Op-Ed: Roanoke Sports Entertainment and Tourism Authority

David Bowers: Roanoke Needs A Sports Entertainment and Tourism Authority

I was delighted to read in The Roanoke Times yesterday that Pulaski County is undertaking the creation of a “SET”, Sports Entertainment and Tourism Authority.  Roanoke should immediately follow Pulaski’s lead and organize a Roanoke SET in cooperation with and under the auspices of Virginia’s Blue Ridge tourism agency.

I’ve spoken with Landon Howard at VBR and he agrees a quasi-governmental authority will be able to raise funds to build and manage the Roanoke Valley’s many sports entertainment venues and activities through private, corporate and governmental financing.  It would operate like an economic development authority and is the right mechanism to sustain our current calendar of sports and entertainment activities, but also provide funding for new facilities.  In particular, I’m told that additional entertainment/meeting facilities and an area indoor sports fieldhouse are needed here for Roanoke to compete with other metropolitan areas.

Our Mayor and city government should assist the stabilization of the advisory board, management and finances of our popular downtown Virginia Museum of Transportation.  The city needs to be a partner in that regard.  It would be my hope, as expressed several years ago, that the VMT might become a state park or state museum, like the California Railway Museum in Sacramento.

The city should support Bev Fitzpatrick’s group which is trying to revive the Southern rail line from Franklin Road along the south side of the river through Wasena to Norwich.  Our Korean sister city of Wonju has a bike/train excursion and it would, in my opinion, be an attractive and popular activity, for Roanokers and tourists alike, to develop a similar facility in Roanoke, probably operational from Spring to Summer to Fall.

Virginia’s 300 mile Crooked Road Music trail has become exceedingly popular and has generated millions in tourism dollars and hotel/rental/restaurant economic development in the dozen of towns through which it passes.   I believe Roanoke can and should be the “portal” through which visitors can begin their Crooked Road journey.  It would be my hope that the city and VBR might better connect with the Crooked Road, which currently ends in Rocky Mount, just 28 miles away.

Additionally, I propose efforts to create and provide more “Virginia Mountain Music” venues and performances right here in downtown Roanoke, perhaps on Kirk Avenue (site of the former WDBJ Radio studios.)  Kirk is not a crooked road, but it sure is a “Straight and Narrow” road, that might be Roanoke’s connection to the “Crooked” road.

David A. Bowers /   Republican Candidate for Mayor

This article was originally published in the Roanoke Star on July 25, 2024. It can be accessed here.