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eandslee

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19 minutes ago, DowntownCoruscant said:

At this point, I imagine they never will. Football programs cost insane amounts of $$$, and it takes time to build up a program to get the donor backing and media $ to make it profitable, ODU’s quick success notwithstanding.

I have read that VCU has no plans at this time to invest in a football program and that they are focused on the current athletic programs. That said, my father was a college football coach for many years and when he was at South Florida, he said representatives from VCU visited to see how that program got started and looked at the expenditures etc and it's ability to fund other sports etc. I guess ultimately, they didn't like what they saw. That would have been around 2009 ish.

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On 5/14/2019 at 11:58 AM, georgeglass said:

I have read that VCU has no plans at this time to invest in a football program and that they are focused on the current athletic programs. That said, my father was a college football coach for many years and when he was at South Florida, he said representatives from VCU visited to see how that program got started and looked at the expenditures etc and it's ability to fund other sports etc. I guess ultimately, they didn't like what they saw. That would have been around 2009 ish.

Much of the strength of the VCU basketball program comes from that fact that it's a large school where basketball doesn't have to compete with football.  Not to mention the recruiting challenges in competing with UVA and VT for top D1 recruits.  I see VCU building a new arena or significantly renovating the current facility LONG before they would consider dumping the money into building a football stadium.  There is still also the looming issue of brain injuries in football that is leading to fewer kids playing in high school and therefore fewer to recruit to play in college.  Seems like a bad time to jump into football.

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I would think with the new Richmond Arena they could play high profile games at the new Richmond Coliseum.     I don't know that either team would want to lose the homefield by going to neutral site - - but the VCU / Richmond basketball game would make sense going to larger facility to accommodate everyone.

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1 hour ago, cbl1 said:

I would think with the new Richmond Arena they could play high profile games at the new Richmond Coliseum.     I don't know that either team would want to lose the homefield by going to neutral site - - but the VCU / Richmond basketball game would make sense going to larger facility to accommodate everyone.

I think it would be great if they moved one of the UVA/VT games to there.  They used to play some fo those games at the Roanoke Coliseum.

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On 5/14/2019 at 10:58 AM, georgeglass said:

I have read that VCU has no plans at this time to invest in a football program and that they are focused on the current athletic programs. That said, my father was a college football coach for many years and when he was at South Florida, he said representatives from VCU visited to see how that program got started and looked at the expenditures etc and it's ability to fund other sports etc. I guess ultimately, they didn't like what they saw. That would have been around 2009 ish.

Money will always be an issue when it comes to VCU creating a football team. 80 scholarships for a football team plus scholarships that need to become available for title 9 issues. Either they would have to cut some men's sports to become compliant or spend even more money to create new women's sports teams. 60% of the currently athletic fund is already subsidized from student fees. 

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5 hours ago, jbjust said:

I think it would be great if they moved one of the UVA/VT games to there.  They used to play some fo those games at the Roanoke Coliseum.

They rotated between Richmond and Roanoke from 1976 to 2000.  By the 1990s, it was not popular, at least with the UVa fanbase.  With VPI now in the ACC, there is zero possibility that a league game will be played away from an on-grounds/campus venue except for extenuating circumstances.  Neither school would surrender a conference home game.  It is possible that UVa could play a neutral site game in Richmond in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge, but there is no real upside for UVa to do so outside of that.  The ways either UVa or VPI plays in a future Richmond Coliseum are if the opponent is VCU or UR, or if said venue is hosting early round NCAA tournament games.

Edited by Wahoo 07
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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 10:24 PM, Brent114 said:

The deal isn’t dead because it never had life.  

It was never real.  There was zero financial interest in it.  If you recall, not one developer responded to the RFP.  There were no architectural drawings (that weren't essentially Microsoft clip art ).  No businesses expressed an interest.  The only thing Richmond has lost is the adequate, albeit drab, Coliseum (that was once a state of the art arena that had zero economic impact on downtown). 

You want sports? Go to a Kickers game.  The city would be better served building a better soccer stadium (at least people go to see that).  The Squirles first order of business was to eliminate 1/4 of the seating at the Diamond so that games wouldn’t look unattended.   Richmond isn’t a spectator sports town.  It isn't likely to become one in the next 30-40 years either.  Our size and growth is relative.   We aren’t the only growing city and not every metro gets professional sports (what would be the honor in that?).  

I like concerts.  I’m a huge music snob.  The shows that I see out of town are at small venues.  Shows don’t bypass Richmond because there isn’t an arena.  They bypass Richmond because there are only x amount of dates on any given tour.  Geography, prestige and demand drive the tour.  Washington DC looks better on a t-shirt than Richmond.  If you can only have one stop in the area, you’re going to pick DC. 

 

Wanted to be sure you saw this recent post from @eandslee:

 

Quote

 

Just to give you a little more to brighten up your day, according to this presentation by a VERY senior person:

  • There is an agreement in principle with the company that will operate the convention hotel,
  • All of the luxury boxes in the arena are already spoken for;
  • The naming rights of the arena are spoken for;
  • There have been very positive conversations with the NCAA about first/second round games and about the women's final four
  • The Coliseum is going to form a large portion of the infill to raise Leigh Street -- they are literally going to bulldoze it into Leigh Street and use its bones as the fill.  

 

  •  

 

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I saw that because I like to stay informed :) 

The bullet points above are still outlines/ cheerleading trying to spur interest from nonexistent financial backers.   There’s nothing new or definitive in any of it.  The only real news is that the financing will have to be done in the open due to a court ruling.   It won’t survive the scrutiny because it isn’t financially viable.

 

 One of the building sites has already been syphoned off for an unrelated development.   Another hotel isn’t really needed downtown.  Arenas are just a drain on budgets and neighborhoods and the rest of the development is pretty much moving around existing buildings.  Still not impressed. 

 

Hopefully  something  real can come from this  but it wont be the mega site development you (and I too initially) are hoping for.    The oxygen for that has left the room. 

 

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My team is Richmond.  I live downtown.  I have lived either downtown or in the Fan for nearly 30 years.  There are few cheerleaders for Richmond more vocal than myself. 

This proposal, even in its incredibly vague and clip art stage, is mediocre at best and it will possibly bankrupt the city.  I’m all for  taking chances but on things that matter or are visionary.  This is 20th century economic development here in the 21st century.  It’s hardly worth taking all of downtowns’ real estate taxes out of the operating budget. 

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That’s the thing.  The lack  of big money and big players is the problem.  There’s Dominion (which doesn’t want to spend any of its own money) and the Mayor.   As of now there is zero outside investment/interest  and just a timid acknowledgment from undisclosed sources that they will operate a hotel and arena if we build it for them.  Hardly synergistic. 

 

Financing is just a part of what bothers me about this.  I’ve yet to see a development like this turn out well aesthetically.  Bad design and cheap building materials will be the overarching theme.   Build an arena and  put the rest of land up for sale.  I’m not anti arena.  I’m not against publicly financing one either.  

 

But back to the question recently posed... still feels very much DOA to me. 

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I don't have stake in this fight beyond wanting what is best for Richmond.  Both sides have merit and a deal of this size warrants serious scrutiny.  No matter what happens with its replacement, the decaying hulk that is the Richmond Coliseum needs to be demolished.  Aesthetic reasons alone cry out for this.  It would remove a maintenance line from the city budget too.

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2 hours ago, Brent114 said:

  As of now there is zero outside investment/interest  and just a timid acknowledgment from undisclosed sources that they will operate a hotel and arena if we build it for them.  

I’m not sure this is an accurate statement. The city / TIF district are not paying to build a hotel. The hotel would be privately financed, along with all other new development. TIF covers certain infrastructure (Leigh Street) and the new arena construction / financing.  The net new tax revenue from the hotel would be part of the TIF structure that it’s back the public portions or the project (arena and infrastructure).  That’s my understanding anyways. 

Edited by wrldcoupe4
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3 hours ago, Wahoo 07 said:

It would remove a maintenance line from the city budget too.

...to be replaced with:

Arena Construction Fund

Arena Maintenance Fund

Arena Management Fund

TIF Management Fund 

Blues Armory Management Fund

Blues Armory Maintenance Fund

 

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Just to be clear on the financial side of this -- the entire project is premised upon TIF financing, which is NON-RECOURSE financing from the bond-holders' perspective.  If the project does not generate a sufficiently larger value in the underlying real estate to pay the bill, then the bondholders take the bath, not the city.  These sorts of TIF bonds are widely syndicated, so Brent's desire to know what large single entity will fund this is searching for something that doesn't exist and has never been intended to exist.  

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9 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

So is my understanding incorrect? Is TIF financing being used to build the hotel and other commercial improvements?

The portion that the city would be expected to pay in a development like this (e.g., the arena, etc.) will be financed by TIF.  The hotel, etc. will be privately financed.  My recollection iw that they have already signed up a developer and operator for the hotel.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

From the RTD yesterday regarding the Goldman FOIA request.  I think this is a set back for some of us “pro new arena folks.”

Richmond judge again rules against Stoney in effort to withhold coliseum records

A Richmond judge this week sided against Mayor Levar Stoney for a second time in the mayor’s effort to withhold documents related to a proposal that would use property tax revenue to pay for downtown development that includes replacing the Richmond Coliseum.

Paul Goldman, a lawyer and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said he now has the records he wanted from Freedom of Information Act requests he made to the city in May....

...Goldman ended up paying $250 for his FOIA requests. He said he’s close to gathering enough signatures to put the redevelopment plan on the ballot for voters to decide this November.

“I want to give people a chance to vote on the Coliseum project,” he said. “It will give people a chance essentially to say that they don’t want to do this kind of financing.”

In 2017, Goldman successfully led an effort get a resolution on the ballot for Richmond voters related to schools. Voters passed the resolution, which called on Stoney to create a plan to modernize city schools without raising taxes or say that such a plan is not feasible....

...Officials in the Stoney administration have said they are continuing to negotiate a deal and have declined to release the proposal.

Asked by email Friday if the mayor wishes he’d simply turned over the records to Goldman, Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan said the mayor had no regrets.

“The city continues to evaluate its position in consultation with the city attorney and will determine what, if any, additional actions are necessary to protect its legal interests both in the present case and with respect to future matters,” Nolan said in an email.

I’m not exactly sure how this might affect getting a new arena, but from my point of view, it’s definitely not helping. 

Edited by eandslee
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As a former Tri-Cities resident, I have lurked on these pages for years. I have a deep love for Richmond and would have moved there if not for my NC wife. I really want Richmond to succeed in getting a new arena. Just today two major developers in Raleigh announced this: https://www.wralsportsfan.com/sports-entertainment-venue-the-centerpiece-of-live-work-play-plan-called-downtown-south/18471610/. I hope Richmond can pull something off like this.

Edited by VAtoNC
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