The Richmond Arena was a multipurpose indoor sports facility located in and owned by the city of Richmond, Virginia

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

. It served as the site of basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 games for the Virginia Squires

Virginia Squires

The Virginia Squires were a basketball franchise in the former American Basketball Association from 1970 until just before the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.-In Oakland :...

 of the American Basketball Association and the University of Richmond

University of Richmond

The University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...

. It also served as the site of the Southern Conference

Southern Conference

The Southern Conference is a Division I college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision . Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North...

 men's basketball championship tournament from 1955 through 1963. In addition to basketball, the 6,000-seat arena also played host to numerous concerts and professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 and boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 events. The arena closed in the mid-1980s, but remained standing until the late-1990s construction of Sports Backers Stadium

Sports Backers Stadium

Sports Backers Stadium is a 3,250-seat stadium in Richmond, Virginia. The facility was opened in 1999.Sports Backers Stadium is used throughout the year by various parties including the soccer and college athletics teams from Virginia Commonwealth University, and Virginia Union...

on its site.