Photos!BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: I saw the R-Braves play a home game in early September 2000, stopped to take photos in 2004 and 2016, and saw the final Richmond Flying Squirrels game on September 14, 2025.
The Diamond has as high a physical profile as some major league stadiums, and it looks very impressive as one drives past it on I-64. The grandstand only stretches a short distance beyond first base and third base, however, with no seats down the lines or beyond the outfield fence. The field dimensions are identical to those at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the old home of the parent organization of the AAA Richmond Braves. (The "R-Braves" moved to Gwinnett, Georgia in 2009; see below.) The grandstand is similar in design to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium as well. Structurally, it's basically just one big deck, but there is a level of "skyboxes" above the box seat sections, thus dividing the stands into two distinct levels. (Twelve rows are below, and 29 rows are above.) The upward-angled roof is huge, covering at least half of the seats, even though it lacks any supporting columns.
The Diamond was built on the same site as Parker Field, the previous minor league ballpark in Richmond. It's located two miles northwest of downtown Richmond, in an area full of warehouses. Immediately to the north is the Arthur Ashe Center, named for the late great tennis player from Richmond, and just to the southeast is a football stadium. Across the railroad tracks to the south is where the new summer training facility for the Washington Redskins is located, near the Science Museum of Virginia, which occupies the old Broad Street passenger raiload station. The Diamond was closed for a few weeks in August 2004 because heavy rains associated with tropical storms caused much of the field to become unplayably muddy, with sinkholes in a couple spots.
In early 2004 there was a proposal in Richmond to build a new stadium for the R-Braves, but nothing came of it. This was at a time when Major League Baseball was still exploring possible cities to host the yet-to-be-relocated Montreal Expos franchise; Richmond and Norfolk were semi-serious candidates. In February 2005 a revised plan was laid out under which a 7,500-seat ballpark would be the centerpiece of a development program for a run-down area east of the historic Shockoe Bottom district of downtown Richmond. Various such proposals fell through, however. In late 2007 it appeared that the Richmond city government was about to finalize plans to renovate The Diamond and the surrounding neighborhood, but the Atlanta Braves front office lost patience and announced that their AAA affiliate would relocate to Gwinnett, Georgia in the suburbs of Atlanta for the 2009 season. The R-Braves played their final game at The Diamond on September 1, 2008 -- a melancholy occasion. After a year with no minor league baseball in Richmond, a new franchise arrived in 2010: the "Flying Squirrels," the AA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. As part of the deal, renovations were made to The Diamond, replacing benches with individual seats in most of the lower portion of the upper deck, while the top nine rows were covered with huge canvas sheets serving as advertising banners. This reduced the seating capacity by about 2,500 seats.
After many years of back-and-forth debates in the Richmond city government, in late 2024 construction began on a new stadium for the Flying Squirrels, located immediately to the south of The Diamond. In the final game played at The Diamond, the Hartford Yard Goats beat the Flying Squirrels 5-2 in a thrilling but disappointing 10-inning game. Various dignitaries and old-timers made speeches or were given special honors, and fans were allowed to walk onto the field after the game was over. Attendance was 9,810, which was more than the MLB Reds-Athletics game played in Sacramento that same day! "CarMax Park" will have more amenities but a much lower capacity and profile than its predecessor. Evidently, there is not much possibility that Richmond might regain a AAA franchise any time soon.
Two rising young Atlanta Braves players were on the Richmond Braves' lineup in the game I saw there in September 2000: Mark De Rosa, who played for Atlanta from 1998 to 2004, and Wes Helms (in Atlanta 1998-2002). Other former R-Braves who who got called up to play for Atlanta over the years include Dale Murphy, Chipper Jones, and Marcus Giles. Among notable players for the San Francisco Giants who were once part of the Flying Squirrels, Brandon Crawford is the most prominent, hence a big banner for him at The Diamond.
SOURCES: www.milb.com, Richmond Times Dispatch
| The Clem Criteria: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Field asymmetry |
Architectural design |
Seat proximity |
Location * | Aesthetics | Overall |
| 1 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4.0 |
* See the Stadium locations page.
Visit Richmond!
There are plenty of historical sites to visit in Richmond, which served as the capital of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Virtually all of Southern icons along the Monument Avenue have been taken down, as the city strives to heal old racial wounds. Just south and east of downtown is Shockoe Slip, the funky entertainment district. During the summer the James River offers plenty of recreation opportunities, from tubing to kayaking to hiking to bird watching.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Virginia state capitol building, the Altria Theater, the Richmond downtown skyline from the southwest, across the James River, the Virginia Science Museum (formerly the Broad Street Railroad Station), and (center) the Arthur Ashe memorial on Monument Avenue.
