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Axios
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
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.
Axios
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Friday Cheers celebrates 40 years of after-work magic
Friday Cheers is back this week, kicking off two months of pre-summer concerts. Why it matters: This is the 40th year of Richmond's longest-running outdoor concert series. Flashback: Friday Cheers got its start in the 1980s, in Festival Square, which was just outside of the then-brand-new Sixth Street Marketplace, the Times-Dispatch reported a decade ago. The series was an after-work favorite for downtown professionals, who would loosen their ties and head over straight from the office to take in a free show, per Style Weekly. It stayed in Festival Square, in the shadow of the now long-closed Richmond Coliseum, for 20 years before eventually making the move to Brown's Island in 2006. On Brown's, overlooking the James, is where the concert series really took shape and became one that a whole new generation of locals came to love. Zoom in: Over the years, there have been other changes. Cheers started charging $5-$10 for shows to offset the cost and attract bigger acts. The season shrank, going from all summer to just May and June, because of Richmond's brutal late summer heat Plus, the beer and wine selection is now stellar. What they're saying: "For a concert series to last for 40 years is a real accomplishment and I'm so proud of our team, the RVA community and our sponsors for loving and supporting Friday Cheers for so many years," says Stephen Lecky, director of events for Venture Richmond, which organizes the series. Cheers has hosted an impressive lineup of then up-and-comers along the way, Lecky tells Axios, including: The Head and the Heart, Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers, Alabama Shakes, Lucy Dacus, Zac Brown Band and Turnpike Troubadours. Fun fact: For the 40th anniversary, Venture commissioned Richmond-based artist Hannah Tatum to create a limited-edition poster, which features local critters (an osprey and eastern grey squirrel) jamming on the 7th Street pedestrian bridge that connects to the island. Written faintly in the sky behind them are the names of the bands that played Cheers through the years. 100 prints are available and for sale this season for $20. If you go: Friday Cheers starts Friday with Chaparelle and runs weekly through June 27.
Axios
03-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
CoStar cuts Richmond jobs the same day it announces local hiring spree
CoStar laid off about 120 Richmond-area workers Thursday, the Times-Dispatch reports. The big picture: The cuts came the same day the NoVa-based real estate firm announced in a news release that it was planning to hire 1,000 new workers this year, primarily in Richmond. State of play: Layoffs targeted employees across departments, CoStar's chief human resources officer Michael Desmarais told RTD. Some local workers who lost their jobs were writers, editors, production staff members and senior managers, the Times-Dispatch reports. What they're saying: The company said in its hiring blitz announcement that it "expects to eliminate roles in 2025 from efficiencies gained by using AI and reallocate those resources into other areas." "The company also anticipates reducing some roles during normal annual performance management," it continued. A CoStar spokesperson declined Axios' questions about how many people were laid off, but said, "We do not take decisions that affect the daily lives of our employees lightly." Zoom out: CoStar, which employs just over 2,350 workers in Richmond, is building a 5th Street office tower and downtown campus. The projects are expected to be completed in 2026. Catch up quick: Last year, the city approved a grant giving CoStar Group several million dollars in tax breaks on its downtown office tower in exchange for meeting hiring minimums, the Times-Dispatch reported. The real estate firm also received nearly $5 million in state funding last year toward its new Arlington HQ. CoStar spent $35 million on Super Bowl ads this year, according to industry publication Ad Age. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Associated Press
13-02-2025
- Associated Press
Virginia Attorney General's office struck by cyberattack targeting attorneys' computer systems
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Attorney General's office, the state's top prosecutorial agency led by Jason Miyares, was impacted by a cyberattack this week that forced officials off the office's computer systems. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the chief deputy attorney general of the agency sent an email on Wednesday that said nearly all of is computer systems were offline, and that Virginia State Police and other law enforcement officials were investigating the attack. 'Nearly all systems are offline, including but not limited to Net Docs, Outlook, Teams, OAG Fileshare, our VPN access, and internet connectivity via the OAG network,' Chief Deputy Attorney General Steven Popps said in an email to staff, according to the Times-Dispatch. Miyares' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the cyberattack. Miyares is the top prosecutor in the state. He runs the agency that provides legal services to the commonwealth's agencies, boards, commissions, colleges and universities. Miyares' team also works with law enforcement throughout the state. According to the Times-Dispatch, the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court of Appeals of Virginia offered access to a paper court filing 'basket' that attorneys had previously chosen to use.
Axios
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Kings Dominion cancels WinterFest as it launches its 50th anniversary season
Kings Dominion is canceling its annual WinterFest pop-up series this year, one of many changes happening at the theme park which merged with Six Flags last year. Why it matters: The park, a destination for generations of Richmonders, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Driving the news: Kings Dominion dropped its "Golden Anniversary" schedule this week and Winterfest was noticeably absent from the list, as first reported by the Times-Dispatch. "Unfortunately, yes. Winterfest will not be part of the 2025 schedule of events," park spokesperson Geoff Zindren confirmed to Axios. He said the park instead will focus on its "core operating seasons." Kings Dominion launched its December-long Winterfest in 2018 to compete with a similar holiday series at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. In 2023, the park briefly experimented with a year-round schedule before canceling it the following year. Of note: Some KD fans noted on social media that they bought season passes before they learned Winterfest would be canceled. The park is "addressing this change directly with those passholders who are impacted," Zindren said. Zoom in: The Winterfest cancelation comes after news last week that the park laid off an unspecified number of employees, per media reports. A source told WTVR that more than 30 jobs were cut across departments. KD is also demolishing two of its longtime roller coasters, the Anaconda and Berserker, per the Times-Dispatch. Yes, but: The park is adding a new ride, Rapterra, which will be the world's tallest and longest-launched wing coaster. And it'll open on March 29, KD's 2025 opening day and the launch of its 50th year in operation. The park will close for the year on Nov. 2, after Oktoberfest ends.
