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Originally Posted by mlmpetert
A lot of the talk on radio down here was where in the hell are they going to host this thing.
Something i hadnt really thought about is training camp needs more then just a couple fields. Directly connected to the fields they need a locker room, a place to study/watch flim and stuff, and a place to eat.
City Stadium - needs massive renovation plus facilities which it has none of.
UR - Its probably the best suited to host training camp but its a political hot bed. Technically part of the campus is in Henrico (perhaps more than half), and Richmond put up the 400k. Many/most impacted restaurants, hotels and commercial places in the area will be outside of the city.
The surrounding neighborhoods are some of the nicest in the Richmond area and they fought hard against the new UR stadium being built because of noise and traffic concerns. These are well connected people that are gonna be against training camp.
I mentioned the fields behind Flying Squarels' field yesterday, which turns out to be owned by Sports Backers and VCU. Ive heard a couple people say its probably the fall back spot right now, hopefully theyll find something better. Kind of a crappy area and i think the fields are turf.
VUU - Historically black college (Ben Wallace tore it up there). Their stadium is more like a bigger HS stadium, but probably big enough, and it has the practice field adjacent to it. Parking probably sucks. Not in the nicest part of town.
Browns Island - I havent heard anyone else mention it, but i think it will be in play. I think the facilities/busineses around it could support lockerroom/indoor needs, but it would definitely need some bleachers/seating. However having seating at Browns Island would come in handy for the other events there. Not sure if downtown could handel the additional parking on weekdays though.
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Great summary of what is available, thanks. Now that you say it, they showed City Stadium and the VCU field on last night's news. Both looked pretty bad. The more I think about it and see that Richmond is far away from an acceptable/modern facility it seems that this is a money grab by the Skins and a publicity stunt by VA and Richmond. So far I dont see how this will do anything to make the Skins training camp more productive.