This month marked a major milestone for the Diamond District.
The Sports Backers property has been transferred, clearing the way for the infrastructure work needed to unlock the rest of the district’s mixed-use development. Demolition of the former stadium is now underway, with S.B. Cox performing the demo work.
This matters because the Sports Backers site sits right in the middle of the Diamond District’s first phase. Until it could be cleared, the roads and infrastructure connecting our mixed-use parcels could not be completed. Sitting in that spot since 1999, the stadium remained under VCU’s ownership, and out of the city’s hands, longer than any other piece of the site, which meant this piece of infrastructure work had to wait behind it. With demolition underway, Whiting-Turner, the general contractor for the infrastructure work, can move forward with the road and utility upgrades that will connect Dōma, the workforce housing, the 2727 Diamond View Drive office building, and the new green spaces to each other and to the surrounding neighborhood.
VCU’s soccer and track programs, who called the stadium home for over two decades, are now relocating to a new Athletic Village across Hermitage Road, partly funded by proceeds from the Sports Backers Stadium sale. The 2025 season was the university’s last at the site before making the move, freeing up the land for this next step. With that transition complete and the property now cleared for the district’s use, DDP can keep moving toward finishing the infrastructure that the rest of the district’s development depends on.
Image: SB Cox demolishing the Sports Backers Stadium building. (Source: DDP)
