Re: PCL left Portland after 2011.
Beav, while I agree with your thoughts on the City of Richmond, the last thing we should want is for Henrico or Chesterfield to find away to build there own stadium. That is the problem with this entire area, each county has only thought about themselves and not done things for the good of the entire metro area. The City of Richmond owns a lot of that blame but the counties are at fault as well.
This area is finally starting to get it (outside of baseball) and doing so many more things to build up the city, reduce crime, and make the entire area a better place to live. As much as I hate to admit it SOBS has done a ton to make Broad St, Downtown, the Fan, and Jackson Ward a better place to live, work, and play. Festivals like the Richmond Folk Festival and Sportsbackers Dominion Riverrock and brought tons of new venues, amentiies and fun to downtown on the river. They ahve soem serious plans to continue to grow that area and baseball should be in those plans.
Their biggest issues is that they know the diamond is a crapy place for the new stadium. It is convienent and easy because they have the land but it is a crappy place because the highway cuts it off from any promise that Blvd brings and they will never get rid of the Greyhound bus station across the street because it is one of the largest transfer stations on the entire east coast.
They keep talking about moving it to Shockoe Bottom which is a mistake for several reasons (flooding, historical site, etc.). They should really just focus that area in being a different entertainment space (historical slave trail, arts disctrict, etc.). IMO, I think they should put a new baseball stadium down on the river near Legend Brewing. They have already demolished the old reynolds plant. It would give a view of the river and skyline like PNC Park in Pittsburgh. There is also a lot of other things that could be built up around there, they ahve plenty of space for parking decks and realtively easy access from the city (Manchester bridge) and I95 right there.