New First Market Stadium at Richmond

[bostonspider]

From UR's latest recruiting guide, here are a few images of the future home of Richmond Spider Football. From what I have heard, fundraising is over 3/4 finished and should be completed by the end of the year. I think they are hoping to break ground next spring, but am not positive. The stadium, while smaller at 12K seats, should be pretty attractive.

http://www.travelserver.net/travelpage/aspgallery/pictures/Ad_2339_10.jpg

[Pard4Life]

Excellent views! The exterior looks like the enterance to a medieval era jousting ground. However, I am not a major fan of the spacing between the stands and the field... that track takes up much too much space.

[Mr. C]

Why spend that much money on a stadium and build only 12,000 seats? Seems a little small and it isn't exactly preparing for future growth. Is that all the vision that the Spider administration has?

[Pard4Life]

Why spend that much money on a stadium and build only 12,000 seats? Seems a little small and it isn't exactly preparing for future growth. Is that all the vision that the Spider administration has?

Reduce supply, increase demand, increase ticket prices maybe? But yes... 15-16,000 would be a good low-number. Heck, Lafayette is larger at 13,500.

[bostonspider]

Well most of the Spider faithful are a little disapointed with the stated size, but I think it is a little deceptive, designed more to smooth over approval with the neighbors than anything else. The Stadium will have a large tiered grass bowl in one endzone, that appears to be able to seat around 3-4 thousand more people. And the visitor's side stands are deliberately pretty small, and could easily be expanded as needed. So I think that to start an overflow crowd if more like 15-16 thousand could be accommodated, with space for growth in the future, though parking would quickly become an issue, and a garage would have to be built, which would not in general match the architectural aesthetic the University currently has. As to the track, that unfortunately is a pre-exiting condition as the track and field are already there and the stadium is being built around them.

[GannonFan]

12k is probably fine right now - it's not as if Richmond has been a proven deliverer of attendance anywhere in the past 10-20 years - they just don't draw that well. Maybe an on-campus stadium will change that, but there's also something to be said about limiting capacity and making the game a little more attractive by making it harder to get in. If they can sell out 12k consistently, I'm sure they could find a way to make it a little bigger. In the meantime, 12k sellouts would be a nice little diversion in Richmond.

[vmisport]

Why spend that much money on a stadium and build only 12,000 seats? Seems a little small and it isn't exactly preparing for future growth. Is that all the vision that the Spider administration has?

UR last year had an excellent team which I believe won the A10 and averaged 6,000 at its off campus stadium. I think the belief is that an on-campus stadium will bring more students to the games and create more excitement. I had seen earlier info on stadium size and it was going to be in the 8k-9k area which is likely more appropriate given the average attendance. But, the 12k may be newer info.

[DTSpider]

A few things about the stadium. An on-campus stadium has been "planned" for almost 30 years. The goal was to build a 35,000 seat stadium on-campus in the 1970's to be able to support a 1A program. However, the City of Richmond would not approve a construction permit so thait never became a reality. UR has stayed at City stadium which seats 24,000. A proposal was out there to expand it to 35,000 as well, but since the city owns it, they never were going to do it.

About 2 years ago the city told UR that they would be ending the lease (UR stadium is owned by the city and leased to UR for $1/year but requires UR to do all the upkeep). The city told UR that it could buy the stadium for $5 million. At this point, it made no sense to buy an old off-campus dump.

So, the wheels have been in motion. The City has indicated that it will not approve any construction permits which bring the capacity above the Robins Center (which is just under 10,000). So, UR is limited in what it can do. Either pay $20 million for a new oncampus facility which is smaller, or pay $5 million to buy the old dump and spend roughly $8 million to renovate that. The choice is clear.

Considering that UR's attendance has dropped steadily over the last 20 years, I don't think that a 12,000 seat stadium is an awful idea. I wish it was bigger, but I'll settle for it being built. Once it is built, it is much easier to get it expanded. As many people know, the City of Richmond is just awful to interact with. Just ask the Atlanta Braves.

[El_Cid_99]

Looks great!

I'm a Richmond native and grew up a short bike ride away from the UR campus. My dad went to TC Williams Law in the 50's. I think I caught my first fish in the campus lake.

I went to many games at the off-campus stadium growing up, and it was always missing that "something". Hopefully, the on campus stadium will allow more students to roll out of bed and start tailgating. With the close proximity of the fraternity houses, I think it has the makings a fun atmosphere.

If there is ever an overflow crowd, I don't know where all those people would park. Is there any mention of that in their plans?

[DTSpider]

Concerning parking:

1 - The campus has a tremendous number of parking spots located throughout. They will run shuttles across campus. I've never seen the campus ever full with cars. Even with few near capacity basketball games you could park within a 5 minute walk. The far side of campus can handle a lot of people.

2 - Carpooling. They've found that around the country that people are more likely to carpool for football games than basketball. So, they think that 10,000 people in attendance is more like 3,000 cars.

3 - Parking deck. Long opposed as an option, it was included in the 20 year plan created in 2001. However, it is rumored to never be funded.

[bostonspider]

I think the long term plan is to build an "attractive" multistory garage over part of the parking lot next to the Robins Center basketball Arena...