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Gridiron or Gridlock?

Area residents voice traffic concerns about UR's proposed on-campus football stadium.

courtesy of University of Richmond Athletics
UR's proposal to renovate First Market Stadium into a 9,000-seat football stadium has ruffled a few feathers in the surrounding area.

Kent Jennings Brockwell
Richmond.com
Thursday, April 05, 2007

The catch phrase running around the University of Richmond's campus these days is "Spider Football is Coming Home."

Several of the university's residential neighbors, however, would like to add "only if there isn't any more traffic" to the school's new mantra.

For the past several months, UR officials have been seriously tossing around the idea of expanding the on-campus First Market Stadium to accommodate true home football games. On Wednesday night, the university held the first of two public meetings to find out what the school's residential neighbors thought about a new stadium and bringing football games back to campus, something the surrounding neighborhoods haven't experienced in almost 80 years.

Since 1929, UR's football team has played its home games a few miles from campus at the aged city-owned University of Richmond Stadium near Carytown.

While First Market Stadium currently accommodates 3,000 spectators and plays host to the school's soccer, lacrosse and track and field teams, it would require new sound and light systems and considerably more seating to house UR football games, which typically draw between 5,000 and 12,000 spectators per game. The current expansion concept includes seating on both sides of the field for a total capacity of approximately 9,000.

In 2005, an anonymous donor made a $5 million pledge to help the university build an on-campus stadium but stipulated that the school must match the $5 million gift and raise another $10 million. By the end of 2006, the $20 million goal had been obtained and the school proceeded to have architects draw up some conceptual renderings of a new stadium.

With about 70 residents and school officials gathered Wednesday, UR Athletic Director Jim Miller gave a basic overview of the project and presented several slides of the preliminary architectural plans. Then he opened the meeting to questions and public comments.

Though the first few questions of the night regarded attendance numbers and what type of seating the new stadium would have (about 70 percent will be chair back seating) concerns about traffic, not just potential game day traffic but all traffic problems, quickly became the top issue of the night.

"You have heard me say this many times...but I think the fundamental issue is traffic, not game day traffic but all traffic," said Bill Barry, a UR alumnus and campus neighbor.

Barry went on to suggest that UR hire a traffic engineer to look at the traffic situation surrounding the University and come up with some ways to alleviate the current stop-and-go problems on Three Chopt Road and the few other thoroughfares near campus.

"If we don't do anything about the traffic, I would say it will be a cold day on Three Chopt before I'll ever accept a stadium," Barry added.

Mary Glen Taylor, another concerned neighbor who lives on Three Chopt, voiced her concern about the safety of the neighborhoods alluding to a recent event at UR that clogged area streets.

"Our roads were totally gridlocked for one solid hour before the event and one solid hour after the event," Taylor said. "During that time, no 911 calls could have possibly been answered. There are 308 homes between Three Chopt and the university and they are all on dead end streets and they are at risk and that needs to be taken care of."

After fielding several questions about traffic concerns, Miller apologized for not having a ready solution but said a traffic study was underway and that results should be available in a few months. He also reminded the crowd that many of their questions weren't related to football traffic at all but that the problems needed to be dealt with nonetheless.

"Believe me, we know that traffic is the most important issue," said Miller, who actually lives only a stone's throw from the proposed stadium. "But we are on track to design something that looks good, feels good and all that other stuff. We want this to be a success and the best way to fail is not having a good traffic plan. We want this to succeed and the best way to get the right plan is to involve the people who are experiencing the problems.

"There are two separate issues. There is game day traffic but there is also the other 359 days out of the year traffic and both are issues that need to be addressed."

Traffic issues aside, some in the audience voiced concern about the proposed structure, namely issues with size and aesthetics. If built as currently proposed, Miller said the field surface and track would remain but seating would be built on both sides of the playing surface. Neither grandstand, however, would be taller than the 9,071-person capacity Robins Center next door.

Though UR has $20 million in the bank for continuance of the project, Miller said he couldn't imagine giving a rough estimate of the total cost at this point in time. However, he did say if given the green light at the Board of Director's meeting in May, the stadium could be constructed and up and running as early as the end of 2009 but added that the fall of 2010 would be a better estimate.

The university is holding its second public discussion regarding the stadium expansion April 10 at 7 p.m. at UR's Jepson Alumni Center.

For more information about the proposed First Market Stadium expansion or to see renderings of the project, visit www.richmondspiders.com.

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