NHL Blue Jackets hurting for money

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AFP) - Twelve million dollars in annual losses for the Columbus Blue Jackets are jeopardizing the National Hockey League team's future just as it has become competitive.

Columbus Chamber, a business group in the Midwest city, said Thursday that the team needed financial support through such means as new tax income or a basketball team to pay rent at its privately owned arena.

But it's unlikely more clubs will be looking to come to Columbus given the hardships of the Blue Jackets, who finally reached the NHL playoffs last season after being added as an expansion club nine years ago.

The Blue Jackets, who lost to Detroit in the first round of the playoffs, will work with public and private groups to change an economic model that leaves the team with "significant disadvantages" over rivals, club president Mike Priest said.

Area voters have rejected taxes to support the arena three times, include a tax hike on alcohol and cigarettes that would have financed a county government takeover of the facility.