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VA Pride Presents The Birdcage at The Diamond

Marilyn Drew Necci | August 28, 2020

Topics: Movies in the Outfield, Pride Movie Night at The Diamond, Pride Night at the Diamond, Richmond Flying Squirrels, The Birdcage, The Diamond, va pride, Virginia Pride

Join VA Pride and the Flying Squirrels for PRIDE Movie Night at the Diamond on Tuesday, September 1, featuring LGBTQ classic The Birdcage! You know you want to.

We’re all going a little nuts from being shut up inside all the time. And we’re all at least a little sad that VA PrideFest, which would have been taking place in just a few short weeks, has been cancelled for this year. But thankfully, Virginia Pride knows exactly what we’re all going through. That’s why they’re bringing us a delightful opportunity to have a socially-distanced outdoor outing featuring an all-time classic LGBTQ film.

Yes, it’s true — on Tuesday, September 1 at The Diamond, VA Pride will be collaborating with the Flying Squirrels to bring us PRIDE Movie Night at The Diamond, featuring The Birdcage! Now, if you’re an LGBTQ person of a certain age, this movie is sure to have tons of resonance for you. I for one saw it at The Byrd the year it came out, when I was 20. The place was full of boisterous queers who all had a blast watching one of the first mainstream American films to depict drag, gay marriage, and gay parenting in a totally positive fashion.

To sum up for those of you who’ve somehow missed this one thus far: Robin Williams plays the gay owner of a drag club in South Beach. His partner, played by Nathan Lane, is the club’s star attraction, performing drag under the name Starina. Williams’s son has fallen in love with a woman whose father is a conservative Republican Senator. Before the marriage can occur, the families have to interact. And sure enough, hilarity ensues.

If you haven’t seen it, telling you any more than that would be criminal. Suffice it to say, you’re in for a treat. And thankfully, you’ll be able to enjoy this communal gathering in properly socially distanced fashion. Instead of everybody cramming into a vintage movie theatre together, the outfield at the Diamond will be divided into 10’x10′ and 10’x20′ squares. Up to four people will be allowed in the 10’x10′ squares, eight in the 10’x20′ squares. That way, you can enjoy this event in as safe a fashion as possible while experiencing a communal good time.

Admission to this event is $8 per person. Concessions are available, and can be ordered in advance at the same time that you order tickets (make sure you select the correct date for the showing you’re attending). All orders will be available for contactless pickup at Rosie’s Bistro in the Bullpen at the Diamond. There will also be a credit card-only beverage station on the third base side of the park, in case you need to pick up some more drinks during the show. Blankets and pillows are encouraged for maximum comfort. However, chairs are not allowed.

Sounds like a great way to get out of the house, right? So don’t hesitate — join VA Pride and the Flying Squirrels this Tuesday, September 1, for PRIDE Movie Night at the Diamond. Doors open at 6:35 PM, show starts at 7:35 PM (right at sunset). Don’t be late!

You can purchase tickets and concessions for PRIDE Movie Night at the Diamond by going to milb.com/richmond/events/movie-nights. Be safe and have fun! For more info, check out the Facebook event page.

Are Flying Squirrels Endangered?

Owen FitzGerald | November 12, 2019

Topics: minor league baseball, richmond baseball, Richmond Flying Squirrels, San Francisco Giants, Scott Mayer, The Diamond

A new proposal from Major League Baseball would radically restructure the minor leagues, and many now fear for the future of Richmond’s beloved baseball team.

Baseball and the city of Richmond have been synonymous since the game’s introduction to the city almost 140 years ago. There have been only a few years between 1880 and today in which the city has not hosted a professional baseball team in some capacity. Richmonders have always loved their baseball, and summer nights at the Diamond are still a favorite for thousands across the city.

But a new proposal introduced by Major League Baseball that would drastically restructure the minor leagues has left many fearful for the future of professional baseball in Richmond. 

The proposal would reduce Minor League Baseball from 160 teams to 120 teams starting in 2021. Those other 40 teams, all of whom are classified as lower Class A or below, would then participate in what MLB is calling a Dream League. This league would be a short-season league and would require little to no travel for the teams involved.

As it stands, the proposal also suggests that some teams would reclassify from Triple A to high Class A, and some would reclassify from high Class A to Triple A. Teams moving up to Triple A would have to pay $12 million to do so, while teams moving down to high Class A would receive $10 million in compensation.

Lastly, and perhaps most pertinent to baseball in Richmond, the proposal would dramatically rework leagues at all levels of the minor leagues. Some leagues would lose teams to geographical regrouping, while other leagues in regions with denser concentrations of teams would grow in size.

The issue at hand, which should not come as a surprise, is money. It is expensive for major league clubs to pay for their affiliated teams at lower levels to travel, house players during road series, extend leasing agreements with ballparks, and so on. However, this situation might actually favor Richmond’s current Double A pride and joy, the Flying Squirrels.

Photo via the Richmond Flying Squirrels/Facebook

In 2016, the Squirrels agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with VCU, in regards to a new ballpark being constructed near the current Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Commission facility next to the Diamond. A new ballpark, which is desperately overdue, has been a subject of controversy and debate in Richmond for decades now. But the relationship between VCU and the Squirrels makes the situation in Richmond truly unique, according to Scott Mayer, associate director of college counseling at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, and author of Baseball and Richmond: a History of the Professional Game, 1884 – 2000.

“I think the Squirrels have done a lot of amazing things in the city, and have been involved in the city, in a way that other minor league teams haven’t,” Mayer said. “I think it’d be awesome to be able to do something that’s beneficial for both organizations, because neither of them can afford to build a ballpark [alone].”

A quick glance through the record books shows that since the San Francisco Giants agreed to move their Double A team to Richmond in 2010, the Squirrels have only made the playoffs twice. But as Mayer noted, at the level the Squirrels currently compete on, wins and losses are not what matters most.

“[The Squirrels] finished sixth in the last two years; slightly better the year before,” Mayer pointed out. “Yet every year, they’re the league leader in attendance, if not one of the league leaders. It’s not about who the players are or the quality of baseball, it’s about the fan experience. And that’s where I think the Squirrels excel — in delivering an amazing fan experience. Also, they’ve done a great job of becoming part of the community. They’re consistently getting out and doing all kinds of things in the community, making a presence doing different kinds of volunteer work or giving money to charitable organizations. They’ve made themselves a part of Richmond.”

Mayer, a minor league baseball historian, pointed out that baseball in Richmond has always been about the social gathering aspect of the game. During urbanization in the 1930s and 1940s, young professionals would often found social networking groups and play baseball at their events. But the game was not the main event — that was the dinner afterwards hosted by members of the club. As clubs grew larger, the need for better athletes grew and eventually, clubs began competing against one another until leagues were formed. The rest is history.

Photo via the Richmond Flying Squirrels/Facebook

For those who remain perplexed by Richmond’s vote to name the team the Flying Squirrels, it’s worth noting that Richmond has been home to a number of teams with interesting names: Legislators, Climbers, Bloody Shirts, Crows, and Blue Birds, to name a few. 

Many fans of the storied Richmond Braves franchise might be surprised to hear that the Braves were not in fact the longest tenured baseball team in the city’s history. That title belongs to the Colts, who played in Richmond from 1907 to 1953 — though they did not field a team from 1915 to 1917.

There has also been confusion for a number of years now about why a major league club in San Francisco would place a Double A affiliate 2,870 miles away in Richmond, Virginia. Mayer noted that this is actually a smart move from a logistical perspective. The Giants’ Triple A club, the Fresno Grizzlies, are nearby when the team is playing at home on the West Coast.  If they need to fill a spot in the lineup for a day or two, they can call up a player from Fresno. However, if the Giants playing on the East Coast, players in Fresno are not as readily available. That is why the placement of Richmond is strategic in the management of the organization as a whole.

As for the proposal itself, as Mayer noted, it is expected for proposals of this magnitude to “aim high” upon inception. It is likely that the fierce pushback already being felt from many minor league clubs will lead to the restructuring of the proposal itself. 

And as for the potential effects of MLB’s proposal on Richmond, it seems as though the proposal poses no immediate threat to the existence of baseball in Richmond or the Flying Squirrels as we know it. So “Go Nutz,” everybody.

Top Photo via Richmond Flying Squirrels/Twitter

Country in the City: Behind the Scenes With Big & Rich and Mickie James

Caley Sturgill | July 11, 2019

Topics: all star country jam, baseball, big and rich, country fried mix, cowboy troy, dakota hood, dj sinister, flying squirrels, hunger games, live coverage, live music, Mickie James, music, Richmond Flying Squirrels, richmond raceway, vacu, vacu live, Virginia Credit Union Live

From the midwest to Virginia, and from its rural heritage to modern city fads, country music has its place in the heart of American culture old and new. In the spirit of that tradition, Richmonders came together this week for the All Star Country Music Jam — part of the Eastern League’s first All-Star Week in the River City since 1992.

Legendary country superstars Big & Rich, who released the iconic “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” in 2004, headlined the show at Virginia Credit Union LIVE! with support from Cowboy Troy and DJ Sinister, as well as a shimmering opening performance by WWE wrestler and country singer Mickie James.  

RVA Magazine was on the scene, backstage with Big & Rich and Mickie James through the evening, along with Dakota Hood, the singer and actress well-known from her role in The Hunger Games in 2012. Hood joined the artists as part of the All Star Week, partnered with Richmond Raceway and The Flying Squirrels, to sing the National Anthem at Tuesday night’s Squirrels game. 

Check out our images from the evening, by Branden Wilson, below for a glimpse behind the scenes and live with a group of beloved country artists at the show. 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Picture This: Pride Night At The Diamond

Caley Sturgill | June 28, 2019

Topics: LGBTQ support, Pride Night at the Diamond, Richmond Flying Squirrels, Starbucks, Summer 2019 Pride Guide, The Diamond, va pride

Last night, GayRVA joined VA Pride and the Richmond Flying Squirrels for the first-ever Pride Night at the Diamond. Richmond rose to the occasion, too, packing the Diamond with delighted fans ready to cheer for the home team and show their Pride!

GayRVA was on the scene, handing out copies of our brand-new Summer Pride Guide, produced in collaboration with VA Pride. Fans were eager to show their support, lined up outside the stadium in a sea of colors and bright flags. Even Nutzy came dressed in his rainbow cape with striped socks up to his knees — and enough fans to book most of the arena took their seats gladly despite the sultry heat.

It was humbling to see so many fans from different backgrounds and ages, almost uniform in their smiles, and especially the young ones gleaming with excitement to stand with their parents and raise their flags. 

I went alongside a group of local Starbucks partners, whose company bought something close to 80 tickets to ensure all their employees could attend. They’ve got a great reputation for their LGBTQ-friendly workplaces, and it’s clear from spending time with them that they’ve got more than inclusivity — they’ve got large groups of staff from the LGBTQ community who stand beside each other as coworkers and, more importantly, as friends. Decked out in custom Pride shirts, they occupied a large section above the field for the occasion, and brought their enthusiasm as well. 

More companies like Capital One and a few others showed similar support by printing custom shirts for their teams to come in groups. Armed with a batch of fresh GayRVA Pride Guides, I set out to meet some of the other attendees — and was greeted with nothing but grins. 

Enjoy these images from the evening — truly one to remember. Happy Pride Night, Richmond!

Photos by Caley Sturgill

GRTC Connects: Route 20 – City Stadium to the Diamond

Wyatt Gordon | June 27, 2019

Topics: Arthur Ashe Boulevard, city stadium, GRTC, GRTC Connects, parking lots, Richmond Flying Squirrels, Richmond kickers, The Diamond

The fourth installment of a monthly series in which a hometown Richmonder who has spent over a decade abroad explores the many different neighborhoods accessible by GRTC bus lines to discover the ways transit connects us all.

City Stadium:

Stranded in the triangle of land between the Powhite Parkway, the Downtown Expressway, and the place where they intertwine lies a quaint and oft-forgotten neighborhood of mostly one-story shotgun houses.  This charmingly demure part of town rarely receives any attention (or visitors) outside of the roughly dozen nights a year it hosts the fans of what has become a popular local institution. The neighborhood itself would lack a name were it not for its largest resident: City Stadium.

The University of Richmond constructed the stadium in 1929 at a cost of just $80,000 to serve as the home field for its football team.  Although considered small for today’s era of mega-stadiums, ninety years ago an arena that seats approximately 22,000 people would have been considered luxuriously capacious. Unglamorous as some may find it, the Richmond Kickers have declared City Stadium home, securing a 40-year lease on the property from the city in 2016. In exchange, the Kickers will invest $20 million worth of upgrades into the venue. Such forward thinking seems to come easily to the Kickers — a team that has built itself from the ground up over the past two and a half decades.

Founded in 1993, the Richmond Kickers are tied with the Charleston Battery as the oldest continuously-run soccer team in the country.  A year after the Kickers moved in to City Stadium (known as U of R Stadium until 2010 when the Spiders ended their lease and moved back onto campus), Richmond hosted the qualifying match for the North, Central American & Caribbean section of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The match attracted thousands of fans and put Virginia’s sole professional soccer team on the map.

Since the early years, the Kickers have more than quadrupled their average attendance. With the increasing popularity and inclusive spirit of the sport, the team believes investing in outreach could one day make them Richmonders’ top team to cheer for. The first demographic the Kickers targeted is the region’s skyrocketing Latinx population. Last season’s hosting of RCD Espanyol from the beloved La Liga proved a true coup, drawing huge crowds and marking the first time a team from Spain’s top flight appeared in Virginia.

This year the Kickers transformed their June 1st home game against North Texas SC into a Pride Night themed overture to Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community.  Live music, happy hour deals, and an auction of rainbow warmup jerseys that benefited Health Brigade added up to a strong effort by the Kickers’ management to make queer Richmonders feel not only welcome but celebrated.

Photo by Suzanne Velasco

The River City Red Army — a ragtag group of rabid fans who typically take over Section O of the stadium — took their dedication to inclusion a step further when they set off a rainbow-colored smoke bomb at the start of the game, instead of the usual bright red of the Kickers’ jerseys. The Red Army isn’t just making a show of supporting Richmond’s LGBTQ population, they are putting their money where their mouth is through a Prideraiser campaign to donate $200 per goal to Diversity Richmond for every goal the team scores during Pride Month. 

With over 4,500 attendees on Pride Night — a strong showing for Richmond’s soccer club — the Kickers’ embrace of our region’s growing diversity seems to be paying off. Just as City Stadium becomes an ever more popular destination, so too will homebuyers increasingly flock to the Stadium neighborhood, a surprisingly affordable pocket of the city whose proximity to Carytown and small-town feel cannot go ignored forever.

The Ride:

Standing at the corner of Freeman Avenue and Maplewood Road adjacent to the gravel-strewn expanse that serves as City Stadium’s parking lot, it struck me how convenient it must be to take the bus to a Kickers game. In just eight minutes, Route 20 will take you to or from the Science Museum Pulse Station. The same could be said of the Diamond, just a 15-minute walk or a 10-minute bus ride from that same Pulse stop.

Increasing the frequency of the 20 to 15 minutes rather than 30, or even changing the schedule to five- or ten-minute intervals during the hour or two before and after Kickers’ and Flying Squirrels’ home games may be enough to convince more city dwellers to ditch their cars in favor of transit. The Kickers’ small gravel lot isn’t a huge eyesore and doesn’t contribute to our city’s terrible urban heat island; however, the Diamond (mis)manages its footprint on the city very differently.

The overwhelming majority of the area surrounding the Diamond is wasted on endless asphalt. More successful sports arenas strategically surround themselves with the dense housing, retail, offices, and greenspace needed to activate the neighborhood beyond the few dozen days a year the team is in town.  

Venues like our capital’s Nationals Park, or Boston’s Fenway Park, have reinvigorated entire neighborhoods. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision an alternate future for the Boulevard, similar to the rapid development of D.C.’s Navy Yard. Repurposing industrial and unused land has the added bonus of not displacing anyone, an increasing concern for the city.

As I pondered ways to manage the symptoms and side effects of gentrification, I checked the GRTC app (powered by Google Maps) and Transit App to figure out when the next bus would come. GRTC estimated a 20-minute wait while Transit predicted just five. Exactly five minutes later the 20 arrived, providing more evidence that GRTC should cut the budget for its app and invest the savings in increasing coverage or frequency of service.

In just 17 minutes, the 20 zipped its way northward to the Diamond through Carytown, past Cary Street Station, up Robinson Street in the Fan, and through the southeastern corner of Scott’s Addition, passing some of Richmond’s choicest watering holes. The two sports arenas and the plethora of dive bars and small eateries along the route make the 20 an ideal bus for an evening out on the town, whether it’s a game with your friends or a date with your boo.

The Diamond:

Sometimes nomenclature can be so important to us that we duke it out for decades until we decide what to call something. Other times, a name can sit on a map for a century and a half without anyone speaking it or even knowing its providence. Such is the duality surrounding Richmond’s second stadium: the Diamond.  

The formal name of this post-industrial area bounded by I-95/64 to the North and the CSX line to the South is Acca Yard. Assumptions the name must be a long-forgotten railroad acronym for something like the “Atlantic Coastal Connection Area” are unfounded.  

According to the Virginia Historical Society, this part of Richmond was once owned by Preston Belvin, a successful furniture manufacturer. As the head of the local Shriners chapter, Belvin named his farm where he raised Arabian racehorses after the ancient Palestinian city of Akka, which is today Acre in Israel. When he sold his farm at the turn of the nineteenth century, the railroad simply kept the eccentric name which still floats above the area — largely ignored — on Google Maps.

Photo via Arthur Ashe Boulevard Initiative/Facebook

Far from being a nonissue, the renaming of the Diamond’s main corridor, the Boulevard, proved to be a three decade long endeavor.  After Arthur Ashe’s passing from HIV/AIDS in 1993, his family and many admirers made multiple attempts to rename the Boulevard in his honor.  The third time was the charm, thanks to a healthy does of white guilt following the blackface revelations of our Commonwealth’s Governor and Attorney General as well as the diligent work of City Councilmember Kim Gray, who introduced the measure and represents the area, yet was relegated to a mere prop at the celebratory ceremonies in favor of a lineup of all male speakers.

Despite the recent revelry now that Richmond has finally dedicated one of its most prominent promenades to a black man — 400 years after the first enslaved Africans were brought to these shores in chains, there is another positive renaming of sorts this area is known for: the Flying Squirrels. In 2008, the Richmond Braves ended 42 years of problematic chanting and chopping the air like fans’ forearms were tomahawks and moved to Gwinnet County, Georgia in a hissyfit after the city’s plans to build a new stadium in Shockoe Bottom collapsed.

Two years later the Flying Squirrels swooped in. Despite their overly gendered mascot duo of Nutzy and Nutasha, the Squirrels’ irreverent approach to America’s national pastime has resonated with Richmonders who seem to enjoy going to a game more as an excuse for a beer and a hotdog than as an opportunity to watch athletics in action. The team consistently fills up two thirds of the roughly 9,000 seats available since large advertising banners began occupying the upper quarter of the arena.  

To chart a future course towards sold out games the Squirrels are following the same playbook as the Kickers: outreach to the relatively untapped markets of potential Latinx and LGBTQ fans. Every Friday home game this season, Richmond’s baseball team has been transforming into Las Ardillas Voladoras (“the Flying Squirrels” in Spanish) in an effort to draw in our region’s booming Latino population.

With Virginia Pride as their ally, tonight the Squirrels hope to knock their queer outreach out of the park with their first-ever Pride Night at the Diamond. Even if the game is no good, this evening’s debut of the 2019 Pride Guide by GayRVA and Virginia Pride means attendees will at least receive some interesting reading material. However, with ticket pre-sales already scraping 4,000, the event looks set to be one of the Squirrels’ biggest nights of the year; similarly, the Kickers’ Pride Night proved to be their second-best attended of the season.

Richmond’s two largest sports arenas have an outsized impact on our city, just as the Kickers and Flying Squirrels play a central role in the cultural branding of the Commonwealth’s capital. The success or failure of these athletic franchises will play a crucial role in the development of the neighborhoods which host them. The increasing popularity of the Kickers has the potential to bring a wave of revitalization to one of the sleepiest swathes of the city — or it could result in rising rents and displacement for Stadium’s overwhelmingly elderly population.  

A deal to relocate ABC’s headquarters to Hanover County could provide the required space for a new ballpark, transforming the Diamond into the mixed-use multi-modal neighborhood Scott’s Addition pretends to be. Or such a deal could simply lead to a bigger ballpark with more impermeable asphalt parking lots, and doom the Diamond to be as dead most days as it is now.  

Whether you attend a game or not, Richmond’s two local sports teams will continue to shape the fabric and culture of our city.

You can support Richmond’s teams by going out to a game. Get your tickets for the Richmond Kickers and the Flying Squirrels today!

Photos by Wyatt Gordon, except where noted

Virginia Pride Takes Us Out To The Ballgame

Marilyn Drew Necci | June 26, 2019

Topics: Hardywood, Pride Month, Pride Night at the Diamond, Richmond Flying Squirrels, The Diamond, va pride

The Richmond Flying Squirrels and VA Pride are presenting the first-ever Pride Night at The Diamond this Thursday. Hooray!

After a year and a half or so of rainy weather, it’s been a real refresher to get the warm, sunny weather we’ve been experiencing this Pride Month. And there’s nothing better for a sunny summer evening than enjoying a ball game with hundreds of your best friends. This Thursday night, Virginia Pride and the Richmond Flying Squirrels will cap off Pride Month with the first-ever Pride Night at the Diamond, and it’s going to be marvelous.

The event will focus on an evening game between the Flying Squirrels and Hartford’s Yard Goats, but there’ll be a lot of added perks to enjoy as well, from the Diamond’s signature fireworks — which attendees will be able to experience “up close and inside the fences,” according to VA Pride — to all the hot dogs, peanuts, and cracker jacks your little heart desires.

Actually, the Diamond has a pretty outstanding array of food and beverage options, going well beyond the expected ballpark fare to include things like pimiento cheeseburgers, pepperoni flatbreads, and seafood. Plus, Hardywood’s Lively Oak stand will be serving the official beer of VA Pride, the Tropic Like It’s Hot summer ale, all evening long.

Virginia Pride has a stated goal of raising $20,000 for their scholarship and outreach fund as part of this event, and quite a few Richmonders have pitched in to help out — according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, over 3,000 tickets have been sold for the game so far, putting the funds raised at over $10,000.

There are still tickets available, however, and you can order yours now at Groupmatics for $9 each. If you purchase your tickets through this link, a portion of the price goes to benefit VA Pride.

And of course, lest we forget — the first of two Pride Guides released by GayRVA and VA Pride this year will be unveiled at the game. Pick one up for free, and enjoy it between innings. If you don’t manage to grab one at the game, keep an eye out in the coming days for copies at your favorite retailers around town — but hopefully we’ll see you there!

Photo by Branden Wilson

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