Redskins Officially Announce Training Camp Move to Richmond/Ashburn Renovations

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.

Also i just remembered Bruce Allen played football at UR, i think he was the punter. Not sure if that could impact anything or not.

Also i just remembered Bruce Allen played football at UR, i think he was the punter. Not sure if that could impact anything or not.

It just impacts my opinion of him.

It just impacts my opinion of him.

Hahaha. Agreed. His father is a legendary NFL head coach and all he can play is punter? Really?

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.

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.

I know nothing about Richmond, but what I have been told is that the leading option is to expand City Stadium and partner it up with VCU's medical school campus somehow.

Again, I know nothing about Richmond so I don't how this would work. But as of right now, that's apparently what they're primarily looking at

The other strong contender is that Flying Squirrels field that mlmpetert referred to

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.

From what I can tell through mlmpetert's post (I don't know much about Richmond) there isn't a leading contender at this point to host it. They'll need a pretty big stadium to hold the fans too, during the weekdays it's not so bad but last year Fan Appreciation Day drew 28k (I think?) and with RG3 in the fold it might even draw around 30k or more now. So having an area that can hold that many people will be important. Not to mention all the facilities players need, training room, film room, cafeteria, etc.

i had my fingers crossed for roanoke

@ Smoot - that doesnt really make a lot of sense. VCU's medical school is MCV, which is on a seperate campus about 2 miles east in downtown Richmond next to big buildings and stuff. The main VCU campus is kind of at the juncture where downtown meets the old uptown residential type area. City Stadium is about 2-3 miles futher west. So all 3 places are spread out from each other with VCU in the middle.

Its openly known that VCU can have City Stadium if they want it, but VCU's been putting it off. Im starting to feel like this whole training camp thing is gonna make them commit one way or another.

Ever since UR stoped playing there people have been trying to figure out what to do with City Stadium. VCU was/is the likely sucessor but its not a sure thing. VCU's old president wouldnt even entertain the idea of a football team. I think the new president is ambivalent to the idea. VCU's old AD, Norwood Teague, wanted a football team, and pulled a HUGE shocker when he left Shaka to go to Minnesota about a month ago.

This happened right after Shaka committed to VCU, and combined with VCU joining the A10 has created some speculation that Shaka Smart is against VCU getting a football team. After Shaka stayed, and because of the amount we are paying him, he's gonna get his way (imo Teague could be the bigger loss (digression)). Also with VCU's recent success at bball there hasnt been a push for football like there was 10 years ago. In fact i would say most of the VCU community is against getting a football team right now.

But now that i know the other place behind the Flying Squirrels (fun fact - flying squirrels are not indigenous to Richmond) is owned by VCU i got to think that if VCU was to ever get a football team thats where they have been planning to build a stadium.

The previous minor leauge bball team (for the Braves) was pushed out of town because like City Stadium the baseball stadium (called The Diamond) was in disrepair. After they left we got the Flying Squirrels and helped them "band aid" fix it up. Attendence has been great and theyve done really well, but at some point theyll need a new stadium. Im thinking once they get their stadium, or leave, VCU will take over The Diamond with the intent to eventually rip it down and start a football program.

So all this could force a couple key decisions that are partially contingent on each other:

1) VCU's football intent & where theyll eventually play
2) Commitment via stadium funding to the Flying Squirrels & where to build the new stadium
3) What to do with City Stadium and eventually The Diamond

My guess is they wont be able to figure all this out and there will be a "make do" type solution, at least initially. City Stadium has seating for 22k, the VCU fields behind The Diamond have 3k seats but could easily be expanded to 6k or more. Parking and traffic wont be a problem for either site. I guess it all depends on how good RGIII looks early on.

Maybe I heard wrong. Like I said, I know nothing about Richmond so don't know how the layout could work logistically