Business forum discusses future of Coliseum
If he had to replace one building to make Richmond a more desirable venue for sports and entertainment, Steven L. Terrill doesn't have to think twice about his choice.
"The Coliseum," he said.
Terrill is the associate principal of the sports and entertainment division of HKS, one of the country's leading architectural firms for sports and entertainment venues. HKS has an office in Richmond and yesterday, Terrill was part of a four-member discussion group at The Venture Forum held at the Richmond Historical Society. The topic was the business of sports in Richmond.
Also on the panel were Jon Lugbill, executive director of Richmond Sports Backers, Todd "Parny" Parnell, vice president and chief operating officer of the Flying Squirrels minor-league baseball team, and Phillip G. Evans, president of SportsQuest, LLC. Greg Burton of ESPN Radio 950 was the moderator.
The Coliseum, Terrill said, is well-managed. But it was opened in 1971, and much has changed since then.
"The Coliseum is a perfectly functional facility for a basketball game," Terrill said. "But for the business model of what a basketball team needs or what a tournament needs, it's just not the type of facility that can be profitable today."
The CAA holds its men's basketball tournament in the Coliseum. Virginia Commonwealth University played its men's basketball home games there before moving into the Siegel Center in 1999.
"Quite honestly, if you look far into the future, there's going to be a day when VCU will need a larger facility for basketball," Terrill said. "That's a growing program, it's a huge university, and someday their sports are going to be recognized to the point where they need a larger facility.
"The city needs a larger facility so it can hold the regional and national events like it used to."
What all the panelists want to see curtailed is the idea that Richmond is not a good sports town or sports area.
Evans served as the president of the NBA Development League for five years and was president of Evans Sports and Media Group, a consulting business, before joining SportsQuest.
"Ninety percent of the time the market feels, as communicated through the media, their market doesn't support pro sports," Evans said. "The reality is it's typically not the market.
"There are a lot of other reasons minor-league sports fail, not the least of which is how attractive are the venues? But more importantly, you've got to have a minor-league organization that gets it."
Evans and Lugbill said Parnell's group "gets it."
Lugbill is on board for a new Coliseum. He also believes a nontraditional facility will be important to the community.
"In public opinion polling we've done, the No.1 thing has been biking and walking trails," Lugbill said. "Now with the Virginia Capital Trail being built between Richmond and Jamestown-Williamsburg, I think that's going to open everyone's eyes to how wonderful these are.
"They can change communities, make them more bikeable, walkable, runnable, and that changes the dynamics. There are more people out and about."
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Reader Reactions
frojunk - where does it say he thinks we should build a 21,000 seat arena? Now that would be ridiculous (not questioning your quote, just his statement). With no professional basketball or hockey team (I’m talking NBA or NHL) or major college program (VCU isn’t major) there is zero reason to build one that big. That’s actually why I suggested the 15-17k one. It would actually give Richmond the chance to keep the CAA tourney for the long term, and get more mainstream concerts/events in town.
Someone please tell me how this article went from a discussion on the need for a bigger, better Colesium - to something about about a biking or walking trail between here and Williamsburg? This is exactly why nothing ever gets done here to make this a “destination” city or community - NO LEADERSHIP, FOCUS, VISION, or GOALS! With VCU just losing to a underwelming Western Michigan basketball team (made up of freshman and sophmores that won around 10 total games last year) - I don’t see that program outgrowing the Siegel Center anytime soon. For the record, this man says build a 21,000 seat, state of the art arena, and see how that changes things around here. It’ll never happen, though.
Richmond needs a smaller arena, not a larger one.
Nothing turns off a crowd more than no crowd.
I have been to hockey games in small arenas jam packed with 2,500 and games at the Coliseum with twice as many people. Empty seats kills an atmosphere. Also, a smaller amount of available seats creates a larger demand for season tickets.
In my travels I have never had the urge to visit a stadium or arena when I see empty seats on TV or hear advertisements stating “good seats available”.
The last thing Richmond needs is more empty seats.
ddub28, ask Center Stage for the money then, they aready hijacked the City’s budget.
The only way a new arena gets built in Richmond is with some sort of taxpayer based financing. Richmond doesn’t have the private money or sports team and corporate backing to pay for it otherwise. In the end, Richmond needs at least a 15-17k seat venue to keep things like the CAA tournament and attract concerts that have long bipassed town and gone to Charlottesville, DC or VA Beach. Say what you want about Richmond being an ideal location for that CAA tourney. At some point they will pack their bags as they continue to grow as a league and someone else has a better facility, which isn’t hard to find.
Not with public taxpayer money. NO MORE CORPORATE WELFARE!
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