Hampton Roads Coliseum

[Flair81]

After viewing the newspaper clipings of Flair's
first mid-atlantic title win in Hampton Roads VA
on Sept. 20, 1975, I found some info about the
Hampton Roads Coliseum.
It was built in 1970 and seats 14,000. The rolling
stones played there in 1981. Not sure if the building
is still standing or not.
In the mid 70's they ran shows in Hampton very
often. Not sure if it was a weekly town but looks like
they may have ran atleast once monthly. Pretty
good for a place holding 14,000 or more for wrestling.
Anybody ever see a show there? Any thoughts?

[b0dyguard]

I was stationed in Norfolk when I was in the Navy...
I worked for Cellar Door Productions and did floor security at the HRC in 1986-87, for Grateful Dead, Great White & Whitesnake Concerts... never did work wrestling though.

anyone remember the "boathouse" which was near the Norfolk Scope.

HRC is a great building

[HardcoreHeroes]

B0dyguard said:

anyone remember the "boathouse" which was near the Norfolk Scope.

I've been to 2 wrestling shows at the "boathouse". The first was an ECW show and the second was a group that used some former ECW guys once ECW had folded.

If I remember correctly, the boathouse is adjacent to the minor league baseball stadium.

[dogthruhoops]

As far as I know The Hampton Coliseum still stands. At least it did a year ago when I left the area. It might be scheduled for demolition as a new bigger arena is being built in the same area...there were starting construction last year. The Hampton Roads area (city leaders in the 7 cities, not necessarily the citizens) is desperate to lure a major league sports team to the area. The problem is... it has such a high population turn over... it makes it difficult to lure a franchise. The other thing is none of the cities can agree (especially Norfolk and Virginia Beach) on specifics of funding, taxes, naming the team etc.) So unless these boneheads unite...they will probably never see anything above triple a baseball and hockey, and neither are incredible draws. Decent depending on the year, but nothing that doesnt have the owners sweating from time to time.

That said, If they'd put the NASCAR track in Suffolk 10 years ago... then they might be talkin.

One other thing in regards to Wrestling and the Hampton Roads area. In the last 10 years, the only "sports" "entertainment" venue to draw more than 20 thousand fans in one night, was wrestling. I think it was 1998... the height of the Monday Night Wars... WCW sold out the Scope in Norfolk and the WWF sold out the Hampton Coliseum... estimated totals for both shows in the neighborhood of 24 to 25 thousand fans.

The Boathouse caught fire a few years ago and was shutdown and I think it was demolished. I saw a punk/ska show there once...and some other concert I cant remember. But the Boathouse was missed. Soon after the fire... The Norva in downtown Norfolk took up the slack. Better atmosphere... but you have to park at the mall.

The ballpark is Harbor Park -- was considered at the time it opened in 1993 to be one of the best minor league ballparks in America. There really isnt a bad seat there. A great place to watch a baseball game. Dave Rosenfield, GM, and owner Ken Young puts on a class operation and are good guys to boot. Once saw future Atlantia Brave and San Diego Padre Ryan Klesko hit a homerun that bounced into the Elizabeth River at Harbor Park.

Just FYI, MACW hit Hampton about once a month on a Saturday night... sometimes it was the A-team sometimes B-team. Wrestling would hit the Scope in Norfolk twice a month with the A-team on Thursday nights.

If you go to www.zybercom.com/atringside there are some pics from the Norfolk-Hampton-Richmond days and a few other shots.

Dog

[simm]

The Hampton Coliseum is still there. I just went to a concert there last month.