fanguy9010

The report also lists Richmond in the "New Heartland" metro type, defined by: high growth, low diversity, high education. http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/Programs/Metro/state_of_metro_america/metro_america_profiles/richmond.pdf

Richmond's high suburban population isn't at all surprising. The metro areas two principal cities: Richmond and Petersburg, have a combined population of under 250,000. All in all, Richmond isn't doing too bad compared to other metro areas with a similar population and/or gross metropolitan product(GMP).

@varider, sorry if i offended, but what i was getting at is that having a lot of finance/banking firms isn't necessarily going to create more vibrancy in downtown Norfolk or propel Hampton Roads status. Richmond's downtown area has an impressive roaster of banking/finance firms, law firms, and advertising agencies by most most standards yet I wouldn't consider it vibrant at all. NoVA doesn't particularly have lots of finance type firms, but its collection of defense consulting and information technology firms is among the best in world and it an extremely vibrant and thriving area. Hampton Roads has a lot going for it: Port of Virginia, DoD/Navy, decent Sized Airport, beaches, etc but it is lacking a presence of major corporations. Once HR can convince some major corporation to move their HQ or set up major operation in HR, HR could easily be on its way to becoming the next Charlotte. I keep bring up RVA cause its a good point of reference for me, I live there for right now.

Not quite sure I understand the fascination with banking/finance. Plus, isn't Richmond already the regional banking/finance center for most of VA, and parts of surrounding states. Baltimore is the banking/finance for NoVA, DC, and surrounding states.

Yes, people from Richmond would drive out to VA Beach/Norfolk to see baseball, soccer, football, hockey, or basketball in a heartbeat. On the other hand, people from points west of Richmond might be reluctant to travel Hampton Roads just for a game, and people in NoVA certainly will rarely travel to Hampton Roads for games. From personal experience, if a day trip requires longer than a three hour drive, the probability of making the day trip beings to plummet.

I think its totally possibly for Richmond or Hampton Roads to get a pro sports team; any team based out of NoVA will end up adpoting DC as their home city though. The chances a pro team will move to VA should the opportunity arise would be greater if HR and RVA come together and pitch a team as a state team, think Arizona Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings, NE Patriots. There are about 5+ million people in the state of VA who don't live in NoVA and about 3 million in HR and RVA combined. The stadium could be build in Norfolk or VA Beach, the team operations/management could be based in RVA, and the training camp could alternate between the colleges in NC and VA. Also while Norfolk might have a more cleaner and newer than Richmond, but Richmond has a lot more national and international companies based downtown than Norfolk. Norfolk need to shed its image of being a navy/DoD town, IMO.