Attracting Free Agents — Promote A Stress Free Environment

By: Jeff Little • August 21st, 2009

Most of you are looking at the heading and wondering “What the hell is he talking about now?” If you will pause just a moment, I will enlighten and explain.

Forbes just released its list of the Most Stressful Cities in which to live in the U.S., ranking the top 40 metropolitan areas in the following categories: 1)median % drop in home prices; 2)unemployment rate; 3)cost of living; 4)air quality; 5) sunny days per year and 6)population density. Here are the results, from most stressful to least stressful:

1. Chicago
2. Los Angeles
3. New York
4. Cleveland
5. Providence
6. San Francisco
7. Detroit
8. Boston
9. Washington D.C.
10. San Jose
11. Seattle
12. Riverside (Calif.)
13. Philadelphia
14. Portland (Ore.)
15. Sacramento
16. San Diego
17. Minneapolis
18. Tampa
19. Cincinnati
20. Miami
21. Las Vegas
22. Atlanta
23. St. Louis
24. Milwaukee
25. Phoenix
26. Baltimore
27. Charlotte
28. Orlando
29. Pittsburgh
30. Indianapolis
31. Columbus
32. Houston
33. Jacksonville
34. Norfolk
35. Denver
36. Dallas
37. Kansas City
38. Nashville
39. San Antonio
40. Austin

So, from a hockey perspective (and remembering that the Canadian cities are not included in the poll), only 3 NHL towns are less stressful than Columbus — Denver, Nashville and Dallas. We take a hit on the number of sunny days per year, but do remarkably well in all of the other categories.

So, it is time to lure those free agents with a new claim — “Stress is Less In Columbus”!!! Go get ‘em, Scott!!

About

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A native of the SF Bay Area, my first exposure to hockey was the SF/Oakland/California Golden Seals, including Charlie Finley and the white skates. Fast forward to the late 1980's when Gretzky and the Kings came up to the Bay Area for an exhibition game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, for which we had glass seats. I was at the first San Jose Sharks game in the Cow Palace, and followed them for their first few pathetic years, before moving to Columbus in 1994. I attended the first pro-NHL rally downtown, and have been a season ticket holder since Day 1, wife & I are active in the Jacket Backers, and son is an avid fan as well. I cover the Jackets for Inside Hockey, and contribute regularly to a variety of hockey sites. I maintain contact with the Jackets organization, and like to dig into stories, bringing a fresh, and sometimes irreverent perspective to hockey.

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  1. Comment by Anonymous on 23 August 2009:

    Nice post! Columbus seems to be getting good press amongst NHL players and this kind of information helps. The Dispatch had an article today talking about the things the team/wives do help incoming players/families adjust. I'm not sure how many teams do things like this, but it is good stuff.

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