City Stadium was used by Richmond from 1929-2009; it replaced a combination of Stadium Field and Mayo Island Park, and was replaced by E. Claiborne Robbins Stadium.

Overall, NC State has a record of 3-1 at this field, winning one match as a conference game while going 2-1 as non-conference foes.

  * Non-conference games

While Richmond had long been a prominent sporting city in the south, a combination of cheap land deals, competing interests, and temporary construction had resulted in a spate of fairly transient athletic venues, including Mayo Island Park, Broad Street Park (I), Broad Street Park (II), and Boulevard Field. As early as 1922, plans to construct a permanent concrete stadium had been percolating, though the plans repeatedly stalled [1] [2]. It was finally revived again in late 1927, and by 1928 the stadium's construction was assured; early plans called for a 10,000 seat venue with a track, baseball diamond, football field, and concrete bleachers, surrounded by a fence. Early estimates hoped the stadium would be open by the start of the 1929 baseball season and cost $97,125 (just under $100,000 today).

Construction on the land, which was previously used as one of industrialist W. J. Ready's brickyards, began around December. Work could have begun as early as mid-November, but was delayed by changes to city zoning ordinances. The original hope was that the venue could open in time for baseball season, however, it was ultimately decided to postpone opening until the Fall so that the grass could grow in; everything else was ready or expected to be ready to make the original date [3] [4] [5] [6]. It was originally called Richmond Public Stadium to differentiate itself from the University of Richmond's recently-construted Stadium Field, though it was called Richmond City Stadium (and later just City Stadium) as early as April 1930, and with increasing frequency after the grounds were taken over by the City of Richmond in May 1948. Its initial capacity was rated as 10,410, though with the construction of temporary bleachers and the sale of standing room only tickets, the capacity was often as high as 17,500 [12]

Work was finished just before June, 1929, and the field saw its first collegiate action on October 5th, 1929, when Richmond hosted Wake Forest; the Deacons beat the home team 19-0 before a crowd of 6,000 [7] [8]. The field's first scoreboard and loudspeaker system was installed prior to the 1930 football season, as well as a metal canopy to cover 4 sections [29]. Both the scoreboard and loudspeakers were notably deficient -- the speakers were reportedly almost entirely unintelligible, while the scoreboard was often well behind the actual game progress, not to mention, too low to be seen from much of the seats, especially if temporary stands were erected [9] [10] [11]. The scoreboard was replaced in 1935 with an elaborate, new board capable of noting the time to the second, in addition to other standard game details [13].

Officials looked at completing the semi-bowl design of the stadium as early as 1932, but the structure was never expanded [13]. Instead, bleachers and lighting were added before the 1941 season; the completed bleachers added about 1,300 permanent seats to the venue and stretched between the 40-yard lines, and the venue's permanent capacity remained about 12,000 through much of the 1940s [14]. Similar calls to complete the bowl echoed through the much of the 1940s, but eventually the city decided to add 11,500 metal bleacher seats to the east (non-concrete) side of the stadium. Though a steel strike threatened work, the seats, which brought the venue's permanent capacity to 21,500 (which could be increased to 25,000 with temporary stands) were completed by September 22nd, 1949 -- this is especially impressive considering only 1/3 of the stands were ready just two weeks prior for a Richmond Rebels exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Steelers [15] [16]. At the same time, the venue received several several baseball-centric upgrades, as well as a new electric scoreboard [34]

After this work was completed, improvements were few and far between. Reportedly, North Carolina coach Carl Snavely refused to ever play in the venue again following his team's 1946 win over William & Mary, probably because of its limited facilities: there was no visitors' locker room at the time, forcing his team to prepare at their hotel; the stadium's open layout allowed fans to stream onto the grounds post-game; and its relatively small capacity resulted in limited gate receipts. Further, City Stadium was widely panned by local fans. In 1949, local sports writer Chauncey Durden called the field a "White Elephant that passes for a football plant" [17] [18]. Improvements were rejected in 1967 because "sink[ing] $700,000 (over $6 million in 2023) on that unhappy stadium... is throwing money down the rathole in the opinion of the planning commission." It was instead suggested that the field be razed for an expressway [19].

Into the 1970s, the venue's deficiencies made scheduling attractive home games for the Spiders prohibitively difficult. The city's reluctance to improve the venue was at loggerheads with officials at the University of Richmond, who were eager to have the facility meet the same high expectations as their football program. First and foremost among their wishlist was a venue to seat 40,000 spectators. Other asks were for artificial turf (Astroturf was installed in 1976 at a cost of $400,000 -- about $2.2 million in 2023), improvements to both dressing rooms (one for visitors had been built since Snavely's visit in 1946 but was relatively far from the playing field), and expanding parking. Less pressing requests also included a new scoreboard, to replace the ancient one installed back in 1949, which worked only sporadically. Interest was serious enough that the school considered building their own off-campus stadium [20].

While the shoddy state of the stadium was a constant source of complaint (one 1978 attendee said he was "very surprised that someone from OSHA hasn't closed City Stadium as a safety risk" [35]), the more major concern was that its size actively imperiled the future of Richmond's athletic programs. The stadium only had about 13,500 salable seats, resulting in few enticing home or neutral games, and stunting a program on an upward trajectory. "Right now," UR Athletic Director Clyde Biggers explained in 1976, "we are up to the rim on what we feel we can do.... We're now at the point where the stadium will become a severe thorn in our side if it is not renovated soon" [33].

The following year, the NCAA enacted legislation requiring football teams with home stadium capacities beneath 30,000 to average 17,000 fans at home games once every four years or risk being remoted from Division I-A (now FBS). The legislation took effect beginning in the 1982 football season. A new scoreboard was installed in 1979, and several sections of wooden seats replaced with aluminum bleachers, but the improvements were too little, too late: the Spiders dropped to Division I-AA in 1982 because of their inability to meet the average attendance requirements [36].

Despite decades of promised commitment, including a $500,000 donation from an anonymous coalition, improvements continued to be postponed. In 1983, the Spiders took control of the stadium, changing the venue's name to University of Richmond Stadium, or UR Stadium for short. Under the agreement, the school agreed to maintain the facility and was allowed to lease the grounds directly. Besides upkeep, however, little changed, and in 2010, the Spiders left for their on-campus stadium, E. Claiborne Robbins Stadium. The name reverted back to City Stadium.

Though recently lambasted as a "decaying... embarrassment" whose stands hosted more weeds than fans, City Stadium's bland, "Soviet-era architecture" continues to see use, primarily for professional soccer and rugby matches [21] [22]. Their current primary tenants, the USL's Richmond Kickers, have committed to investing $20 million in the venue over the next 40-plus years [23]. Hopefully, the venue will be properly renovated and continue to host Richmond-area sports for years to come.

Pictures of City Stadium