VCU Rams

Siegel Center

Localisation

Richmond, VA, United States

Capacité

7 637

Inauguré

1999

Fuseau horaire

UTC -05:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST)

The Stuart C. Siegel Center is a 190,000-square-foot (18,000 m2) multi-purpose facility on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, United States. The facility's main component is the 7,637-seat (expandable to 8,000) E.J. Wade Arena. It also served as a student recreational area until 2010, when the new Cary Street Gym complex was completed. It now is used purely for VCU athletics and includes a weight room, auxiliary basketball court, and a café. The E.J. Wade Arena hosts Division I-level NCAA inter-collegiate athletics and serves as a general-purpose assembly space for special events such as graduations, concerts, receptions, and a variety of competitions (both athletic and non-athletic). It is named after Richmond businessman Stuart C. Siegel. The complex opened in 1999 and cost $30.1 million to construct. Seven million dollars of the cost was donated by local businessman Stuart C. Siegel; the center bears his name as a result. Its main tenant is the VCU Rams men's basketball team, which enjoys one of the nation's best home-court winning percentages since moving into the facility. The court has received the reputation as arguably the toughest place to play in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The VCU Rams men's basketball team currently holds the 11th-highest home-court winning percentage in Division I basketball with a winning percentage of 85.79 The student section, dubbed the "Rowdy Rams" is extremely passionate. In 2012–13, the Rowdy Rams received the Naismith Student Section of the Year Award, recognizing the best student section in college basketball. Until interrupted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 166 consecutive sold out home games at the Siegel Center between January 2011 and November 2021. The arena also routinely hosts local and state high school basketball tournaments, in addition to hosting the annual Virginia Regional (formerly VCU/NASA) FIRST Robotics Competition. Before the 2016–17 basketball season, the arena was renamed the E.J. Wade Arena; a construction company owned by a local family in Mechanicsville, Virginia. The deal is for $2.75 million over ten years, but the Wade family has promised a total monetary donation of $4.05 million over those ten years.