Catching up: CarMax Park remains on track for April opening
Name: CarMax Park, Richmond's new baseball stadium
Why you know it: The ballpark, which will replace the 40-year-old Diamond, is the lynchpin in the Diamond District development project that has been years in the making.
What’s happening now
Richmonders love their baseball. Last year alone, the Richmond Flying Squirrels welcomed more than 400,000 fans at their home games, an average of almost 6,800 people per game, according to Trey Wilson the team's director of communications.
“Both of those numbers were the highest of the 30 Double-A MiLB teams across the country, the fourth consecutive season the Flying Squirrels have led that category,” he said. “The average of 6,768 was the highest in Flying Squirrels franchise history and the highest for an Eastern League team in 20 years.”
That momentum has city officials and team owners hoping fans will keep flocking to a whole new ballpark and experience next year.
“When you guys get in there for the first time, I think you're going to be blown away, because I'm already blown away by what we're going to have,” said Lou DiBella, the team's Managing Partner, at a fan event in November. “It’s going to be operating every day of the year. People didn't want to get married in the Diamond. People barely wanted to go to the Diamond.”
DiBella said that besides baseball games, the park will have new lines of revenue — everything from concerts for 6,000 fans to a nightclub where bands or comedians can play.
“Our club, the Atlantic Union Bank Lounge, is designed as state-of-the-art. It has the best audiovisual you can get today. The room lends itself to various layouts, so you can do all sorts of different events there,” he said. “That room's the kind of place that you do want to get married in.”
The reason for the onslaught of events, said DiBella, is that the cost to pay for the new structure is going up — way up. He said the space is no longer just a baseball stadium but a business operation.
Victoria A. Ifatusin
“Our rent is going up over 1,000%. That's over 10 times what we've been paying,” he said. “You can't do that unless you're bringing in revenues to allow you to do that. You can't do that unless you're engaged in a different business. I could never pay that rent if this facility wasn't built the way it's built and wasn't designed to create new lines of revenue.”
DiBella wouldn’t say what the cost of the overall structure is coming in at, but he did lay out a few of the investments being made.
“When a city puts out bonds and raises $120 million, when an ownership group goes into the pocket for over $10 million in additional expense, that's what my ownership group is doing,” DiBella said. “We intend to invest $30 to $50 million more.”
The new Diamond will join other development along Arthur Ashe Boulevard, in an area that has been dubbed the Diamond District. The plan is to have retail, office, mixed-income housing and a hotel inhabit the spaces on and around the centerpiece of the field. Already new chain restaurants have popped up, along with housing nearby.
But even though fans will soon be able to experience the park, along with newly refreshed Flying Squirrels uniforms and logos, the space outside the ballpark still has a way to go before being finished.
“Well, there were a lot of pieces that were not completely ironed out,” said Mayor Danny Avula. “This is a pretty significant thing that I and our team have been working on. And some of that is when you've got different developers who are developing the ballpark and the surrounding area, there are things you just need to work out in terms of easements, in terms of construction schedule.”
Avula said one of those big pieces was the transaction of the VCU's Sports Backers Stadium to the city. The college will use the sale to help build its Athletic Village.
“So a lot of it has been nailing down the final details,” said Avula, adding that once done, it would clear the way for not only the tearing down of Sports Backers Stadium, but construction of a new road. “That was another big part of what we had to get done over the last few months.”
Regardless of when demolition and construction begins on the outlying structures, the ballpark is scheduled to be done by the end of February, with an opening day of April 7, said DiBella, who added that they’ll open up prior to that for small groups of fans in order to test some areas, such as concessions.
