A Sea Of Red

There was an article in today's local paper about the possibility of the city of Lynchburg building a 10,000-seat civic center near campus that LU could rent out on a regular basis. According to the article, LU is even willing to pay for the initial feasability study.

It's been needed for years.

Awesome. Now WWE Raw can make an appearance.

Here's a link to the article in yesterday's paper (the locals have lots to say about it):

Liberty leads renewed push for civic center arena
By Bryan Gentry
Published: January 20, 2010

Liberty University is resurrecting a decades-old effort to build a civic center in the Lynchburg area.

The university has asked a coalition of local government officials to coordinate a regional study to see if a sports, entertainment and convention arena could succeed if LU agrees to rent it regularly. LU would help pay for the study, but any facility would be owned by a local government authority under the proposal.

Although previous discussions have shown that the region wanted such a facility but could not support it financially, LU’s commitment could change that.

http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/lo ... ena/23366/

And a follow-up article in today's paper:
http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/lo ... udy/23398/

sounds like they decided they'd rather not renovate the vines. Like I said before, a CC would be good for LU I guess, but I really don't think they city would be able to use it. Who would tour through there instead of JPJ or Roanoke CC? Nobody's gonna add Lynchburg AND one of those 2.

LUconn wrote:sounds like they decided they'd rather not renovate the vines. Like I said before, a CC would be good for LU I guess, but I really don't think they city would be able to use it. Who would tour through there instead of JPJ or Roanoke CC? Nobody's gonna add Lynchburg AND one of those 2.

If they are spending 80m to 100m....id have to think that puts us on par with a run down CC in Roanoke. That place is nothing special.

Cider Jim wrote:And a follow-up article in today's paper:
http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/lo ... udy/23398/

"The site you requested is blocked under the Global Block List." - LU's webfilter

Would 10,000 be enough? I would think they would need a 12,000 - 15,000 seat civic center. I mean the Vines Center seats around 9,000, doesn't it?

I think if they wanted to maximize the revenue it would generate, they would need to build it larger than 10,000.

LUconn wrote:sounds like they decided they'd rather not renovate the vines. Like I said before, a CC would be good for LU I guess, but I really don't think they city would be able to use it. Who would tour through there instead of JPJ or Roanoke CC? Nobody's gonna add Lynchburg AND one of those 2.

There are a ton of more uses for a Civic Center than just bands coming through, and yes there will be bands coming through. Not every band that goes on tour can command the crowd to fill the 16,000 seat JPJ or will want to pay the price tag to rent use JPJ - I would imagine that the Lynchburg Civic Center would have a cheaper price tag. Anytime LC or LU have concerts featuring bands known well enough to bring in a couple thousand or more fans, a large number of the fans come from outside the Lynchburg metropolitan area - people will travel to the civic center to see bigger bands without a doubt.

Not to mention all the conferences, conventions, meetings, various shows (gun, auto, monster truck, antique etc.), and sports/sports entertainment events that could be able to be held in there. By adding this, Lynchburg will have options available to it that it was never able to have before because of inadequate facilties or inability to use LU's facilities.

I might not have read the article well enough (it's a habit of mine), but where would they place this thing? Lynchburg is dominated by LU, and I can't think of too many places to put it outside of LU.

The LU filter is now blocking the Lynchburg newspaper? I think I read that were were looking at a location on Campus East, near where that outdoor mall was going to go originally.

Cider Jim wrote:The LU filter is now blocking the Lynchburg newspaper?

Yep.....don't know why.

flamesbball84 wrote:

LUconn wrote:sounds like they decided they'd rather not renovate the vines. Like I said before, a CC would be good for LU I guess, but I really don't think they city would be able to use it. Who would tour through there instead of JPJ or Roanoke CC? Nobody's gonna add Lynchburg AND one of those 2.

There are a ton of more uses for a Civic Center than just bands coming through, and yes there will be bands coming through. Not every band that goes on tour can command the crowd to fill the 16,000 seat JPJ or will want to pay the price tag to rent use JPJ - I would imagine that the Lynchburg Civic Center would have a cheaper price tag. Anytime LC or LU have concerts featuring bands known well enough to bring in a couple thousand or more fans, a large number of the fans come from outside the Lynchburg metropolitan area - people will travel to the civic center to see bigger bands without a doubt.

Not to mention all the conferences, conventions, meetings, various shows (gun, auto, monster truck, antique etc.), and sports/sports entertainment events that could be able to be held in there. By adding this, Lynchburg will have options available to it that it was never able to have before because of inadequate facilties or inability to use LU's facilities.

Those shows are what the Salem CC is for. I just think 45 minutes isn't far enoug away to justify 2 shows of whatever. And when given the choice, they'll pick the population density of the NRV vs the newness of sticksville everyday

LUconn wrote:

flamesbball84 wrote:

LUconn wrote:sounds like they decided they'd rather not renovate the vines. Like I said before, a CC would be good for LU I guess, but I really don't think they city would be able to use it. Who would tour through there instead of JPJ or Roanoke CC? Nobody's gonna add Lynchburg AND one of those 2.

There are a ton of more uses for a Civic Center than just bands coming through, and yes there will be bands coming through. Not every band that goes on tour can command the crowd to fill the 16,000 seat JPJ or will want to pay the price tag to rent use JPJ - I would imagine that the Lynchburg Civic Center would have a cheaper price tag. Anytime LC or LU have concerts featuring bands known well enough to bring in a couple thousand or more fans, a large number of the fans come from outside the Lynchburg metropolitan area - people will travel to the civic center to see bigger bands without a doubt.

Not to mention all the conferences, conventions, meetings, various shows (gun, auto, monster truck, antique etc.), and sports/sports entertainment events that could be able to be held in there. By adding this, Lynchburg will have options available to it that it was never able to have before because of inadequate facilties or inability to use LU's facilities.

Those shows are what the Salem CC is for. I just think 45 minutes isn't far enough away to justify 2 shows of whatever. And when given the choice, they'll pick the population density of the NRV vs the newness of sticksville everyday

Salem Civic center is 1-1.25 hours away from Lynchburg and holds only 7K. The Lynchburg CC will hold 10K, 3000 extra bodies makes a lot more sources of potential revenue from admission/tickets, concessions, merchandise and that can make it a more attractive venue to event planners.

Additionally, you provide reasons for the event planners to go to Lynchburg instead of Salem, not in addition to Salem. If you're opening a business you don't try to convince customers to go to your business in addition to the competition, you try to convince them to come to you instead of the competition.

LUconn wrote: Those shows are what the Salem CC is for. I just think 45 minutes isn't far enoug away to justify 2 shows of whatever. And when given the choice, they'll pick the population density of the NRV vs the newness of sticksville everyday

When did the NRV's population become dense? While I don't think the lack of an Interstate hurts the Burg too much, I would venture to say that promoting areas such as Roanoke or Cville is made easier because of the highway connections. Actually, I'd rather see some good acoustic shows at a renovated Academy than a concert in a large arena. James Taylor was good at the JPJ, but it sure would be neat to see him do an set sans band in a smaller venue.

How about the Roanoke market compared to the Lynchburg market though...



Dang Rogers just said what I was suggesting

Well, you also have to take into consideration that some of the Lynchburg market is seasonal with the key college-age population.

If this happens, is located adjacent to the school, and LU has to be a consistent, regular renter in order for it to survive... would we really need to keep the Vines Center?

Is it not a lot bigger? I always just assumed it was with Roanoke and Salem and a few other cities in the immediate area. And you could count Blacksburg and Christiansburg in there too even though they're a little further away. But then again, that makes a bigger argument for Roanoke/Salem, because they're in the middle of all of us.






edit: I found this map. It says it's 2000 so it's probably a little different but, it's something




So it looks a little busier on the other side of Bedford than here. Dang, I just realized 2000 was 10 years ago. That makes me feel old.

ALUmnus wrote: If this happens, is located adjacent to the school, and LU has to be a consistent, regular renter in order for it to survive... would we really need to keep the Vines Center?

Where would we play basketball? Certainly not in a 10-12,000 seat arena. That's way too big.

If we were able to turn Vines into an athletics only facility, that place could become one of the top arenas in the region.

SuperJon wrote:

ALUmnus wrote: If this happens, is located adjacent to the school, and LU has to be a consistent, regular renter in order for it to survive... would we really need to keep the Vines Center?

Where would we play basketball? Certainly not in a 10-12,000 seat arena. That's way too big.

If we were able to turn Vines into an athletics only facility, that place could become one of the top arenas in the region.

Wasn't that the plan for an expanded Vines Center, to increase the seating? So if the Vines expansion were to take place, where then would we play basketball?

If all we had was Vines, then obviously we'd play basketball there. However, the expansion was pushed by convo much more than basketball. I don't think there's anyone that would complain if our basketball arena was only 6-7000 seats instead of the current 8500.

SuperJon wrote:If all we had was Vines, then obviously we'd play basketball there. However, the expansion was pushed by convo much more than basketball. I don't think there's anyone that would complain if our basketball arena was only 6-7000 seats instead of the current 8500.

Unless we happened to hold a championship game in said 6,000-7,000 seat arena, then there might be some complaints

So we'd sell out a game and only the people who planned in advance and actually cared could get in? That's a problem, why?

SuperJon wrote: the current 8500.

Super, with the new seats, I thought our seating capacity was only 7,500. Am I a thousand off?

We were both about 500 off. The official capacity is 8085.