The 7 best sports to watch near Upper Arlington that aren’t Buckeye football, ranked
Floodlit soccer stadium with supporters standing behind a goal on a summer evening
Seven live sporting events within 25 minutes of Upper Arlington, ranked by atmosphere against ticket price — starting with a soccer stadium where the singing never stops.
There are 353 other days in the year
Ohio State football owns seven or eight Saturdays each autumn and dominates every conversation about sport in central Ohio, which leaves an enormous amount of very good live sport underattended. Columbus has a Major League Soccer club with two league championships this decade, an NHL franchise, a Triple-A baseball team with one of the best small ballparks in the country, a major PGA Tour event in the suburb next door, and a university athletics department that fields nationally ranked teams in a dozen sports nobody buys a hotel room for.
Everything in this ranking is within 25 minutes of Upper Arlington by car, most of it inside fifteen. I have ordered on atmosphere first, ticket value second and ease of access third, because a $12 seat at a great ballpark beats a $95 seat at a half-empty arena every time. Ticket prices move constantly and playoff pricing bears no relation to regular-season pricing, so treat the bands here as orientation and confirm with the team's own box office before you plan a trip around a fixture.
1. Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field
The Crew are the best live sporting ticket in the region and it is not close. The club plays in a purpose-built stadium of a little over 20,000 on the northern edge of downtown, opened in 2021 after supporters famously fought off an attempt to move the franchise, and the atmosphere carries that history. The Nordecke — the standing supporters' section behind the north goal — sings, drums and holds up tifo for ninety minutes regardless of the scoreline, and the sound in a compact bowl with a low roof is genuinely loud.
The season runs roughly late February to October with playoffs into November, so it covers the months when there is no football and no hockey. Regular-season tickets commonly start in the $30 to $50 band with premium seats well above; big rivalry fixtures cost more. It is a fifteen-minute drive from Upper Arlington and the surrounding Arena District has plenty of pre-match bars and garages. Sit in the corners next to the Nordecke if you want the noise without committing to standing and singing for the full match.
2. Columbus Clippers at Huntington Park
The best value in central Ohio sport is a Triple-A baseball ticket. Huntington Park, on the western edge of downtown, opened in 2009 and is repeatedly named among the finest minor league ballparks in America: an open concourse that lets you walk the whole stadium without losing sight of the field, a lawn berm, a picnic terrace, and a skyline framed beyond left field. The Clippers are the top affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, so you are watching players who will be in the major leagues within a year or two.
Tickets frequently sit under $20 and lawn seats less; a family of four can watch a game, eat and park for less than the cost of two seats at almost anything else here. The season runs from late March or early April into September, with fireworks nights, dollar-dog promotions and a genuinely relaxed crowd. It is thirteen minutes from Kingsdale. The catch is that baseball at this level is a social occasion first and a sporting contest second — if you need stakes, this is not your night.
3. Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena
The NHL season runs October to April and Nationwide Arena, in the district it gave its name to, is a properly good hockey building — 18,000-odd seats, steep enough that even the upper bowl sees the puck, with the practice rink visible through glass off the atrium. Hockey rewards live attendance more than almost any sport on television: the speed and the hits do not translate through a screen, and the crowd noise on a power play in the third period is the loudest thing in the city on a winter night.
Ticket prices vary enormously by opponent — a Tuesday game against a mid-table western team can be found cheap, while Original Six visitors and weekend fixtures cost multiples of that. Budget from around $40 upward for a reasonable seat and expect arena food and drink prices. Fifteen minutes from Upper Arlington, garages within two blocks at roughly $10 to $25 on game nights. Confirm the schedule with the club; NHL fixture lists shift for national broadcast and the arena also hosts concerts and other events.
4. Ohio State hockey, volleyball and women's basketball
The university's non-football programmes are the sharpest value on this list. Men's hockey plays at Value City Arena inside the Schottenstein Center, four miles from Tremont Road, in a building far too large for the crowd, which means good seats are cheap and the student section is close enough to matter. The women's hockey programme has been among the strongest in the country in recent seasons and plays in a much smaller rink where you sit almost on the boards — the best-kept secret in Columbus sport.
The Covelli Center, opened in 2019 beside the Schottenstein, hosts volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics in a 3,700-seat room where the atmosphere is dense rather than diluted. Women's basketball at the Schott has been drawing serious crowds. Tickets across these sports frequently run $10 to $30. Campus parking is the complication: garage rates and event restrictions change by day, so check the university's visitor parking guidance and the athletics schedule before driving over, particularly on any weekend when the football stadium is also in use.
5. The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, Dublin
Every early June the PGA Tour comes to Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, nine miles from Upper Arlington, for the tournament Jack Nicklaus founded and still hosts. It is one of the elevated events on the tour calendar, which means a field stacked with the world's top players walking a course built into rolling wooded terrain that is far more dramatic than central Ohio's reputation suggests. Spectators can get remarkably close, the natural amphitheatres around several greens are superb, and the whole week has a garden-party quality.
It ranks fifth only because it is one week a year and tickets, hospitality and parking need arranging well in advance — daily grounds passes, practice-round tickets and shuttle arrangements all differ, so buy through the tournament's official channels and check the current year's ticket structure rather than assuming. If you are in town that week, take a practice round on the Tuesday or Wednesday: cheaper, quieter, and players actually talk to the gallery. The other one-week fixture worth knowing is the Arnold Sports Festival downtown in early March.
6 and 7. Harness racing, motorsport and the running calendar
Sixth is Scioto Downs on the south side, roughly 20 to 25 minutes from Upper Arlington, where standardbred harness racing runs through the warmer months alongside a casino floor. It is a strange, cheap, faintly nostalgic evening — free or low-cost admission, trotters and pacers under lights, and $2 bets that make you care about horse eight for ninety seconds. Confirm the racing calendar and post times with the track, because live race dates are seasonal and do not run every night the building is open.
Seventh is the calendar of participation-and-spectating events: the Columbus Marathon in October, which winds through Clintonville, the university district and German Village with genuinely enthusiastic street support, and the spring half marathon downtown. Further afield, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Lexington, about an hour north-east, hosts an IndyCar weekend in midsummer on one of the best road circuits in the country. Both need dates confirmed with the organisers; race and road-closure schedules are published annually and change.
The verdict and how to plan around a visit
If you are here for one night and want the best atmosphere, buy a Crew ticket and sit in the corner beside the Nordecke. If you are here with children or on a budget, buy four Clippers tickets, get the lawn, and spend the difference on ice cream. In the depths of winter with neither of those running, take the hockey — either the Blue Jackets for the spectacle or Ohio State's rinks for the value. The Memorial is worth planning a June trip around if you like golf at all.
Logistics from Upper Arlington are simple: downtown venues are twelve to fifteen minutes by car, campus is under ten, and rideshares run roughly $14 to $25 each way to the Arena District. Parking garages downtown charge event rates of about $10 to $25. Season schedules for every team here are published in advance and shift for broadcast, so verify the specific fixture, kick-off or first pitch with the club's official box office before booking a hotel night around it.
Before you book
What people ask before booking Upper Arlington.
Columbus Clippers baseball at Huntington Park, where tickets frequently sit under $20 and lawn seating costs less. Ohio State's non-revenue sports — volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics and hockey at the Covelli Center and Value City Arena — commonly run $10 to $30 and are competitive at national level.
March through May is the densest overlap: Crew soccer, Blue Jackets hockey heading into the playoffs, the Clippers opening their season and Ohio State spring sports all running at once. October is the other strong month, with hockey starting, the Crew in the playoff run-in and the Columbus Marathon.
It is around six miles, twelve to fifteen minutes by car, with garages and surface lots across the Arena District at roughly $10 to $25 on match nights. A rideshare runs about $14 to $25 each way. COTA serves downtown from the Lane Avenue and Fifth Avenue corridors — check timings with the operator.
