The NBA is locked out and, besides, the Cleveland Cavaliers are still in the early stages of the post-LeBron era.
The Cleveland Browns are headed in the right direction, but still rebuilding. The Cincinnati Bengals are more Bengal-like than ever.
Savy fans appreciate the solid performance of the Columbus Crew this summer. Unfortunately, there probably aren’t as many savy Crew fans as their ought to be.
The Buckeye football team, always the 800-pound gorilla in the room, shows a lot of promise. And with a new coach, new quarterback and new conference format, there’s bound to be just as much interest as always in the Scarlet and Gray. However, Ohio State is still escaping the shadow of an NCAA investigation.
That leaves the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The optimism of Blue Jackets fans is both palpable and unusual, given this team’s history. An active offseason has renewed interest in the club, though, and the enthusiasm was on full display today at a fan festival known as Cannon Fest (or #CannonFest on Twitter).
Somewhere north of 100 Blue Jackets supporters, bloggers, and the occasional Columbus media member curious about the pulse of the fanbase gathered at a central Ohio Buffalo Wild Wings.
The centerpiece of the event was the unveiling of a new Blue Jackets team video by Tom Larrow.
Larrow lives in northern Ohio. He explained his video love letter to the CBJ as his contribution to the team, since geography prevents him from being able to contribute in other ways.
(Larrow is known to the online community as “Skraut,” and he has a number of other highly watchable videos on YouTube, including a second tribute to the upcoming season.)
The event also raised around $900 for cancer research.
More than anything, though, today’s gathering showed how engaged and hopeful the Columbus Blue Jackets fans are. That’s good, because the Blue Jackets will be carrying more than the flag this season. They’ll be carrying the hopes of Columbus sports fans.
Fear The Hat 
Thanks, Lori, not only for coming to the event, but for your kind words when we chatted.
I meant it. Keep up the good work!
Really appreciated you making it down! Glad you had a good time!
I had a great time, and I was very happy to see the support for the CBJ!
I am not a CBJ fan, I am a fan, however, of this city. I really want people to see that Columbus is a great hockey city going back to the days of the Chill. A good NHL team here will show that to the world. Plus, Nationwide is such a beautiful building….it is deserving of a good team playing in it!
How about the Checkers, Golden Seals and Owls? Hockey was here as far back as 50 years ago. Not to mention the OSU team. While not at the same level of talent, we have a very long hockey history.
And now, finally, the light at the end of the tunnel may be something other than an oncoming freight train for the CBJ.