As a sports town, Richmond is just D-ifferent
If you are interested in tightening your abdominals or improving your sex life, Men's Health magazine has plenty of advice for you.
Every issue, or so it seems, has stories on those topics.
That's all well and good. But there is one thing about Men's Health that is not so good.
In the July/August issue, the magazine ranked America's most sports obsessed towns.
Arlington, Texas, was judged to have the most sports-obsessed citizens. It is ranked No.1 and has a grade of A+.
Richmond? Well, we were a little bit behind Arlington. Quite a bit, actually.
Richmond is 92nd and has a grade of D-.
Being the 92nd best sports town in the country is not the main problem. After all, we live in a big country.
It's the Dthat stings.
Richmond is a worse sports town than Jacksonville, Fla. (sixth, A-)?
Take the NFL's Jaguars out of Jacksonville, and what do you have? The country's largest city in terms of square miles. That doesn't really jump out at you as an essential ingredient in a top sports town.
Richmond is worse than Anchorage, Alaska (10th, B+) which has, what, the first leg of the Iditarod?
Worse than Manchester, N.H. (11th, B+)?
Are we talking sports or presidential primaries?
Richmond has its shortcomings as a sports town. Some minor-league teams struggle here. But that should be taken as a sign of good taste, not bad sports fans.
And we did, uh, misplace that Triple-A baseball team. That can happen anywhere.
If Richmond is one of the worst sports towns in the country, why are Eastern League executives so intent on placing a minor-league baseball team in this market?
They think Richmond will be a jewel in their crown.
Take that, Men's Health.
Look at the two NASCAR Sprint Cup events at Richmond International Raceway. Each draws more than 100,000 fans.
Men's Health included NASCAR figures in its ratings. That alone should have boosted Richmond's ranking and grade.
Then, there is VCU men's basketball, which has about 6,100 rather avid fans at each home game.
The University of Richmond is the Division I Football Championship Subdivision defending national champion.
The Washington Redskins count about 3,000 Richmond-area fans among their season-ticket holders. Thousands more avidly follow the team.
Thousands of area residents go to Charlottesville and Blacksburg for University of Virginia and Virginia Tech football and basketball games.
You can't go to a mall without seeing someone wearing something that says Virginia Tech, Virginia or Redskins.
In Richmond, we tend to work on our abdominals by doing something, not by reading a magazine and thinking, "Yeah, I need to try that."
The Ukrop's Monument Avenue race is one of the top four 10Ks in the country in terms of participants.
The James River and James River Park system always are buzzing with activity.
The setting there is so enticing the organizers of the national XTERRA triathlon series feel Richmond must be included on the schedule.
Richmond isn't a Dsports town. It is a different type of sports town. Always has been. Always will be.
That's not such a bad thing.
Contact Paul Woody at (804) 649-6444 or
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May I suggest that writers of future Times Dispatch articles NEVER bring up Manchester, NH again. They’re obviously a sensitive bunch and they take mentions of the primaries quite personally ;)
What is “different” about Richmond, in my opinion, is that there is rabid interest in high school and college sports, then a dramatic dropoff when it comes to professional sports. There is a relatively small enclave of Redskins fans, and Richmond has NASCAR twice a year (with many of the fans coming from other cities), but that’s it.
So, Paul, you speak with no factual knowledge to back up your comparisons. In your contrast with Manchester, NH you question what they have besides primaries. My friend, I grew up in Richmond, love it and think highly of it. I also now live near Manchester, NH. Richmond is its own worst enemy. Afterall you lost the Braves… Manchester has a solid baseball team that sells out regularly and plays in a new ballpark, a hockey team that sells out every season and plays in a nice new arena, an Arena 2 team that has strong following, and sells out two D1 top ranked college hockey teams (UNH and Dartmouth) in every session they play in the 12,000 seat Verizon Center Arena. Manchester built a new baseball park on the river front in two years (concept to game), with no bickering for 10 years. Oh, and while I ran Richmond’s marathon eight times, Manchester also runs a marathon every fall, and in the first year (2008) the full marathon drew more runners than I saw in eight years in Richmond COMBINED. By the way, Paul, Greater Manchester is about 1/4 the size of Richmond. And here is another jab of facts for you, Manchster’s airport hosts more passengers and airlines than Richmond ever dreamed of… and Manchester’s got Southwest. Yeah, we like our primaries, but when it comes to sports I think your D- was a gift… probably thanks to the fact that you do have VCU basketball. Without that, solidly an F. Sorry Paul… hope you come up and see what a real sports town looks like, and yeah, primary season is fun, too.
While I would like to see sports succeed in Richmond (especially the Kickers since they deliver a good team year after year) in the end is it such a bad thing that we find better things to do than pay to watch other people play a game? Personally when I moved here 8 years ago, the Braves were the farthest thing from my mind. I was interested in where the good restaurants, clubs, and parks were. I found them and I enjoy them. I tend to think the more sports crazy a town is, the less there is to do there as a whole.
Richmond not a sports town? Are you kidding me?
Why I see squirrels racing each other every single day in a made dash for love and food.
And have you tried merging into I-64 from the Expressway at the “rush-hour”? I mean if that is not professional level competition then, friends, I don’t know what is.
Richmond is chocked full of dogs and cats who are engage in a rivalry that matches or bests any you can name in America. Period, and that means period.
Have you seen the fishing competition at Belle Isle lately? Excuse me, but those fierce competitors keep me coming back for more, and more, and yes, more.
And did I mention the squirrels?
Having sports fans of distant teams in your town does not make it a “sports town”. Having Redskins fans living here is no big accomplishment. The NFL has fans in Idaho. Football is the biggest sport in America. Look at Steeler Nation or the Cowboys.
Richmond is small time at best. UR and VCU are good programs in basketball, but far from the bright lights of the Big East or ACC. Division II Virginia Union is a good program in basketball, but no one really takes it seriously except their student population. UR Football had a great season, but they haven’t yet proved they are going to be a Division 1-AA powerhouse. And still, it is 1-AA.
Racing? That is the big attraction here but only twice per year and many Nascar fans travel from elsewhere to attend. That does not make it “exclusively Richmond.“
Being a sports town to me means the ability to have local sports options that are well attended and supported, not just a few good seasons by the teams here and there.
Even if we get Minor League baseball back, that does not make it a sports town either. Just one step towards progress.
Richmond isn’t a D- sports town. That’s actually a pretty good grade for Richmond.
The NASCAR races? Maybe two in 10 fans are from Richmond. The rest travel in for them.
3,000 Skins fans out of a population of 1.3 million. WOW! We’re Skins C-C-C-C-RRAAAAAAAZZZZZEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
VCU basketball? They’re in what league? Nine of 10 Richmonders say “Ummm…. dunno”
What Woody did is search the recesses of his brain to try to name every single sporting activity that goes on in Richmond, then declare Richmond’s a sports town because we have a park system. You left out lobbyists running to the Capitol when an emergency vote takes place! That’s a bigger sport than going to the mall and buying a VT banner!
Richmond isn’t a D- sports town. It’s an L—for loser sports town. That’s why the Eastern League is trying so hard to get one of their teams here. It’s AA ball, which means if they can average 3,000 fans per game they’re doing well. They see no other sports activities here, so they think 3,000 is doable in Richmond. It’ll also be far and away the largest town in their league.
No one with a brain can honestly say Richmond is a sports town—different type or anything else.
Typical Richmond, same old people writing about the same old things and coming up with the same old story.
Personally as a life long Richmond resident I do love my home town; however this article is business as usual for the RTD.
The Braves were fun, former season ticket holder.
The Renegades were fun, former season ticket holder.
NASCAR was fun, former season ticket holder.
I follow Tech, UVA, VCU, U of R, VA Union, Old Dominion, W&M, and the James River is awesome so you get the picture.
Sorry I can’t stand the Skins, nothings perfect.
I really don’t want anyone to agree with me at all but we also had some of the best NHRA drag racing last year right here in Richmond of all places. Not in this article once again, SOP RTD! Former season ticket holder!
The RTD and Richmond’s typical same ol same ol song and dance. Former daily subscriber.
I also forgot IRL, I would like to attend one.
I might even give Richmond an “F”... Richmond has proven time and again that it’s not a sports town, period. Two different incarnations of the Renegades, gone. A 40 year history of the Braves, gone. A new baseball stadium? That’s been bickered about for 10 years. Wasn’t there an AFL2 team here for just 2 years? Nascar races don’t sell out anymore. I think VCU basketball is the only thing people get excited about. The fact that some people actually now drive down to Petersburg to see baseball tells you have sad of a sports town this place is.
First of all, it’s Men’s Health magazine. That should tip you off that it’s not a serious study. I saw this same article talked about in the Washington Post and they called the numbers kind of weird. They are weird. It shouldn’t be taken seriously. Look at Los Angeles, a city that fills arenas for the Lakers, is ranked one position ahead of Richmond. That should tip you off that the article is a joke. L.A. is a very passive city when it comes to sports, but it’s a much better sports town than Richmond.
Another thing that bothered me about the Men’s Health article is that it treated Raleigh and Durham as separate cities and ranked them separately. Same thing with L.A., Anaheim, Riverside… I would consider them more the same instead of separate.
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