RICHMOND, Va. -- Of the thousand-plus games the Richmond Flying Squirrels have played since 2010, Ray Edwards said he might have missed just 10 home games.
“The Squirrels organization, they do more for this city, I think, than most any other company,” Edwards, who became a fan of the team’s parent club, the San Francisco Giants, when they were still in New York, said.
Going to that many games makes Edwards keenly aware of how the condition of the aging Diamond, where the Squirrels play their home games, impacts both the fans and the team.
“Minor league teams have to do a lot more than they used to have to do. This ballpark is just antiquated; it’s too old,” Edwards said.
Monday night, city officials announced the next step in changing that and bringing a new baseball stadium to Richmond for the first time since the mid-1980s.
City leaders and the developer of the new stadium, RVA Diamond District Partners, announced the finalized plan that would begin phase one of the new Diamond District project.
For Richmond baseball fans who have closely followed the “will-they, won’t-they” stadium drama over the past decade plus, some changes made in the final deal allowed old thoughts to creep in.
“Finalized. I’ll believe something when I see the shovels go into the ground and something gets started. It’s been 20 years, we’ve been waiting,” Edwards said.
Officials said in a statement the recent spike in interest rates nationally made securing financing for the deal difficult to peg down over the past few months. The stadium portion is expected to cost $90 million; the overall Diamond District development is expected to cost $2.4 billion.
“When the solicitation process for the Diamond District began in October 2021 with the launch of a marketing effort, the Federal interest rate was 0.08%. Since the time the City announced the selection of RVA Diamond Partners in September 2022, the rate has increased to 2.56%, and now it’s at 4.83%,” the city’s statement said.
The plan calls for the new stadium to be completed by the opening game of the 2026 season, which importantly is one year after the deadline set by Major League Baseball for all Minor League teams to meet the new minimum facility requirements. The Diamond does not meet those standards.
“We do believe that, when MLB sees the city’s commitment and the fact that we are looking to build a stadium with a high-quality fan experience, we can work with them on the timing for continuing in the existing Diamond and then transitioning to a beautiful new stadium by spring of ’26,” Richmond CAO Lincoln Saunders told Richmond BizSense.
The final plan also calls for the city to pay for infrastructure improvements around the new Diamond District. To help pay for those, Richmond leaders plan to create a new special tax district for the area immediately surrounding the Diamond District area.
The “tax incremental financing” zone would utilize expected future revenues the new project is expected to create to pay off bonds issued for the initial costs.
Richmond City Council President Mike Jones said he remains committed to keeping baseball in the River City. Jones said the TIF zone and infrastructure costs is part of accomplishing that goal.
“We know that interest rates have risen across the board. So, the way it would impact a $250,000 home, can you imagine a $90 million project?” Jones said. “[TIF is] a financial tool. You just leverage the future revenue to help pay down the debt. It’s being used all over the country, and it’s being used right here in this deal. We actually have projects underway right now in Richmond that utilize the TIF, it’s nothing new.”
CBS 6 Sports Director Lane Casadonte has been covering the baseball stadium drama beat for nearly two decades. Casadonte said he’s closely watching how the MLB reacts to the deal announced by the city.
“I can’t remember getting this close. So, you’d like to think they’d be able to see it the rest of the way home since they got it to this point,” Casadonte said. “The Diamond is never going to meet that minimum they want to see. Fans don’t know what they don’t have right now, so when and if this finally gets built, fans are going to go crazy seeing what a modern, 21st-century minor league ballpark can afford both players and fans.”
Edwards goes to the games despite the Diamond condition, of course, but said he believes a new stadium would help boost an already successful franchise.
“I’m hoping [the MLB will] adjust. I don’t want to lose them,” he said. “I think it will be sold out most every night because people will have a nice place to come, no steps to climb, just a nice area.”
The Flying Squirrels said they could not comment on the deal. The paper dealing with the new Diamond District deal is expected to work its way through the City Council process in the coming weeks.
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