New Henrico Sports and Events Center attracting dozens of tournaments

For nearly a year, Henrico officials have described interest in the new Henrico Sports and Events Center, an indoor arena whose construction is nearing completion at Virginia Center, as robust.

On Tuesday, they presented proof.

The arena, which will feature 185,000 square feet of space that can be used for 12 basketball courts or 24 volleyball courts – or numerous combinations in between – won't open officially until an Oct. 12 ribbon-cutting but already is scheduled to host events on 40 weekends and a total of 135 days during its first year, Henrico Sports and Entertainment Authority Executive Director Dennis Bickmeier announced during a press conference at the arena. In all, 31 organizations have booked events to date, with some reserving time for multiple events. Bickmeier expects that number of reserved dates to double before long, and county officials already have established a wait list for some spring dates.

Scheduled activities range from events planned by local and statewide organizations (like Richmond Volleyball Club, FutsalRVA, Sportable and Virginia AAU volleyball) to those from regional and national organizations (including the 2024 and 2025 Atlantic 10 women’s basketball championship tournaments and the 2024 National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s national championship tournament).

County officials previously had announced only the latter two events, but they’ve been working for months to attract a variety of others, traveling to trade shows nationally and promoting the new arena through sports industry channels.

The results to date have Bickmeier and his staff excited.

“This is a very unique building,” said Bickmeier, who left his role as president of Richmond Raceway in March 2022 to take the newly created position as head of the SEA. "This is not a gymnasium, this is a multi-purpose event center, and we've been very purposeful in how we've approached the construction of this building. The level of service that we want to provide our event promoters and the things that they can do in this building will separate us from other buildings throughout the region."

The arena is on schedule to be completed sometime in September, but county officials intentionally have not scheduled any tournaments for the weeks after its completion, because they wanted time to familiarize themselves with the building first, Bickmeier told the Citizen last year.

The first event scheduled to take place at the arena to date is a basketball tournament between public and private schools hosted by 804 Coaches for Change Dec. 28-30, but county officials hinted to the Citizen Tuesday that an announcement is forthcoming about at least one earlier event.

About one-third of the events scheduled so far are basketball tournaments. At least three are volleyball tournaments and three others are gymnastics competitions.

The arena will have permanent hardwood floors, but for showcase basketball games, it will overlay a court that was used during the NCAA Division One men's basketball regional tournament in Louisville, Kentucky in March. The county purchased that court after the tournament.

In the past few months, the arena has begun to take shape in earnest, with major progress made on both its exterior and interior. Last week, workers hoisted a massive four-sided Daktronics video scoreboard to its position in the ceiling.

One portion of the arena will have collapsible seating for about 3,500 people, with additional seating available that could increase that total to 4,500, allowing the facility to host larger tournaments, concerts, Henrico County high school graduations and other events. The seating will include individual seats for each patron. A series of partitions can be deployed to section off portions of the arena in a variety of combinations, allowing multiple events of different types to take place simultaneously.

The arena will feature a first-floor cafe and an upper level where spectators can observe action beneath them. It also will include a second-level broadcast area, as well as four first-floor rooms for teams, two for officials and one for trainers. Some space on the second level is being reserved for future uses.

The complete list of organizations that have scheduled events at the arena includes:
• 804 Coaches for Change
• Aerial East Gymnastics
• All American Gymnastics
• Atlantic 10 conference
• Atlantic Coast Events volleyball
• Big Shots Basketball
• Big Time Hoops
• ChamberRVA
• Cheers Festival (craft show)
• ETC (Experiences Through Competition) Sport Group
• FutsalRVA
• Greater Richmond Association for Commercial Real Estate
• Henrico County Public Library/Friends of Henrico County Public Library
• Henrico County Public Schools
• Leadership Metro Richmond
• MADE Hoops
• My Henrico Academy
• National Wheelchair Basketball Association
• New Breed Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• Richard Bland College (basketball tournament)
• Richmond Region Tourism
• Richmond Volleyball Club
• RockIt Sports
• SPARKLZ Cheer and Danz
• Special Olympics
• Sportable
• Team Loaded basketball
• Teammate Basketball
• Tyrant Wrestling
• Virginia AAU Volleyball
• Xtreme Heights Gymnastics