After years of struggling with mediocre rosters and declining attendance the Columbus Blue Jackets in recent years appeared to have turned the corner.

The Jackets last season made their first playoff appearance in franchise history and combined with a good early start to this season their attendance has increased, from 28^th overall in 2008 to 25^th last season to 20^th thus far in 2009-10.

Conventional hockey wisdom claims struggling franchises can improve their chances for survival in their respective markets by icing a playoff contender but for the Blue Jackets however that might not be the case.

A recent report by the Columbus Chamber claims the city might have trouble retaining the Blue Jackets as the club has lost an average of $12 million per season.

The report “offers a variety of options for strengthening the hockey team's financial position, such as new taxes or fees or selling shares to other investors or the general public.

Other suggestions include allowing the team to renegotiate its lease for Nationwide Arena or trying to attract a second major tenant, such as a basketball team.

"It is important that our community retain this team," said Dave Blom, chairman of the Columbus Chamber board.”

James Mirtle has a detailed analysis of the Blue Jackets problems, noting in particular the fact a private company owns their arena, meaning the club “pays significant rent (about $3.5-million annually), receives no arena perks and ticket prices remain fairly low.”

Even the league’s revenue sharing program isn’t enough as Mirtle points out to address the problem, citing the Dispatch article:

"If the Blue Jackets had free rent and arena-naming rights, the hockey operations would basically be breaking even, but the other business of booking concerts and events would still lose about $4 million a year."

Yikes!

It gets worse. A poll conducted by the Dispatch found 61% of readers wouldn’t support their tax dollars going toward saving the Blue Jackets.

Mirtle cites as the Jackets biggest problem their inability to keep pace with a rising salary cap.

"Teams like Columbus and Nashville are in tough to compete in a league with a payroll of more than $35- or $40-million and probably always will be."

Agreed, but if the Jackets cannot draw enough revenue to make money they’re not going to spend more on payroll, meaning they’ll show no significant improvement and thus find it difficult to draw more fans.

Mirtle suggests the Columbus market is too small but at 1.7 million (metro) it’s actually larger than Edmonton and Calgary (both with metro populations of approximately 1.1 million) and Ottawa (National Capital Region population of over 1.45 million).

The problem appears to be the arena deal as the Blue Jackets don’t own the building and as Mirtle noted receive no arena perks while ticket prices remain fairly low.

According to the Dispatch unless the Blue Jackets can find relief from their troublesome lease deal and other financial burdens, the city could lose the team.

The Dispatch posted a list of possible solutions and downsides courtesy of Ohio State University professor Stephen A. Buser.

He suggested the best bet would be some form of public-private partnership but it remains to be seen if that’s a viable alternative.

Unless something can be done to address the problems facing the Jackets their days in Columbus could be numbered.