1332 replies to this topic

[burt]

NASCAR is in town this weekend.

From Richmond dot com:

http://www2.richmond...rva-ar-1863130/

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

And Richmond is revving up for NASCAR: tonight, the Nationwide race.

Tomorrow is the bigger night though, as over 100,000 people jam the raceway grandstands to watch motorsport superstars like Jeff Gordon or Kasey Kahne battle it out for not only the trophy, but for the more points that could determine whether they get to "Chase" the Sprint Cup in September. Richmond's other Sprint Cup race in September also happens to be the "Last Race to Make The Chase", being the last regular season race.

Here's more on that:
http://www2.timesdis...rir-ar-1874404/

The RTD article also tackles the weather issues that may be problematic to RIR if it ends up raining tomorrow night, like expected.

Let's hope for the best.

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

Also, local favorite Denny Hamlin will also be chasing the title. He won the NASCAR race last weekend, and now he is looking to win at his hometrack. He was raised in Chesterfield County, and held a "Short Track Showdown" yesterday:

It was a charity race hosted by the native racer, who himself raced but got into two wrecks which eventually put him out of the race. Tony Stewart won the race, but another Chesterfield native (that's not Hamlin) finished third: Brandon Butler.

The charitable cause of the race was to raise money for cystic fibrosis research. The turnout was pretty good for the race: 6,000 people came out to cheer on some of NASCAR's true leaders (Stewart, Hamlin) while local racers also made quite an impact on the leaderboards (Butler, and Greg Edwards, hometrack Langley Speedway).The race was moved from Southside Speedway, who has hosted it before it came to RIR.

http://www2.timesdis...ack-ar-1872583/

[dbull75]

Looks like VCU will be leaving the CAA for the Atlantic-10 in 2013 (same conference as Univ of Richmond). http://www.cbssports...ntic-10-in-2013. From a competitive standpoint, this is a good move (A-10 regularly gets more NCAA tourney bids). The only real drawback may be the prospect of the basketball-only members of the Big East forming their own hoops conference (which has been speculated), and then taking someone like Xavier and Dayton. George Mason has elected to stay in the CAA and Old Dominion is supposed to make a decision in the next several weeks.

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

I'm dissapointed beyond words. I thought the CAA was their home. Of course there is that ONE advantage of getting more and more berths into the NCAA, but otherwise, what more is it changing? This isn't really benefitting the Rams, it's benefitting the A-10, as stated in the CBSSports article that they earn like what, 10,000 dollars for every advancement in the tourney? And VCU has won like what, 4 or 5 conference tournaments? What about the CAA tournament now? It was just getting kickstarted with all the excitement of the Rams getting into the Final Four, and selling out all the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals with the Rams in it. That helped also to revitalize the Richmond Coliseum as a major competetive tourney arena. But now, if VCU has to travel all the way to some place in the middle of somewhere just to fight it out to see whether they get in the tournament (or NOT), VCU fans probably won't follow them. I know dedicated fans, but they surely will NOT travel somewhere just to see a conference tournament. And this is a MAJOR blow to the CAA. They just lost one of their three main players.

The way I see it, the CAA (used) to have a huge powerhouse triangle comprised of the three most prospective teams (I think you can guess who they (were)). Now with one of them gone, and one considering a move, the conference will probably go nowhere. If they can reverse their decision, I wouldn't blame GMU for moving with VCU into the A-10. There just won't be a competitive edge anymore in this place. And sadly, but mostly scarily, I see quite a bumpy and horrendous road ahead of us (the CAA).

Whew! That was a mouthful! But seriously. I think this is going to be one helluva ride for both the Rams, who is entering the A-10 alone and without any company from their would-be new conference mate (cough, cough,GMU?), and also for the CAA, who, without their star team, will see quite a rollercoaster of a ride.

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

Well, it's official, folks....

Michael Rao has officially announced that the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams will be a part of the Atlantic 10 conference with Butler, U of R, and a bunch of other b-ball loving schools.

As quoted in the article, he says it made "sense from every angle" for the Rams to join the A-10.

Here's that article from the RTD:

http://www2.timesdis...con-ar-1916011/

And if you wanna hear Jim Miller's take on the topic, here's his full, enthusiastic outlook on VCU's new A-10 membership:

http://www2.timesdis...sch-ar-1916412/

Jim Miller is the athletics director for the University of Richmond. VCU had just lost it's star athletics director Norwood Teague to the University of Minnesota not a month ago. It has already started searching for applicants. The new nationwide news of THIS probably will draw some more applicants.

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

It looks like the heavily troubled SportsQuest development is finally seeing the beginning of the end.

This time it concerns the artificial turf fields and their developers.

The developers of the turf, the SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP, are trying to get the foreclosure processed, which would throw ownership of the 150 acres of turf up in the air.

From today's BizSense:

http://www.richmondb...ng-foreclosure/

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

On the heels of VCU's CAA departure, Mayor Jones sees it as a positive reinforcement and actual encouragement to keep the CAA tourney in RVA.

After last year's wild Final 4 run, VCU packed up ALL of it's home games at the Stu. Mayor Jones notes that more fans wanted tickets, but were denied it because of the full house. He hints that the Richmond Coliseum can be the site for a few games here and there, an idea he slid in a conversation with Michael Rao.

The way I see it, the electric rivalry between now conference-mates VCU and UR can probably pack all the seats in their annual "Black & Blue Classic" if held at the Colisuem.

VCU has played all home games at the Coliseum before the opening of the Siegel Center in 1999.

http://www2.timesdis...exp-ar-1917447/

[dbull75]

^I hate to say it, but I think VCU leaving the CAA could actually open the door for the CAA tourney to go somewhere else. Interesting post from Andy Katz at ESPN: http://espn.go.com/b...g-times-for-caa. Apparently Baltimore may be in the mix for next year. From what I understand VCU is automatically ineligible for the CAA tourney next year since they are leaving the following season (part of the conference bi-laws). You'll probably see Norfolk try to make a run at it too (if ODU stays in the CAA). The good news for Richmond is that the tournament has done well there the last several years (mostly because of VCU, but Richmond isn't a bad place to be either for those looking at a weekend get away). Also, nobody that I can think of has a brand new shiny arena as an incentive either. Perhaps now is a good of a time as any for the city to work on getting a new one built. VCU going to the A-10 is the right thing for the basketball program, but at the same time it's a bummer. The CAA has come A LONG way in the last 6 or 7 years and had a lot of momentum.

Edited by dbull75, 16 May 2012 - 03:16 PM.

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

dbull75, on 16 May 2012 - 03:16 PM, said:

^I hate to say it, but I think VCU leaving the CAA could actually open the door for the CAA tourney to go somewhere else. Interesting post from Andy Katz at ESPN: http://espn.go.com/b...g-times-for-caa. Apparently Baltimore may be in the mix for next year. From what I understand VCU is automatically ineligible for the CAA tourney next year since they are leaving the following season (part of the conference bi-laws). You'll probably see Norfolk try to make a run at it too (if ODU stays in the CAA). The good news for Richmond is that the tournament has done well there the last several years (mostly because of VCU, but Richmond isn't a bad place to be either for those looking at a weekend get away). Also, nobody that I can think of has a brand new shiny arena as an incentive either. Perhaps now is a good of a time as any for the city to work on getting a new one built. VCU going to the A-10 is the right thing for the basketball program, but at the same time it's a bummer. The CAA has come A LONG way in the last 6 or 7 years and had a lot of momentum.

Yeah, I know.... it indeed is a wise decision for VCU to take the spot in such an elite conference, I totally agree on that 100 percent, but.... I just feel bad about the impact that it will have on the poor CAA. It's hard to imagine that the star team is leaving.... I wonder what step ODU will take now that they know their biggest rival is out of the conference....

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

Well, besides the whole basketball fiasco, on another note.....

An employee benefit at my lovely job just made my day a whole lot better.....

I just scored tickets to the Flying Squirrels game tomorrow.

The first pitch is at 6:35 tomorrow. Plus: anything else? Yep. Fireworks afterwards.

The whole note on baseball suddenly restarted my thoughts on that new baseball stadium thing.... any new news on that?

Here's the Squirrels website:

http://www.milb.com/...x.jsp?sid=t3410

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

Well, it looks like one turn deserves another....

although it probably is more news for Norfolk than RVA, the CAA is based here, so I'll just break the news here anyway:

ODU is moving to Conference USA in 2013.

http://www2.timesdis...usa-ar-1921660/

That is about all as much I can say without weeping. The CAA is over.

[RVA-Is-The-Best]

Well, the game I went to apparently was won by the Squirrels (which I'm happy for), but the game was scoreless for 13 innings. It was getting late, and I knew I needed to return home for work tomorrow, so we: me and my friends (who went to the game, no Carrie didn't come ) left at the bottom of the 11th, when the Squirrels were at bat. Apparently, according to the Times-Dispatch article below, the game went until 14 innings before the pitcher for the Harrisburg Senators (who we played last night) threw a fourth ball, which gave a runner at third base the walk to home, giving us the 0-1 win. Did we mention the game was scoreless?

http://www2.timesdis...iam-ar-1923019/