The Henrico Sports & Events Center officially opened Dec. 4.
The opening of the 185,000-square-foot Henrico Sports & Events Center isn’t just an unveiling of the county’s $50 million state-of-the-art indoor sports facility. It could mark a new era in regional sports tourism, says Dennis Bickmeier, executive director of the Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority, which oversees the facility with ASM Global. “This is a game-changer for our region.”
Dennis Bickmeier, executive director of the Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority
The 185,000-square-foot arena, built on the former site of the Virginia Center Commons mall in Glen Allen, opened in December. It offers 115,000 square feet of hardwood to accommodate 12 basketball courts or 24 volleyball courts. A four-sided LED scoreboard with live camera feeds and broadcast hookups raises the game to college and semiprofessional levels. The VCU women’s basketball team has played there, and it will host the 2024 Atlantic 10 Conference’s women’s basketball championships in March, as well as a national wheelchair basketball tournament and the state’s Special Olympics teams.
The 39,000-square-foot events space allows for center court seating for 3,500 spectators, or it can accommodate 4,500 people for events, meetings and concerts. With a cafe, upstairs mezzanine and four meeting rooms, there are lots of places to gather without having to put on sneakers. However, getting sneakers on the court is the big idea. “Sports tourism has become its own brand, its own segment of tourism. It’s big business,” Bickmeier says.
“That’s something the county noticed when it was celebrating its 400-year anniversary,” says Dawn Miller, the SEA’s marketing, communications and special events manager. “The Board [of Supervisors] noticed the recession-proof industry of youth and amateur sports. In the downtimes, parents would keep their sports vacations, maybe adding an extra day or two to enjoy the region, versus getting rid of their trip to Disney.”
Dawn Miller of the Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority leads a tour of the arena.
In 2018, the county did a study and found “$33 million left on the table just from people requesting indoor tournaments without us even marketing a facility,” Miller says. The county moved quickly, buying steel for the project before the COVID-19 pandemic, “so when we came out of COVID, the county was ready to build. The foresight of our Board of Supervisors saved us a lot of time and put us in front of the competition.”
The Henrico Sports & Events Center is already booked for 46 weekends in 2024. It’s one of the linchpins in a regionwide focus on sports tourism, working with Richmond Region Tourism and surrounding counties to offer an extensive and convenient network of youth and amateur sports options.
“Being right on the [corridor of interstates 64 and 95] is a win-win for us,” Bickmeier says. “Richmond is really hot right now. The region has a really good vibe, and people want to bring their events here.”
