Sports Tourism Aims High in RVA

Rich Meagher:

This is RVAs Got Issues. I’m your host Rich Meagher. I’m the parent of an athlete, a swimmer. When my daughter was in high school, I spent long weekends sitting on benches in the hot, humid stands above the swimming pool deck, waiting around for hours so I could cheer my lungs out for that one two minute swim. What I didn’t think about was that I was contributing to a billion dollar industry, one that’s become vital to the economic health of the entire region. From youth to college to the pros. RVA is building a sports infrastructure that’s meant to help both residents and visitors score big. So on this episode, RVAs got issues with sports tourism. I’m joined now by JC Poma. He’s Executive Director of Sports Visitation and Entertainment for Chesterfield County. And Dennis Bickmeier, the Executive Director of Henrico County’s Sports and Entertainment Authority, JC Dennis, welcome.

J.C. Poma:

Thanks for having us.

Dennis Bickmeier:

Yeah, appreciate it.

Rich Meagher:

So let’s start here. What’s the state of sports tourism in RVA?

Dennis Bickmeier:

You know, when you look at sports tourism, it’s become its own brand. Now it’s its own segment of the tourism market. And if you go back to, uh, 75 plus years ago, the Richmond Raceway and the NASCAR races were probably the original. But now that, that focus really is on youth sports travel, just like your story that you laid out there in the opening. So it’s driving a lot of economic impact.

J.C. Poma:

It’s definitely a gateway for us. But when you look at it, it’s for the home field advantage that we like to talk about, and it’s about our community usage first. And our model, just like Henrico is just like everyone’s is, you know, how can we maximize the ROI and lessen the tax burden on our residents through using this, this means of sports tourism,

Rich Meagher:

Right? So it’s like a family’s coming into town, they’re gonna join a soccer tournament, but it’s, it’s also a question about while they’re here, what are the other things they’re doing? What are they looking for? Is that the idea here?

J.C. Poma:

Oh, definitely. There was this term, I remember when I first started called a ternication. What that means is maybe they have a Saturday Sunday game on the soccer fields, or it’s the middle of the summer. They may go to Virginia Beach and come back for a tournament, but they may also stay in Richmond and let’s host ’em on our fields. Let’s have a great experience and then let’s make sure they’re, you know, spending their money in our localities.

Rich Meagher:

You know, we often think about city versus the counties or county versus county, but the way you are talking about, it’s more of this kind of like regional approach. And you’ve already talked about some of the advantages that RVA has in that sense location. It’s the hospitality community. What else do we have to offer here?

Dennis Bickmeier:

I think a big part of it too is trust promoters or event tournament organizers that are making decisions on where to take their event. Uh, they have to trust that they’re gonna have good facilities, that they’re gonna have safe facilities, those types of things. And they’re gonna be well prepared to help them execute their events. So I think the region has built a really good reputation nationally as a really good host.

Rich Meagher:

And so how do the counties work together on these kinds of things? It seems like you too are in constant contact, but like how do you plan to build something? How do you plan like what you’re gonna do?

Dennis Bickmeier:

Richmond region tourism is kind of the conduit to a lot of that. So when you’re looking at a calendar, they’re actively involved in a lot of the events that come here.

Rich Meagher:

And that’s the sort of regional tourism board that Yeah, that’s exactly coordinates all this stuff.

Dennis Bickmeier:

Yeah. So, so I think that’s a big part of it. But then same thing on the facility side is, you know, as you kind of look out what do we have, what does Chesterfield have, where are we missing things, what’s missing from the portfolio? With the Henrico Sports and Event Center that we opened a year ago, I get hit all the time, why didn’t you build an indoor track? ’cause VCU’s gonna build one and it doesn’t make sense to have two of those eight miles apart.

Rich Meagher:

So how does a sports team and its facility help the region? We’ve got the flag squirrels, you’ve got the kickers, you’ve got other professional teams in town. What does this do for residents Here?

J.C. Poma:

Whether you’re a sports fan or not, community parks and amenities are a big quality of life factor in any locality,

Rich Meagher:

Right?

J.C. Poma:

Covid really amplified that. Getting outside and experiencing outdoor recreation. There’s not a lot of public facilities. And I, I bet Dennis has one and we do with River City Sportsplex, that makes money and funds itself. We’re also lucky that we have local organizations that host massive tournaments with us. You know, we’re opening four more fields at River City Sportsplex, four more fields means 44 more teams coming to the area. Then you start thinking times 15 athletes time 1.5 parents,

Rich Meagher:

Right? To how many, how many burritos? Exactly how many like hotel. Yeah.

J.C. Poma:

These organizations, they’re helping build a grassroots sports community with us. These tournaments, they encourage people to play. And that’s really that home field advantage we’ve talked about.

Dennis Bickmeier:

But the other piece of that too is if we host an NCA type of event, Richmond, Richmond region, Chesterfield, Henrico, our name’s being mentioned in other markets, and there’s value to that.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. And I’m wondering about the value. It’s one thing if we’re talking about investing in facilities that are gonna be kind of paid for by these outside uses, but we’re talking about, let’s say a big baseball stadium downtown, like they’re building for the flying squirrels. That involves a certain investment of public dollars. Speaking of someone who’s been a little skeptical of these big developments, what’s the economic impact? How do you measure it?

J.C. Poma:

I’ll take that outside of the major sports facility model and bring it back right down Midlothian Turnpike here to the public private partnership model. We’re redeveloping the area called Spring line at District 60 right now. You know, kind of formally announced a full service Hilton hotel with 300 rooms, huge convention center space there. Well, that’s kind of another gateway to the county right there at Chippenham, getting off at Midlothian Turnpike. If we can invigorate development around that, that’s our job as the public sector here. It brings massive amounts of people to then spend their money, not just live there, spend their money at restaurants, all sorts of things. So that’s our model. How can I drive people who are gonna spend their money?

Rich Meagher:

So the idea is you’re not building a giant football stadium that gets used 12 times a year, and then it’s a ghost town the rest of the year. You’re trying to think about how do we maximize the use of this area?

Dennis Bickmeier:

That’s exactly right. And, and I’ll say this too, when you look at a lot of the current stadium and arena development that’s going on, um, they’re building it with a lot of flexible space in it so that it, it’s not just for those 10 or 12 football games or whatever, it’s all these other uses, concerts and things like that, that again, they, it, it, it is about, you know, facility usage and how many more days can you drive at these facilities.

Rich Meagher:

We’ll have more from Dennis Bickmeier and JC Poma, including how one of their counties built a swimming pool in a mall. When we come back on RVAs got issues, this is RVAs got issues. We’re talking with Chesterfield County’s JC Poma and Henrico Dennis Bickmeier about sports tourism in RVA. So the youth leagues, we’ve been talking about those, the tournaments, the meets youth sports. Seems like it’s only growing both nationally and here in RVA. What’s driving that, Dennis? Why is it so big now?

Dennis Bickmeier:

Well, there’s a number of factors. I think sports travel teams, club teams and things are driving a lot of this, but you still need your grassroots. You still need the little leagues to be successful. You need the YMCAs to be successful. And they introduce young people to sports. Some people see scholarships at the end of this thing. Yeah, some people see Son’s got talent to be a pro athlete. They want to pursue that dream. They’re willing to make that investment in that Dream.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. And it’s also, there’s something about though the, the, those local leagues and, and things right. That make it easier to bring in these tournaments. Is that right? Jc?

J.C. Poma:

Definitely. Let’s take a baseball or softball tournament when you’re going out there, whether it’s prep baseball report in Henrico or Perfect Game or just partnering with a local organization to host something, the first thing they’re gonna do is make sure they have a base of teams locally to play. One of the stats we track heavily is both our facility usage from local usage and tourism on the weekend usage, but we’re also tracking local attendance and tournaments. The average number last year across our 160 tournaments was 42% local participation. I grew up in this space in Richmond and we were fortunate my dad was able to send me across the country to get recruited, and it was awesome. But I did have to travel. And you know, there’s a reason why seven Randolph Macon college soccer players are from Chesterfield right now. He gets to come to River City to recruit his team and I think that, that, that’s that home field advantage. Yeah.

Dennis Bickmeier:

My, my wallet’s taking a hit this week because my son’s headed to Tampa, Florida to play ice hockey. So Yeah,

Rich Meagher:

It seems, yeah. And that seems, uh, counterintuitive. He’s going the wrong direction. Right. Uh, so Dennis in, in Henrico, right, there was this mall malls are kind of outdated.

Dennis Bickmeier:

Two of ’em.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. And so it Regency Square now you walk in and there’s this giant Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Dennis Bickmeier:

The Nova Swim Aquatic Center is just one of those great examples of what can be done. Blows me away. Every time I walk in there, I’m like, this was a two story Macy’s department store.

Page Hayes:

Yeah.

Dennis Bickmeier:

It’s now one the top aquatic centers in the country. Now they’re actually onto the second phase of that to actually put in some second floor mezzanine seating as well, which will open up opportunities to go bid on some bigger events that they can host. But yeah, it’s looking at, you know, big box stores looking at those types of spaces that in some respects are past their useful life. And they’re not done over there yet. At Regency there’s still some open floor space that they continue to look at. We got an indoor pickleball facility over there. Again, private developer privately run, but a great win for our area.

Rich Meagher:

And so JC a place like the South side Speedway, uh, raceway right down the street from the Sportsplex in Chesterfield, that inspires a lot of passion. But is that a space that needs this kind of innovative thinking? What are the plans for that?

J.C. Poma:

We kinda look at that space off of Genito Road as our future sports and entertainment corridor. Mm-hmm. So let’s start just to the west of River City Sportsplex, again, a public-private partnership with the lake that is going up. What’s the first things you’re seeing in a mixed use development that are popping up? The Chipotle, the Starbucks, and the ABC store? Three essentials. But what’s the next thing going up A hotel? The hotel is going up very purposefully to capture all of that attendance at River City and get some tax revenue flowing back into that area. Then you’ll start to see the lake take shape and the cable line skiing where we can host a triathlon national championship. Plus then let’s go right down the road to South Side Speedway. We’re committed to trying to make racing return there with a great group of passionate race fans and, uh, community members who wanna see racing come back. Our job is to work with a potential future promoter there to make sure racing can come back, but then take a look at the maximization of that entire 43 acres and what fits with River City. It’s the same thing as that corridor in Henrico or a mall or whatever that may be. It’s just in a different realm of redevelopment.

Rich Meagher:

What are the challenges facing the region coming up in terms of the work that you have ahead of you?

Dennis Bickmeier:

The sports tourism space is so competitive. Competition is gonna drive a little bit of a different business look to this. And incentives are gonna become a big part of being able to attract and recruit events. And business retention too. You know, if we’ve had a three or a five or maybe a 10 year run with a sports tournament here

J.C. Poma:

Doesn’t mean it’s staying.

Dennis Bickmeier:

Yeah. Someone’s always nipping at them to come to their facility. And I, I do think money’s gonna drive some of this. We we’re fortunate again with Richmond Region Tourism, the Tourism Improvement district funds that allow for some incentive funds to be used for sports and conventions and marketing of our great area, but highly, highly competitive out there against some of the communities that we benchmark against and that we compete against for events.

J.C. Poma:

I mentioned it earlier, hotel rooms. If Dennis is running a basketball event at the Henrico Sports and Events Center and we got something going at River City Source that’s completely maxing both sides of the hotel infrastructure and creating compression into the city. There’s other things, referees probably comes up every time Dennis and I are together. We had a big softball tournament this summer, the Mid-Atlantic nationals where they had to cap the number of teams, not because of fields, but they gotta have umpires.

Page Hayes:

Wow.

J.C. Poma:

So they’re down to you having one umpire instead of two. Those type of things are gonna affect the competitive balance.

Rich Meagher:

So what’s the dream catch? What’s the big whale you wanna land

Dennis Bickmeier:

Those NCA events, those national governing body national championship type of events, or NCA division one men’s women’s basketball, USA gymnastics or USA figure skating or you know, the frozen four. Those types of events are on the list. But full service hotels for the NCA bids and the national governing body bids we’re actually under indexed on those.

Rich Meagher:

And full service hotels. You mean a hotel like with and restaurants? Yeah,

Dennis Bickmeier:

Yeah. All those things that

J.C. Poma:

They can watch Film

Dennis Bickmeier:

Yeah. That can host teams and, and meeting rooms are really important in that

J.C. Poma:

You hosted a FIFA sanction friendly at River City Sportsplex last July and had right around 3000 passionate fans of a Honduras and El Salvadorian national team. Those are the things that create pride and I think that’s the most important piece of this, to create a better quality of life for our residents and build facilities that our residents are proud of.

Rich Meagher:

Dennis Bickmeier is Executive director of Henrico County Sports and Entertainment Authority. JC Poma is Executive Director of Sports Visitation and Entertainment for Chesterfield County. Thanks to you both. Thanks for having us. Sports is not just important for tourism and economic development. It’s also a lifelong passion in RVA for players and fans alike. For our community spotlight, we’re welcoming Paige and Richard Hayes, a husband and wife team that love to cheer on their favorite local sports team. The Richmond Kickers, they’re members of something called the River City Red Army. Page. Richard, welcome.

Page Hayes:

Hi.

Richard Hayes:

Thank you.

Rich Meagher:

So Paige, let’s start with you. What’s the Red Army? Not the Soviet one, right? What is your Red Army?

Page Hayes:

Yeah, our logo does give the wrong impression sometimes, the Red Army is supporters group and their main goal is to make noise, be loud, support the players on the field. And there are a bunch of weirdos, frankly, But we love the team and we support them no matter what. Win or lose.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. And so speaking of Weirdos Richard’s wearing a Red Army jersey. He’s got like a, a red mohawk on his head, right? Well, who joins the Red Army? Who are the people? Who are the kinds of people who are involved?

Richard Hayes:

Well, everybody’s welcome to join the Red Army.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah.

Richard Hayes:

There’s no kind of test, there’s no fees. And it was founded by a group of supporters that would travel up to DC United Games. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So they have a real passion for soccer. Our group has, it’s become much more international over the few years. Hondurans England, Brazil. I think we’ve got Guatemalan Mexican as well as the far outreaches of Midlothian. So, I mean, it’s, it’s a very diverse group of people.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. So you’re saying more international, you mean like people who come to Richmond from other places and they throw the, the region as you’re saying Now, I, I should say we are friends, you know, former neighbors of mine. I’ve been to games, I’ve sat near you folks. I’ve never sat in among you in like Section O right at the end of the stands. So let’s just kind of run through, uh, a Red Army experience. What happens? You’re saying anybody’s welcome. What happens if I come join you for a game?

Page Hayes:

Well, we like to start with tailgating on the down low, but we get together, we have drinks. It’s really our only chance to socialize because during a game, once you get into the stands, you’re focused on the game. And we try to for 90 minutes chant and drum and yell and wave flags. Newbies are often a little taken aback, but we do really want anybody, you can be ridiculous and loud and everybody’s in it together. If you don’t mind the, the smoke bombs that we let off come and join us and they’re sanctioned by the USL. We have to use a certain kind.

Richard Hayes:

You have to sign forms and tell them we only have a couple people that are allowed to light them off. So if you’re coming to join us, don’t bring your own smoke bombs not allowed, but

Rich Meagher:

Frowned upon. Don’t freelance this. There’s

Richard Hayes:

No free, there’s, there’s no professionals, no freelance per pyro tactics. Tactics allowed.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah. So you’re talking about this like there’s rules, this seems fairly elaborately structured, but it’s modeled on the kinds of sport groups for other clubs. Right?

Page Hayes:

Well if you could call chaos coordinated Sure. Because it’s like herding a bunch of cats, and maybe three squirrels to get them to do something at the same time. So it’s mostly just a lot of abandoned and a lot of fun.

Rich Meagher:

And this club, the kickers have been around a while. The fan group, the Red Army has been around for a while, right? We’re talking decades.

Richard Hayes:

Yeah. The kickers were founded in 1993. We’ve been around 11 or 12 years.

Rich Meagher:

So you’re saying the Red Army’s a little over a decade old. How did you two get involved in that? Who got drafted first?

Richard Hayes:

I was one of the founders of the Red Army. A group of us were big DC United fans and then there happened to be an intern named RP Kirkland.

Page Hayes:

Yeah. RP was

Richard Hayes:

Working, was working for the kickers. And he saw this untapped potential. ’cause at the time the kickers games were super, super family friendly, didn’t serve alcohol. They pretty much gave away tickets to anyone that was involved with the Kickers youth club.

Page Hayes:

Mm.

Richard Hayes:

The team was officially owned by the youth club at that time. But if you came from a culture like DC United, you spent all 90 minutes on your feet chanting, clapping, cheering. That’s what you did. You never sat down except for during the half or when you’re standing in line for a beer. But then RP talked to the front office and said, Hey, can we let these guys tailgate and do their thing inside the stadium? And it kind of grew from there. Mm-hmm.

Page Hayes:

I think too, the ownership of the team changed and is separated from the youth league now and they need to make it more profitable. So some of the things they did is they got a permanent lease of the stadium, a 40 year lease. They used to only rent the stadium one game at a time. So they’ve been able to do a lot of improvements to the lighting, to the concourse. They’ve got a lot of beer stands, they bring in food trucks. And I think they’ve really worked to improve the experience of being there. And I think in general, the soccer culture in America has grown through World Cup, both men and the women. We’re seeing a lot more fans who are engaged with what’s going on in the field.

Richard Hayes:

We support a lot and I think we bring an atmosphere that’s not like any other sports in Richmond. Sometimes VCU basketball comes close with the atmosphere. Squirrels games are great. It’s a great organization. Everybody that works there is wonderful. But the atmosphere at a baseball game compared to a soccer game is night and day.

Rich Meagher:

It sounds like it’s fun, but it’s also a little bit of work. Right. What do you get outta this? What do you two get out of this?

Page Hayes:

I think I love the community of people and we’re so passionate about it. And I think too, we get to know through that passion the players themselves a little bit more, which also makes you feel more passionate about what’s going on. Like one of our former midfielders, Zaka Marran just left the team, but he’s such a nice guy and when he got tackled you just felt this. Oh.

Richard Hayes:

It’s like your kids out there,

Page Hayes:

Right? Yeah. You just get real attached.

Richard Hayes:

A lot of times the players, they come right up to us at the end of the game. We get to know ’em that way. Mm-hmm. But also little simple things like I’ve paint for 90% of the banners on the wall and some of my favorite players end up getting a banner. And at the end of the season I get the banner off the wall and give it to them. And I’ve had players repost pictures with the banner. I’ve gotten a jersey from a player. You really get to know them and in some cases their partners, like we know when a player’s had a child and we’re able to send them a message or sometimes a t-shirt or or onesie or whatever. It’s also the unfortunate nature of this league being such a low paying league and it’s really a step to the next level,

Page Hayes:

Right.

Richard Hayes:

Is that some players are around for just a year or two and you get to know them and then they move on to something better or retire or get injured or whatever. And it’s just painful when you come to know them as a friend.

Page Hayes:

Constant heartache.

Richard Hayes:

Yeah.

Rich Meagher:

Yeah, yeah. Because you’re here the whole time and they’re kind of coming through right. Passing through.

Richard Hayes:

Yeah. We have a big sense of family. I was thinking about this in preparation for this over the 10 or 11 years I’ve seen multiple marriages, kids being born. Yeah. At the game. I hope. No, exactly. I mean, I think I’ve seen close to some divorces happening at the game <laugh>. But like kids growing up, our own kids started in elementary school and now she’s in college. And I’ve seen that with multiple other kids. I’ve seen kids discover who they are. I’ve seen people like leave We, we even had deaths, Dave Bulow. Um, which was crushing for people that know he was a coach prior to our current Sawatzky. So things like that, it’s a whole family. It’s a whole nother, it’s a whole nother family beyond your own.

Rich Meagher:

So say I’m a RVA resident, I like soccer, I wanna know more what do I do?

Page Hayes:

We are always inviting new people. So I’ve been telling people lately, if you’re interested in the Red Army and you wanna come to a tailgate, ask for Richard or Page. And I am happy to be awkward with you and introduce you around and get you a cold bev. And that’s really one way to do it is just get involved with these other folks who are so impassion. And there’s also, we have a local podcast, river City 93 that some of our members and leadership, Elliot Barr and Kate McCarty and um, Alex Ashton are all writers and podcasters about this sport. Listening to some podcasts are pretty helpful too.

Rich Meagher:

Paige and Richard Hayes are members of the River City Red Army. Stand up for Richmond.

Page Hayes:

Yeah. Yeah.

Rich Meagher:

You can find them at the river city Red army.org or at section O during the games. That’s our show. Thanks to our guests, JC Poma, Dennis Bickmeier and Page and Richard Hayes. Next up, we want to hear from you. In an upcoming episode, we’ll be talking with Henrico County manager, John Vithoulkas. If you’ve got a question for the county manager, call our listener voicemail line and leave a message at 8 0 4 5 6 0 8 1 0 8. That’s 8 0 4 5 6 0 8 1 0 8. You can also visit our website, RVAs got issues.vpm.org. RVAs Got Issues is produced by Max Wasserman and Rachel Dwyer. Donna Lack is our script editor. Audio mix by Steve Lack. Our intern is Cate McKenzie. Our theme music was composed by Alexander Hitchens. Meg Lindholm is our executive producer. Steve Humble is VP’s Chief Content Officer. I’m your host, Rich Meagher. Thanks for listening.