city. In 2024, Sports Business Journal named Columbus as a top-10 sports business city for hosting events, and Logan has earned honors from local and national organizations for her efforts in making it happen.  

The Sports Commission is also part of the city’s IgniteHER campaign, which was introduced earlier this month with the goal of making Columbus the capital of women’s sports in the country. Many of the top events the city has hosted over the years have been women’s events, and the opportunity to grow and support the community has never been bigger. 

The Columbus Fury is in its third season, while the city has an eye on bringing professional women’s soccer and even hockey to town. The venture is supported by Columbus mayor Andrew Ginther, whose daughter fell in love with sports attending events like the Women’s Final Four and NCAA Volleyball Championships. 

For Logan, who grew up dreaming of working in sports but found closed doors before they gradually opened, it’s the perfect cap on her career.  

“It’s kind of in a way my life’s work, if I were to say, coming to this amazing crescendo,” Logan said. “It’s so rewarding to be able to see that come to life, and sometimes I have to pinch myself and say, ‘I could never have imagined (all of this). Do I really still get paid to do this?’ This is something that’s so meaningful. It’s amazing.” 

Through it all – the nights when all three stadiums on Nationwide Boulevard are hosting events, or when a big event comes to town – Logan is at the forefront, always watching and always cheering on our teams and our city. In the past three decades, she’s helped establish Columbus as one of the top sports cities in the country, and the future is even brighter.  

Logan may one day turn the keys to the Sports Commission over to the next generation of leaders, but her work and her impact will live on.  

“I often say that Linda Logan gets a lot of credit, but we have this amazing staff,” she said. “I often equate it to the credits of a movie. You’re watching and you see that at the end of the film, there were hundreds of people it took to pull it off, and that’s how I feel about the sports commission. We’ve had so many people in those credit lines that have played their part, big and small, to make the destination so special. 

“So looking ahead to the next 25 years, what’s that list going to look like? It’s going to be pretty profound, and I’ll always be in the background cheering it on.”