Nationwide Arena is on track to finish its fiscal 2013 with a $500,000 operating profit, even though arena managers had planned for a $260,000 loss when they put together the budget a year ago.

Helping the 18,000-seat facilityâ€™s finances, said Xen Riggs, arena chief operating officer, was a number of factors, including better-than-expected revenue from concerts and savings in labor costs during the National Hockey League lockout that wiped out more than 20 home games for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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â€œYou just donâ€™t know,â€ Riggs told Business First Columbus Monday after the annual meeting of the Columbus Arena Management LLC board, which oversees the arenaâ€™s operations. â€œYou plan for the average when you budget, but you can have a concert swing the numbers by a couple hundred thousand dollars either way. ... There will also be years when you may have a deficit.â€

But not this fiscal year, which ends June 30. In addition to the concert revenue and savings during the NHL lockout, arena management has been able to defer some expenses and improve operating efficiency to keep this yearâ€™s $18.7 million budget in the black, Riggs said.

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Any operating profit will go into a reserve fund to cover any future losses. That could be in the coming fiscal year with the Columbus Arena Management board signing off on a budget that projects an operating loss of $229,207 on revenue of $18.8 million for the year that will end June 30, 2014.

Arena events are expected to generate about $14.6 million in revenue this fiscal year. The second biggest revenue source will be about $3.8 million from the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, which bought the arena in 2011 in a complicated deal aimed at keeping the Blue Jackets from leaving Columbus.

The authority uses a portion of the casino tax revenue received by Columbus and the county to subsidize Nationwide Arenaâ€™s operations.

Riggs and his staff also manage Ohio State Universityâ€™s Jerome Schottenstein Center. The benefits from that arrangement have contributed to financial results at Nationwide Arena, said Brian Ellis, a Columbus Arena Management board member and president of Nationwide Realty Investors Ltd., which developed much of the Arena District.

â€œWeâ€™re really pleased with the Ohio State team and benefits weâ€™ve gotten from working closely with Ohio State,â€ Ellis told me. â€œItâ€™s really been great for the Arena District and both buildings.â€

Jeff Bell covers public policy, utilities, energy and the business of sports for Business First Columbus, a sister publication of Sporting News.