Visitors say Richmond Coliseum needs to be replaced

About an hour before VCU's men's basketball team was set to take the court Sunday, Rebecca Bourne kneeled near an off-street entrance of the Richmond Coliseum to fix her hair.

The Virginia Commonwealth University junior is on the school's dance team and was preparing to perform. Most of her dance mates had changed and done their hair and makeup at home before heading to the arena, in itself unusual.

But Bourne was running late and needed to curl her hair at the Coliseum and the only place she could find was in the hallway near the Leigh Street entrance.

"Every other place we go to has a locker room or bathrooms to get ready," said Bourne, who tried a public bathroom but couldn't find an outlet for her flat iron.

The junior's inability to find a place where to prepare for a game is one of a long list of items that people find to complain about Richmond's downtown Coliseum.

In an age of state-of-the-art arenas, the 41-year-old Richmond Coliseum is woefully underwhelming. The facility has become a victim of its age as others have passed it by.

"They need to tear it down and start over," said Bob Nixon of Virginia Beach.

That the Richmond Coliseum needs to be replaced isn't news to Byron C. Marshall, Richmond's chief administrative officer. He understands but said the city is no position right now to begin building a new arena.

Nixon and his wife, Nancy, have been coming to Richmond for the annual Colonial Athletic Association's championship tournament for about 15 years.

The couple, as do many fans, believes the building is too old and lacks many of the amenities available at other arenas, including more scoreboards and larger displays to show the action on the court.

Overall, the Nixons say they would prefer to visit a nicer arena with wider seats and one that generally provides a better experience.

Many attendees complain about a disheveled-looking building with older bathrooms, cramped halls and a look of general disrepair.

"It's a little grungy," said Mary Crawford of Fairfax, who has attended the CAA tournament almost every year since 2004.

Several fans, including Nancy Nixon and Crawford, said the Coliseum sorely lacks escalators to help older people get to the upper level.

Marshall said Sunday that the city understands the need for a new arena, but "I'd say we're years away from that."

"In this down economy, we really can't afford to spend over $100 million for an arena," he said. "It's a regional effort and our regional partners are in the same situation we are. There are a lot of other priorities that would have to come first."

But the arena remains an important topic for the city, primarily because a good facility that can attract high-level acts and sporting events can be an economic boon for a municipality.

"It has a great impact. Folks who stay in hotels end up going out to other parts of the region and state," Marshall said.

Fairfax's Crawford says she comes to Richmond for the tournament but winds up traveling to sites around the area and generally using the trip as an excursion.

"I like coming to Richmond. I tour around the city. I take in the cultural sites. I enjoy it," she said.

A 2010 economic impact study conducted for the CAA found that the tournament contributed $6 million to the area's economy in 2009.

But as much as the Coliseum, which hosts several events each year, contributes to the local economy, not having a state-of-the-art facility hurts the area. That's because sporting events, music tours and other large traveling performances bypass Richmond in favor of arenas better suited to handle the productions and bigger audiences, experts say.

Among the alternatives to Richmond is the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.

A 2010 study recommended that the city needed to build a larger arena that would increase seating and help draw larger events.

It named four potential sites for the arena, though the city prefers as a site the Public Safety Building and adjoining parking lot between North Eighth and North 10th streets along East Leigh Street, Marshall said.

A more immediate concern for area officials is the future of the CAA tournament itself, which has committed to the Coliseum through 2014.

Tom Yeager, the CAA's commissioner, said the city has done a good job of creating outside events to make the experience more enjoyable for fans and making improvements to the building.

He would not commit, however, to extending the tournament's 23-year stay here. That decision, he said, will be left up to presidents of the universities that make up the conference.

"My job is to find what's best for the conference," he said. "But Richmond has set a high bar."

Still, for all the problems facing the Richmond Coliseum, 18-year-old Richmond native Treyvon Robinson likes the old building.

"It's a great atmosphere," said the Old Dominion freshman, who has been coming to the Coliseum his whole life. "It's getting a little old, but I like it. The bricks give it an old-school feel."