Nationwide Arena Parking Guide

Last verified: September 14, 2026. We checked the Nationwide Arena, Arena District, ParkMobile, Columbus Blue Jackets, NHL, COTA, City of Columbus, SpotHero, ParkWhiz and Vivid Seats pages listed under Sources. Prices are what those sources published that day and can change by game.

Options at a glance

Costs are what each source published on September 14, 2026. Where a price was for a specific game, the game is named.

Arena District garages: letters, prices and rules

Nationwide Arena, 200 West Nationwide Boulevard, is run by Columbus Arena Sports & Entertainment (CASE). The arena counts over 15,000 parking spaces within a 10-minute walk; the Arena District counts 18,000 in and around the district. Both label garages and lots by letter and publish no street addresses or per-garage space counts.

The seven garages are McConnell (A), Front Street (C), Chestnut (D), Marconi (I), Arena Crossing (J), Neil Avenue (K) and Kilbourne (M). The district's parking map, dated December 2025, adds nine surface lots: Buggyworks (B), Vine (E), Fletcher (F), Broadbelt (H), Arena Crossing Lot (L), Northbank (N), Petropoulos (P), Hocking (R) and 600 Spring (S).

Official prepaid prices, September 21 vs Detroit

The arena links to ParkMobile for advance passes; the older arenadistrictparking.com address redirects there. Passes are made available a month prior for all events. On September 14 the September 21 event page was the only home date with prices:

• Arena Crossing Garage (J): $15, 0.10 miles away.
• McConnell Garage (A): $25, 0.12 miles away.
• Marconi Garage (I), listed as the Cinema Garage: $15, 0.13 miles away.
• Front Street Garage (C): $20, 0.16 miles away.
• Neil Avenue Garage (K): $15, 0.21 miles away.

Ten other rows, the Vine Lot, Arena Garage, Kilbourne, Northbank, Petropoulos, Brodbelt, Chestnut, Buggyworks, Fletcher and Hocking, read "Not available" with no reason given, so we do not call them closures. Regular-season prices were not posted, even though the October 1 opener was less than a month away.

Rules that affect what you pay

• Prepaid entry: do not pull a ticket if you pre-paid. Scan your permit entering and exiting the garage.
• Park & Dine: $3 for up to two hours. On event days, past two hours you pay the full event rate.
• Group, monthly and special-needs parking: LAZ Parking, (614) 469-5030.
• EV charging: the December 2025 map lists two charging stations at each of six garages: Level 2 at McConnell, Marconi and Neil Avenue, Level 3 at Arena Crossing, Level 4 at Front Street, and Levels 1 and 4 at Chestnut.
• Accessible entrances: the north entrance of the McConnell garage or the north-east entrance of the Front Street garage.
• Cash: the arena has converted to a cashless experience inside. Garage payment methods are not published.

Not published: garage opening times, in-and-out rules, oversized vehicle, bus and RV rules, meter rates and hours, and any 2026-27 regular-season rate. No arena, Arena District or ParkMobile page carried a closure or construction notice on September 14, and the only construction item on the district's news list, the Nationwide tower conversion (February 24, 2026), states no parking impact.

Blue Jackets 2026-27 home games at Nationwide Arena

The club's schedule announcement lists 84 games with 42 home dates and a home opener on Thursday, October 1 at 7 p.m. ET against Buffalo. Two preseason home games come first, September 21 against Detroit and September 24 against Pittsburgh, both at 7 p.m. The club's schedule page served no text to our fetch, so the regular-season dates below come from NHL's schedule API, which feeds it. The 6:15 p.m. start on October 13 is unusual and no club release confirms it. Times are Eastern.

The club's August 26, 2026 notice set the November 10 time shown and moved December 27 vs Edmonton to 6 p.m., April 6 vs Washington to 7:45 p.m. and April 8 vs Philadelphia to 7:30 p.m.

SpotHero, ParkWhiz and Vivid Seats for the September 21 game

SpotHero. Its event page for the Red Wings preseason game covers 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., one hour before and after the event, and showed 30 listings from $4.00 at the 3rd and Spring Lot (0.6 miles) to $50.00 for Hotel LeVeque valet (also 0.6 miles). The nearest garages were the GCCC Vine Street Garage, 45 Vine St., 4 minutes (0.2 miles), and the GCCC South Garage, 50 E Nationwide Blvd., 7 minutes (0.3 miles), both $25.00. SpotHero's destination page says event parking runs $10 to $25, which its own listings for this game do not match.

ParkWhiz. Its event page for September 21 at 7:00 p.m. ran from $3 at the Mike Lot, alley entrance, 0.8 miles away, to $21.74 at McConnell Garage (Lot A), 393 feet away, with Front Street at $17.40 (0.2 miles), Arena Crossing at $11.30 (0.1 miles), Marconi at $13.19 and Neil Avenue at $13.04. Two cautions. The cents rendered as superscript, so "$2174" is our reading of $21.74. And each garage price is below ParkMobile's official price for the same garage and game, with no reason given. Treat them as marketplace prices, not official rates.

Vivid Seats. Its Blue Jackets parking page showed passes from $11 for September 21, $13 for September 24, $11 for the October 1 opener and $36 for the full season. A search snippet said passes start at $21. The page wins.

Rideshare pickup and drop-off on West Street

• The arena's directions page says all pick-ups and drop-offs take place on West Street and vehicles must be attended at all times. The A to Z guide says the same about West Street.
• No named Uber or Lyft zone or geofence is published.

Getting there on COTA

The arena's directions page lists three bus approaches: lines 1, 2 or 5 south to N. High St. and Ohio Center Way, then one block west; lines 3 or 8 to Neil Ave and Vine St; or lines 6 or 9 to West Nationwide Blvd and N. Front St.

A single fare is $2.00, a day pass $4.50 and a 31-day pass $62.00, and fares are capped at $4.50 a day and $62 a calendar month. Reduced fares are $1.00, $2.25 and $31.00. Transfers are valid for two hours, with a $0.75 fee between bus types.

CBUS, which the old schedule text said ran every 10 to 15 minutes seven days a week, is not currently in service. Neither the arena nor COTA publishes game-day extra service.

Accessible parking and drop-off

• The arena's directions page lists the north entrance of the McConnell garage (A) or the north-east entrance of the Front Street garage (C) for ADA parking, and keeps the McConnell Blvd. section as a drop-off site for guests with special needs.
• Its accessibility page refers parking questions to arenadistrictparking.com/nationwide-arena/, which redirects to ParkMobile.
• No separate accessible rate is published. For September 21, McConnell was $25 and Front Street $20.

What this guide doesn't recommend

• Quoting ParkWhiz's garage prices as official. They sat below ParkMobile's for the same game and no source explains the gap.
• Pulling a ticket when you prepaid. The district says not to. Scan your permit in and out.
• Using Park & Dine for a game. Past two hours on an event day you pay the full event rate, not $3.
• Waiting for a CBUS. It is not running, and no return date is published.