University of Richmond To Unveil Rebuilt On-Campus Stadium

The University of Richmond Spiders football team will return to campus this fall with the opening of a new Robins Stadium, which is being built on the site of a former multipurpose field that was torn down in 2008. The 8,700-seat facility is “nestled right into the campus, next to our main athletic building, the Robins Center,” says Bob Black, assistant athletic director for communications at the university.

The centerpiece of the new stadium is a 20- x 35-ft. video board being installed by Daktronics at one end zone. Overall, the scoreboard will measure 60 ft. across, with the video board framed by game scores and an animation panel. An auxiliary board at the other end of the stadium will carry game information and scores.

A new control room will support the video board with four cameras deployed to cover the games: a wireless on-field camera, two cameras atop the press box, and a camera on top of the scoreboard for end-zone shots. The stadium will also be prewired for five additional cameras for television and cable coverage of games.

Metro Productions, a Richmond, VA-based company, has been contracted to produce the video board during games. For some of the production positions, “they may hire students,” says Black. “We’d like them to do that and have suggested that.”

The stadium will also feature video monitors at concession stands, and the capability to selectively feed video-board content to the campus television network. Construction of the stadium can be tracked via a live Webcam on the school’s Website, RichmondSpiders.com.

Black says the new stadium “has changed the landscape of our campus dramatically. However, it has been built with the same brick and mortar as every other building on the campus so it fits right in.” One of the biggest challenges was designing the facility to fit within a very small area. “Until you step foot on campus, you can’t appreciate the small area they had to work with. That was a challenge they handled brilliantly.”

Construction on the new facility began on Dec. 19, 2008, when the old facility was razed. That was the day the University of Richmond won the FCS National Championship. “Some teams tear down goalposts,” says Black. “We tore down a stadium.”