New Richmond Arena

[blopp1234]

The damn city council members need to grow a pair of balls and help propel the city to another level. Letting a project like this slip through our finger tips could prevent RVA from keeping development momentum going. I feel that this development is far more important than just replacing the coliseum, this will determine the fate of developents that seek to transform the city for years to come. If this development is approved and succeeds, it could open the door for more developments of the scale and magnitude by showing private companies that the old, stagnant Richmond is gone and that the new Richmond can handle and will support developments such as this. Also, wasn’t that what they hired the Chicago based firm to do, check if it was financially sound for the city? So if hey did, why would they want to do another check? Doesn’t make sense and seems like some people on city council haven’t moved on from what RVA used to be. Please don’t let city council pass on this!!!!!

[RVAbigdawg]

This is what the council members do every. single. time.  And they've been doing it for decades.  If they don't pass this, they will join a long line of idiotic boneheads who passed over sweet deals to get Richmond out of the Stone Age.

[eandslee]

27 minutes ago, RVAbigdawg said:

This is what the council members do every. single. time.  And they've been doing it for decades.  If they don't pass this, they will join a long line of idiotic boneheads who passed over sweet deals to get Richmond out of the Stone Age.

I just wonder how patient NH District Corp and the market will be with impending increases in the interest rate.  The latter should be enough drive to get this done now, but the quotes in the article I posted above suggest that City Council is in absolutely no hurry and could take years to come to a conclusion and be ready to for a vote.  This is time we don't have - grow a pair and make a decision!  Besides, it should not ever take that long to review the details of this proposal.  Who knows how long it's going to take for City Council's consultants to do a study of their own!  It could take months!  Hopefully, the mayor's Hunden study eliminates the skepticism expressed by some members of the Council...and that their study does the same.  What a nail-biter!  It might just come down to the wire and a vote or two!

[RVAbigdawg]

And yet the City continues to waste even more taxpayer money on "studies" that pretty much kill new ideas.  

[Shakman]

1 hour ago, RVAbigdawg said:

And yet the City continues to waste even more taxpayer money on "studies" that pretty much kill new ideas.  

I express the same sentiment during a Council meeting in 2007.  Studies are needed but there comes a time where it starts to become overkill.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Shakman

[eandslee]

Looks like the Roughriders (an arena football team) are leaving Richmond due to the impending demolition of the Coliseum scheduled for March 2019.  SMG said they were 95% sure the demolition was going to take place (I like the sound of that, but let's make that a 100% surety).  I don't necessarily like to see this, but honestly, the team/sport brought out about 200 people every game (that might be a little exaggeration, but I'm probably not far off).   So, not a huge loss here.  Good luck to them as they move on - I really hope they find a place that is affordable and a place where they are well-received. 

It's time to look forward, Richmond...let this one go and let's get a new arena.  Teams will be knocking at the door to get into the new arena when it is built - better teams, better sports, better arena, better experience for the fan!

https://www.richmond.com/sports/professional/roughriders-likely-to-leave-richmond-our-arena-got-taken-away/article_d0687272-cd0d-5b4b-8044-539b79501c20.html

Edited July 19, 2018 by eandslee

[eandslee]

17 minutes ago, Hike said:

The pessimist in me says, this is civic stuff , we can mess this up...

LOL!  Oh, could we EVER screw this up!  Gosh, I hope this is going to go.  I was thinking the same thing when I was reading the article...how else would SMG be so certain about there not being a Richmond Coliseum after February of next year (wow, what did I just type?  That's sounds...crazy, yet exhilarating!) if this weren't a done deal?  I'm getting somewhat mixed signals between city officials and indicators that are  signs of a sure thing (feel like I'm on a roller coaster ride of emotions).

[Shakman]

Let's pray for the best.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Shakman

[Brent114]

Of course the city could go ahead with demolition without any plans to replace it. 

[eandslee]

Seems like an article comes out almost daily regarding this project. Today, I think two articles were released by the RTD to include the one below. This one states that NH District Corp is in the midst of surveying Richmonders about their opinion on the project. Actually NH District Corp is not doing the surveying, but a third party is (who NH District Corp hired).  The goal is to gather information to help focus on subject matter that is important to the citizens for some upcoming public meetings that will take place soon.  It seems that this information will also help gage the support the project has currently.  In previous surveys (when the plan was in its infancy) about 70% of respondents were in support of the idea at the time. I would hope that number has not changed (or hopefully has increased).  NH District Corp is also still developing its final financial plans and this survey might be of use in developing those final plans, which will be presented to City Council in September.  Anyway, if you can read the article, here it is:

https://www.richmond.com/news/plus/nh-district-corp-surveying-residents-on-coliseum-redevelopment-proposal/article_e5f9eddd-2615-50ef-9b66-62a2f73cbf71.html

[eandslee]

This editorial piece about this proposal is perfectly stated.  I hope everyone else comes to see it this way too:

https://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/pat-gottschalk-and-kim-scheeler-column-rva-arena-will-be/article_284a522b-5717-584e-9183-eed094197162.html

[Brent114]

I wouldn’t call the piece perfectly stated.  I’d call it hyperbolic and bullying.  It makes me question the leadership of chamber RVA. 

I’m coming around on the financing part but it’s disingenuous to talk about the area like there are only two options for it: this development or  blocks of abandoned office buildings(Taylor Swift or abandoned concrete plazas).  GTFOH with that sophomoric garbage. 

As they say, the devil is in the details.  Win people over with facts and good design.   If this type of development works elsewhere, cite examples.  You can’t convience people that this development will be a commercial success when one sentence later you suggest that unless THIS project gets done there will be no economic activity for these blocks.  There’s either demand or there isn’t.   

 

[meegwell]

On 7/22/2018 at 7:39 AM, Brent114 said:

I wouldn’t call the piece perfectly stated.  I’d call it hyperbolic and bullying.  It makes me question the leadership of chamber RVA. 

I’m coming around on the financing part but it’s disingenuous to talk about the area like there are only two options for it: this development or  blocks of abandoned office buildings(Taylor Swift or abandoned concrete plazas).  GTFOH with that sophomoric garbage. 

As they say, the devil is in the details.  Win people over with facts and good design.   If this type of development works elsewhere, cite examples.  You can’t convience people that this development will be a commercial success when one sentence later you suggest that unless THIS project gets done there will be no economic activity for these blocks.  There’s either demand or there isn’t.   

 

" hyperbolic and bullying."  If anything is hyperbolic, it is this response.  I understand bullying is a trendy term these days but come on, these folks are allowed to have a positive view of this project. 

 

 

 

[Brent114]

Your journalistic standards must be lower than mine. A high schooler could have made a more persuasive argument than Chamber RVA laid out (here’s a hint, it’s full of falsehoods and exaggerations). 

This plan is DOA anyway, we should stop wasting time on it. 

[Asace88]

59 minutes ago, Brent114 said:

Your journalistic standards must be lower than mine. A high schooler could have made a more persuasive argument than Chamber RVA laid out (here’s a hint, it’s full of falsehoods and exaggerations). 

This plan is DOA anyway, we should stop wasting time on it. 

I like your reverse psychology, Brent.  We all see what you are getting at now.  We know you are the biggest cheerleader of this project that there is. 

Yes, we should stop wasting time on this ladies and gents...

[eandslee]

Well, I'm not giving up yet.  Just because some of you think this is DOA, I'm not convinced.  I will keep hope until the bitter end!  We'll see what happens and hopefully, those who want to move this city forward and move up with a new arena and all the other plans put forth by NH District Corp., will be vindicated!

Edited August 2, 2018 by eandslee

[Brent114]

So because I’m not excited about replacing existing parking garages with new ones (pretty much what these generic drawings of the project show) while  using voodo economics to fund the replacement costs, I don’t want the city to move forward? 

It’s this ruinous (financially and design) plan or stagnation for the foreseeable future? 

 

I  couldn’t  care care less about a new arena.  They are pretty much obsolete in 2018 unless affiliated with a large university or professional sports team.  Only a handful of bands can fill arenas.  Not all tour annually.  Taylor Swift and  Beyonce will still choose Washington over Richmond because there are only X amount of dates on a tour  and playing small markets is kinda bad for your brand.   A new arena will be pretty ( until it becomes  painfully dated in ten years) and will add visual interest to the area (until one by one the lights illuminating the facade burn out). It won’t “put Richmond on the map”.  It won’t take Richmond to another level.  It will do for the city exactly what the Coliseum did: provide  entertainment  for locals which is a good enough purpose I suppose .  The Coliseum was built when arena entertainment was a thing though.  There is no more circus. There are only a handful of arena-packing touring groups.  The Ice Capades  hung up the skates decades ago.  

Edited August 1, 2018 by Brent114

[marinog711]

I have read so many good things about Richmond over the years.. That I finally decided to move here recently.  I am  pretty excited for this project, but after reading a lot of this thread..  something tells me to not get my hopes up ..  Please tell me there is still a chance.. I would love nothing more than  see my new home grow and prosper.  Would love to see a few modern high rises enhance the skyline a bit.  Does Richmond have a history of most of their proposed projects never getting approved? 

[eandslee]

58 minutes ago, marinog711 said:

Does Richmond have a history of most of their proposed projects never getting approved? 

No, not really; however, when it comes to sports facilities, they usually have to fight a relatively small group of people who are very loud and who are against such projects for one reason or another.  A baseball stadium was proposed for Shockoe Bottom next to the Main Street Station back in the early 2000s, but never got off the ground for a whole slew of reasons (we still do not have a new stadium).  Some seem to compare what happened with that proposal to the new arena proposal as well as the infamous Sixth Street Market Place that was as built, but was an utter failure.  Many people feel that the political leaders end up in the bed with developers proposing such plans and that usually kills a proposal.  Overall though, I can’t say that Richmond usually kills deals like this one, but many people become very skeptical due to unfulfilled promises of the past.  I say there is still very much so a chance for this proposal because, to me, it’s clean of corruption and it has a clean financial plan (others will disagree). Some will always be against a proposal like this just because...no matter what is proposed.  But, keep your chin up - we’ll see what happens!

[blopp1234]

Welcome to the forum! Luckily, other than the Ballpark debate(the ultimate RVA fiasco), we usually have a good history in not letting developments stall! I think that this arena wouldn’t be as underused as some say. There are plenty of acts that go to areas such as Charlottesville that may not be as big as acts like Beyoncé, but they still draw a good crowd. Plus, I don’t think a new RVA arena would be completely overlooked by every major act as it would also draw from some other areas that don’t want to make the dangerous trek to DC. 

[marinog711]

Appreciate the Welcome!  The overall vibe I get from being in Richmond the past two months is that things are changing faster than they ever have.  Kind of feels like its Richmond's time to shine.   Reminds me of what Pittsburgh felt like about 10 yrs ago before the revitalization .  

[marinog711]

sorry man... Im a Cubs/Bears & Celtics guy... If that makes any sense... haha!

3 hours ago, Hike said:

Go Pens/Steelers/Pirates. 

 

[Shakman]

Fly Eagles Fly.

[DowntownCoruscant]

One perspective on stadium financing proposals:

 

[DowntownCoruscant]

Of slightly more substance....Buried in the article is a mention that the Caps owner, who has basically taken over the struggling Arena Football League, wants to put a team in Richmond.