Thirty years of Columbus rock history papers these walls. A&R Music Bar at 391 Neil Avenue, in the Arena District entertainment quarter, sits above The Basement rock club and next door to the KEMBA Live! complex - and its name carries a double meaning its operator PromoWest holds dear: Artist and Repertoire, for the talent-scouting tradition that saw Fall Out Boy, The Killers and O.A.R. climb from these small stages to selling out the company's biggest outdoor venue; and Art and Rock, for the wa.....

A former bank in Old North Columbus now deals in craft beer and loud guitars. Ace of Cups at 2619 North High Street was opened in 2011 by Marcy Mays - guitarist of the beloved Columbus band Scrawl - who turned the handsome old bank building into the north campus area's essential bar and concert venue: a 300-capacity concert room within a 375-capacity building, run by and for the city's musicians, artists and scene lifers. A decade of Mays's stewardship made the room a fixture for up-and-coming .....

Seven varsity sports share one roof in the newest corner of Ohio State's athletics district. The Covelli Center at 2640 Fred Taylor Drive in Columbus opened on 4 June 2019 after two years of construction, a 48.9-million-dollar, 100,000-square-foot arena designed by Moody Nolan with Populous and built by Gilbane, seating 3,700 with standing room. It gave permanent competition homes to Buckeye wrestling, men's and women's volleyball, men's and women's gymnastics and both fencing programs - more th.....

American soccer's modern era has a birthplace, and it is this steel grandstand in Columbus. Historic Crew Stadium, at 1 Black and Gold Boulevard on the Ohio Expo Center grounds, opened on 15 May 1999 as Columbus Crew Stadium - the first stadium ever built by a Major League Soccer club, the 28.5-million-dollar gamble by founder Lamar Hunt that triggered the league-wide wave of soccer-specific stadiums. The opening statement was emphatic: 24,741 fans - an overflow above the 22,555 seats - watched.....

Widely praised as one of the finest ballparks in minor-league baseball, Huntington Park in downtown Columbus is the home of the Columbus Clippers and a centrepiece of the city's Arena District. Opened in 2009 to replace an older stadium, the ground was designed to bring fans close to the action while integrating into the surrounding neighbourhood, and it quickly earned national acclaim for its design and atmosphere. The ballpark holds around ten thousand spectators, with a classic open layout t.....

A flexible indoor and outdoor music venue in the Arena District of Columbus, KEMBA Live! is one of the city's busiest destinations for live entertainment. Known through its history under several corporate names, the venue was designed to operate year-round by pairing an enclosed concert hall with an adjoining open-air pavilion, allowing it to host shows of varying sizes whatever the season and weather. The indoor hall holds around two thousand people, while the outdoor stage can accommodate a l.....

A father-daughter team curates three separate live shows every day the doors open - a music operation wearing a restaurant's clothes. Natalie's Grandview, at 945 King Avenue just north of Grandview Heights in Columbus, opened in December 2019 in the 9,000-square-foot former home of the King Avenue 5 sports bar. The founders had already proven the model: Charlie and Natalie Jackson built Natalie's Coal-Fired Pizza and Live Music in Worthington from 2012, pairing gourmet pies from an Italian-impo.....

It stands on the grounds of the old Ohio State Penitentiary - the arena floor sits over the prison's former parking lot, and an insurance company's naming money is the reason Columbus has an NHL team at all. Nationwide Arena, at 200 West Nationwide Boulevard, opened on 9 September 2000 with back-to-back sold-out Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concerts. The financing made league history: after voters rejected public funding, Nationwide Insurance privately financed the 175-million-dollar building - a .....

Billed as one of the longest continually running rock clubs in the United States, the Newport Music Hall on North High Street has been a fixture of live music in Columbus for more than half a century. Set directly across from the Ohio State University campus, the historic hall began life as a movie theatre before becoming a music venue, and its grand, faded interior has hosted a remarkable procession of artists on their way up and at the height of their fame. The venue is a general-admission ha.....

It replaced a condemned grandstand and became the Ohio State Fair's big-name stage. The Celeste Center at the Ohio Expo Center, 717 East 17th Avenue in Columbus, opened in 1991 and seats 10,200 for concerts in an amphitheatre-style bowl. The name honours a governor: Richard F. Celeste, Ohio's chief executive through the 1980s and later United States Ambassador to India, whose administration oversaw the fairgrounds redevelopment after the old State Fair Grandstand was demolished in 1990. The bu.....