THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 27, 1994 TAG: 9406270237
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940627 LENGTH: Medium
The answer is a resounding yes.
{REST} Build that 20,000-seat arena at Old Dominion University?
No way.
Recently, it was announced that ODU and a regional planning group will fork over $50,000 apiece to determine whether area cities should combine forces with ODU and build a major-league coliseum.
I've already answered it for them, and it didn't cost them one thin dime.
ODU, for those not paying attention, is planning to build an on-campus convocation center. The university wants to spend about $25 million for a 9,000-seat arena. It would have luxury boxes and be a showplace for college basketball, as well as concerts, meetings and convocations.
It would be perfect for ODU's needs, unlike Scope, whose 10,258 seats are located four miles away from ODU's campus and often are unavailable. From the circus to conventions, ODU too often must make way for other events. Even practice time is hard to find for the Big Blue Beast.
Privately, some prominent area citizens have been urging ODU to pool its $25 million with money from area cities and build a much larger arena. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea.
Someday we're going to need 20,000 seats for an NBA team or, more likely, a National Hockey League franchise.
We need a large arena today to accommodate the concerts, major conventions and basketball tournaments that pass us by. With a revived downtown area, the Virginia Beach oceanfront and Williamsburg all with an hour's drive, this could be Convention Central.
The CIAA tournament would surely return. We would land NCAA tournament games, and the resulting national publicity. Perhaps even the ACC tournament and the Final Four would discover Hampton Roads.
But ODU's campus is the wrong place. It is the worst location in Hampton Roads this side of Pungo.
Norfolk's West Side is a beautiful place to live, but it is already a traffic bottleneck. Try getting near Foreman Field on the day of a Norfolk State football game and you'll see what I mean.
You can't get there from here.
The closest Interstate highway to ODU is four torturous miles away. The main route through the West Side is Hampton Boulevard, which is four traffic-clogged lanes in places. Road improvements are planned, but they won't be enough to make this area accessible.
Nor is a jointly-funded arena a good idea for ODU. The Monarchs aren't the Tar Heels. They rarely, if ever, would fill 20,000 seats for a basketball game. On most nights, they would have more than 15,000 empty seats.
They also would be expected to share the building with a lot more tenants than they have to deal with at Scope.
ODU's relationship with the Hampton Roads Admirals has been testy, even though the Monarchs have first choice over their hockey brethren on most dates. Do they think an NHL team would put up with giving a local college basketball team most of the best dates?
Do they think the docket would be any less crowded with more conventions and concerts in town?
ODU would be buying into a nightmare.
ODU should build its own arena on campus for its own events. The cities, meanwhile, should build elsewhere.
We need a large arena in one of two places: Downtown Norfolk or somewhere in populous Virginia Beach, perhaps the Oceanfront area.
A downtown location could be the final piece of the puzzle in the city's efforts to renew its downtown. Combined with Waterside, Harbor Park, Nauticus and the planned MacArthur Center upscale shopping mall, a major-league arena could truly help downtown Norfolk re-establish itself as the center of Hampton Roads.
Virginia Beach, meanwhile, is home to nearly half of us who live in South Hampton Roads and is our most affluent city. If you want to locate close to people and money, that's the place to be.
It would be ideal if Norfolk and Virginia Beach pooled their resources and built a 25,000-seat facility on their common border, one that would fill hotel rooms, restaurants and tourist attractions in both cities.
If not, one should strike out alone, and the likely candidate is Norfolk, the region's traditional leader.
City fathers need only look to Charlotte to see the benefits a large arena will bring. The NBA Hornets are a huge success story. But even without the Hornets, the 23,500-seat Charlotte Coliseum is a success.
From trade shows to church meetings to the ACC tournament to the Final Four to large conventions, Charlotte is blowing us away.
It's commendable that our city fathers are thinking big. They see the need for 20,000 seats or more. They know the potential of Hampton Roads, the nation's largest metropolitan area without a major sports franchise.
They have the right idea. But, for now, they're looking at the wrong site.
by CNB