Louisville Game Thread (Wednesday 2/15, 7pm est ESPNU)

He was referencing the Tennessee game at the Richmond Coliseum, which occurred during the 00-01 season, not the MSU game.

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My bad, but that Tennessee game was played in East Rutherford, NJ in the old Nets arena which was then named Continental Airlines Arena.

ODU was a worse loss. But the Delaware loss cost us a trip to MSG for the preseason NIT winnerā€™s bracket, so may have been more impactful. I had tix for that ā€¦ not that Iā€™m bitterā€¦ :wink:

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Got it. Man, Iā€™m getting old and my wires are getting scrambled.

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I remember that that 2000/01. Peak Gillian. Played a horrible noncon outside of that Tenn then crashed and burned.

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Been closed since 2019 and on the docket for demolition this year I believe. Proposals for new venues and renovations to the area recently received movement.

Iā€™ve been to many concerts in the RC and it was always cramped, uncomfortable seats, and bad sight lines in many places. If you were front row, upper level the plexiglass safety barrier is way too high. And the plexiglass is so old itā€™s just scratched up and murky and you can hardly see through it.

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Man canā€™t believe that place lasted as long as it did. Completely outdated. It felt old and junky when I went there as a kid in the early 90s

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Grew up mostly in Richmond, went to concerts and the circus there. Went to CAA tournaments there. Was at that Darvin Ham game. The ODU game. Even graduated high school there in the 90s (a year or so later a lot of the public schools started doing graduations at the Seigel Center).

The Siegel Center is pretty nice, though admittedly smaller, under 10k capacity, whereas the RC is upwards of 11 or 12k.

But just like the City of Richmond canā€™t figure out what to do about the Diamond, also canā€™t see them figuring out what to do with the Coliseum. The inability of the localities (Chesterfield, Henrico, maybe Hanover) to play nice with the city and go all-in together on some of these improvements is really disappointing. Saw Hampton Roads with some of the same problems in my years there as well.

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Is the Diamond that weird stadium off of 64 on the way to Cville? Looks like an cricket field if anything

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Thatā€™s the home of the Richmond Bravesā€¦ Squirrelsā€¦ not sure if or what that Triple A team is now. But yes thatā€™s what it is. That whole area is strange and seems like a wasteland forgotten by city planning. I know for a while the Wash football was holding training camp there, not sure if they still do. I got a buddy who works in City Hall and planning I should ask what is the plan for that section.

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Nailed it. Looks so strange driving by there. Always wondered what long term plans are when they build new stadiums/ arenas which used to be paid for in bonds or some shit

My guess is there is little thought to the longer term there

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Yup, that stuff has been there since the 70s or 80s maybe it was all there when I was a kid and we went to games there. But like I said I donā€™t know if any of it is used anymore. And with Richmond putting so much effort into the true downtown area not sure thereā€™s a desire to build up that portion of the city, which then you have all that space and what do you do with it.

Remember a few years back I was in STL and saw a similar situation the Rams old dome was just there on the edge of town empty.

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RIP UHall. Me and Harold last weekend talking about how sad it was to see Ralphs House gone

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Re: old arenas, MSG has to be reapproved by the city council this year. Not that Dolan is acting like itā€¦ Yā€™know who used to coach at MSGā€¦ Kenny Payne. Ta-dah! On topic.

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Itā€™s the Richmond Flying Squirrels who are a AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, but was the former home of the Richmond Braves (AAA affiliate of Atlanta Braves). They moved to Gwinett County, GA after the 2008 season. And yeah The Diamond is a dump built back in the mid 80ā€™s. The Washington Redskins/WFT (as they were called when in Richmond) held training camp in a brand new facility about half a mile from The Diamond. Itā€™s still there being used by Bon Secours, but the fields go mainly unused which is a waste as they are very nice fields. VCU used to practice some there for menā€™s and womenā€™s soccer and womenā€™s lacrosse, but Bon Secours charged too damn much rent from what I heard.

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Yeah itā€™s a real shame the City of Richmond is so poorly run they couldnā€™t get a new arena done in the city as had the backing of Dominion Power. The new baseball stadium is gonna happen though. And a new 17,000 seat arena is being built out in Henrico County in what used to be the old Best (old department store back in the day) complex. Itā€™s gonna be called Green City. Thatā€™s nice and all, but really needed it downtown in order to help revitalize some of that area even more.

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Interesting. Appreciate filling in the details on who went where when those have gotten foggy as time as gone on. I didnā€™t realize that Henrico Co. was getting an arena, thatā€™s really too bad and a big missed opportunity for the City. Glad they are keeping the baseball stadium at least, is it going up in the same location as the diamond?

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Here is a link to the Green City arena. Yeah the new baseball stadium is gonna go like right beside where the The Diamond sits. Has to be in place by 2025 I believe per Major League Baseball requirements for the Squirrels or theyā€™ll have to move.

Henrico Countyā€™s Green City Arena

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Hopefully this arena will get in the rotation for hosting NCAA tournament games.

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Hoo cares about Richmond? Apparently far too many here ā€¦ back to your regularly scheduled Louisville programming?

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