Sports in Norfolk, Virginia
Encyclopedia
Norfolk Tides
The Norfolk Tides are a minor league baseball team in the Triple-A International League. They play at Harbor Park in Norfolk, Virginia. Since 2007 they have been a farm team of the Baltimore Orioles; prior to that, they had a 38-year affiliation with the New York Mets.-Franchise history:The...
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
International League
The International League is a minor league baseball league that operates in the eastern United States. Like the Pacific Coast League and the Mexican League, it plays at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball. It was so named because it had teams in both the United States...
Harbor Park
Harbor Park is a stadium along the Elizabeth River, in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, USA. It has been rated the best minor league stadium by Baseball America. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Norfolk Tides minor league baseball team. The Tides are the International...
Norfolk Admirals
The Norfolk Admirals are a minor professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, and are affiliated with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Admirals play in Norfolk, Virginia, at the Norfolk Scope.-History:...
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
Norfolk Scope
Norfolk Scope is a multipurpose culture, entertainment, convention and sports arena at the northern perimeter of downtown Norfolk, Virginia, designed by Italian architect/engineer Pier Luigi Nervi in conjunction with the local firm of Williams and Tazewell...
Old Dominion University
Old Dominion University is a state university located in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
Colonial Athletic Association
The Colonial Athletic Association is a NCAA Division I college athletic conference whose full-time members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to Georgia. Most of its members are public universities, with five in Virginia alone, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond,...
Foreman Field
Foreman Field at S. B. Ballard Stadium is a 19,818-seat multi-purpose stadium on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. It opened in 1936 with a football game between the University of Virginia and the College of William & Mary's Norfolk Division...
Old Dominion University
Old Dominion University is a state university located in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...
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...
Colonial Athletic Association
The Colonial Athletic Association is a NCAA Division I college athletic conference whose full-time members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to Georgia. Most of its members are public universities, with five in Virginia alone, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond,...
Ted Constant Convocation Center
The Ted Constant Convocation Center is a 9,520-seat multi-purpose arena in Norfolk, Virginia, located on the campus of Old Dominion University. "The Ted" has 7,519 fully cushioned seats, 16 luxury suites, and a state-of-the-art scoreboard. The arena currently seats 8,639 for basketball games...
Norfolk State University
Norfolk State University is a four-year, state-supported, coed, liberal arts, historically black university located in Norfolk, Virginia. It is member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and the Virginia High-Tech Partnership.-Academics:...
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference is a collegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities in the Southeastern United States...
Norfolk State University
Norfolk State University is a four-year, state-supported, coed, liberal arts, historically black university located in Norfolk, Virginia. It is member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and the Virginia High-Tech Partnership.-Academics:...
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...
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference is a collegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities in the Southeastern United States...
Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall
Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall is a 7,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Norfolk, Virginia. It was built in 1982 and is home to the Norfolk State University Spartans basketball team. It hosted the 1997 MEAC Men's Basketball Tournament.-External links:*...
History
From 1970 to 1976, NorfolkNorfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
served as home court (along with Hampton
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
, Richmond
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...
and Roanoke
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
) 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 :...
regional professional basketball franchise of the now-defunct American Basketball Association
American Basketball Association
The American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...
(ABA). From 1970 to 1971, the Squires played their Norfolk home games at the Old Dominion University Fieldhouse
Old Dominion University Fieldhouse
Old Dominion University Fieldhouse was a 5,200 seat multi-purpose arena in Norfolk, Virginia. It opened in 1970. It was home to the Old Dominion University Monarchs and Lady Monarchs basketball teams. The venue also played host to the American Basketball Association's Virginia Squires for a...
. In November 1971, the Virginia Squires played their Norfolk home games at the new Norfolk Scope
Norfolk Scope
Norfolk Scope is a multipurpose culture, entertainment, convention and sports arena at the northern perimeter of downtown Norfolk, Virginia, designed by Italian architect/engineer Pier Luigi Nervi in conjunction with the local firm of Williams and Tazewell...
arena, until the team and the ABA league folded in May 1976.
In 1971, Norfolk built the region's first entertainment and sports complex, featuring Chrysler Hall
Chrysler Hall
Chrysler Hall is a performing arts venue in Downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Built in 1972 and located next to the Norfolk Scope arena, the venue is home to the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Virginia Ballet and hosts Broadway plays while serving as Norfolk's primary theater and concert venue.The...
and the 13,800-seat Norfolk Scope
Norfolk Scope
Norfolk Scope is a multipurpose culture, entertainment, convention and sports arena at the northern perimeter of downtown Norfolk, Virginia, designed by Italian architect/engineer Pier Luigi Nervi in conjunction with the local firm of Williams and Tazewell...
indoor arena, located in the northern section of downtown. Norfolk Scope has served as a venue for major events. On January 30, 1974, the city hosted its first professional basketball all-star game, courtesy of the American Basketball Association, at the Norfolk Scope. 10,624 spectators were in attendance, as Artis Gilmore
Artis Gilmore
Artis Gilmore is a retired American Hall of Fame basketball player who played in the American Basketball Association and National Basketball Association...
won Most Valuable Player
Most Valuable Player
In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...
of the 1974 ABA All-Star Game
1974 ABA All-Star Game
GAME 7: at Norfolk Scope, Norfolk, Virginia, January 30, 1974MVP: Artis Gilmore, Kentucky ColonelsCoaches:* East: Babe McCarthy, Kentucky Colonels* West: Joe Mullaney, Utah Stars-Western Conference: -Eastern Conference: -Score by Periods:...
. On March 29, 1982, Norfolk hosted the first NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season...
(also known as the Women's Final Four). The Norfolk Scope served as the chief venue for the event. 9,531 spectators were in attendance at this inaugural event. On April 3, 1983, Norfolk hosted the second NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship at the Norfolk Scope. 7,837 spectators were in attendance.
In April 1993, the 12,067-seat Harbor Park
Harbor Park
Harbor Park is a stadium along the Elizabeth River, in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, USA. It has been rated the best minor league stadium by Baseball America. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the home field of the Norfolk Tides minor league baseball team. The Tides are the International...
baseball stadium opened, hosting the Norfolk Tides
Norfolk Tides
The Norfolk Tides are a minor league baseball team in the Triple-A International League. They play at Harbor Park in Norfolk, Virginia. Since 2007 they have been a farm team of the Baltimore Orioles; prior to that, they had a 38-year affiliation with the New York Mets.-Franchise history:The...
Triple-A minor league baseball
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
team. Designed by HOK Sport, it was instantly acclaimed as one of the best minor league ballparks in America, and received the honor of best minor league park in 1995 by Baseball America. Also, despite worries that a new downtown park would not draw fans from the region's other cities, Harbor Park continually posts one of the best attendance records in minor league baseball, and certainly far higher than at their previous stadium, Met Park
Met Park
Metropolitan Memorial Park aka Met Park was a baseball stadium in Norfolk, Virginia. Built in 1969, it was the home to the Norfolk Tides until the construction of Harbor Park was completed for the Tides to play the 1993 season there.Met Park sat 6,200, and was located near the end of the primary...
.
In 1997, the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
rejected a bid for the proposed Hampton Roads Rhinos
Hampton Roads Rhinos
The Hampton Roads Rhinos were a proposed National Hockey League expansion team in the late-1990s to play in Norfolk, Virginia. The franchise would be under the ownership of George Shinn and play in a proposed $142 million arena to be constructed in Downtown Norfolk...
to enter the league as an expansion franchise.
Collegiate Sports
Old Dominion Monarchs and the Norfolk State SpartansNorfolk State University
Norfolk State University is a four-year, state-supported, coed, liberal arts, historically black university located in Norfolk, Virginia. It is member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and the Virginia High-Tech Partnership.-Academics:...
play in NCAA Division I while the Virginia Wesleyan College
Virginia Wesleyan College
Virginia Wesleyan College is a small Methodist liberal arts college on the border of Virginia Beach and Norfolk, Virginia offering a Bachelor of Arts in many disciplines and has added Bachelor of Science programs as well...
's Marlins play in NCAA Division III.