RICHMOND, VIRGINIA: DO WE NEED A NEW STADIUM?

My wife and I decided to attend the next to last game of the Richmond Braves on August 31, 2008. We have attended games in the past but wanted to be part of the swansong goodbye to Richmond by the Braves.

As local readers know, they have decided to relocate to Gwinnett County and get a better stadium and maybe better attendance. Both reasons seem to be readily achievable.

However, this begs the question for Richmond: why are we letting them go? Well, here goes my seat of the pants analysis of the issue! Never one to mince words, I will lay it out like I see it.

First of all, a little background. All the municipalities around here, the city of Richmond, counties of Chesterfield and Henrico have a part in funding the stadium authority. They quibble over many issues and things including this. There is not any regionalism but instead the attitude is “what is in it for me”? Kind of like, there is no I in team; and in their case, team is spelled “tiiim!

The City and then several private entities have discussed the need to have a new stadium built in the downtown area, more specifically in the Shockoe Bottom area or the Fulton Gas Works site. There is no parking available and direct access from the interstates is debatable. Naturally, Chesterfield County was not in favor of that; instead they wanted to consider a site in their county. All say the stadium is hopelessly outdated in all respects.

After one recent attendance, here is my analysis from a fan’s point of view. Let’s rank things by pro and con:
Pros:
-The seats are good. Each seat is separate and has an armrest. You can’t get squeezed out by others due to the separating armrests.
-The view from each seat is good; not only of the field but you get a great view of the Richmond skyline.
-The overall capacity of the stadium seems to match the size of the community.
-The rest rooms were clean and available.
-The concession stands were available and efficient.
-The food was good; for ballpark food.
-The general location is good and available to all areas via the Interstate.
-The value of entertainment for the dollar is good.
-The cost of the refreshments was in line with other forms of entertainment.
-The cost of parking was low.
-The field is symmetrical with major league dimensions: 308 down the lines and 402 to center field.


Cons:
-Parking lot management is a definite minus. There was only one way into the major parking lot. This is in spite of other gates that could be opened to accommodate incoming traffic. There were not any police directing traffic except for one policeman at the specific entry into the lot. In other words, traffic was jammed up at the intersections leading up to the lot and many people were late to the game. Further, there was only the same way out of the lot. This is in spite of the many closed gates around the perimeter of the lot. You would think that these gates could be opened to facilitate the exit of traffic.
-The scoreboard and other electronic displays are clearly sub par with other entertainment sites. For example; there was not any instant replay; there were no other baseball scores displayed; you really had to strain to see the scores and the pitch count, etc. Most stadiums have the pitcher’s ball speed displayed along with many other statistics.

My humble conclusion: Richmond and surrounding entities, you screwed up!
The entertainment offered could be very good at this stadium. The only things that are needed from a fan’s perspective are much better traffic control and parking lot management and a much improved electronic display medium! So before you go about spending tens of million dollars, why not just fix what is broken?

Get with it!

Ray