23-05-2025
VCU set to turn Siegel Center into city's largest indoor concert venue
VCU will soon start hosting concerts and other ticketed events at the Siegel Center to help raise money to pay its student athletes, the Times-Dispatch reports.
Why it matters: The move would make the Stu, by far, Richmond's largest indoor concert venue.
The big picture: Last spring, the NCAA and its five power conferences voted to let schools pay athletes directly.
The challenge for schools was finding the money to pay them, which VCU estimates will cost around $5 million a year, per the RTD.
With an estimated 30 events a year at the Siegel Center, including concerts, private events and family shows, VCU estimates it could bring in $650,000 a year to put towards paying athletes.
The intrigue: Concerts at the Siegel Center aren't new. Since it opened in 1999, the Stu has hosted Drake, Sheryl Crow, Ludacris, Trey Songz, Dave Matthews and many, many more.
President Obama and Hillary Clinton, then-presidential candidates, spoke there, too.
It seems that the basketball arena hasn't hosted any big public non-sporting events in the past few years beyond high school graduations.
What's different now is that Richmond has been without a large, indoor concert venue since 2019, when the Richmond Coliseum, which could hold around 13,000 people, closed.
By the numbers: At roughly 200,000 square feet, the Siegel Center can seat just over 7,600 people, or around 5,500 for concerts if they block one end, per the RTD.
Altria, comparatively, can only hold around 3,500.
Dominion Energy Center can do 1,800.
The National has a capacity of 1,500, and The Broadberry 500.
Yes, but: Richmond's outdoor venues can still hold a lot more concert-goers than the Siegel Center will be able to.
Brown's Island has room for 16,000. The new amphitheater will be able to do 7,500, and Virginia Credit Union LIVE! at Richmond Raceway can hold 6,000.
