Census: Roanoke\u2019s population decline is accelerating, city on pace to rival its steep drop in the 1960s<\/em><\/strong>
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Last October, city officials stood outside the Berglund Center and announced they were looking into the prospect of creating an \u201centertainment district,\u201d the centerpiece of which would be a casino to be located at the center.\u00a0
The entertainment district in general, and the casino in particular, was born out of the city\u2019s quest for more tax revenues and, according to City Manager Valmarie Turner, a review of \u201coverall assets, including the Berglund Center.\u201d
Those words, however cryptic, suggest the city may not be completely satisfied with the center\u2019s performance. The overall number of events booked at the Berglund (which encompasses four different venues, with the largest being the 10,000-seat coliseum portion) has increased from 250 per year in 2019-2020 to 400 per year, city officials say, but there are fewer big shows than in the past.
That points to something important that we should keep in mind in any discussion of the Berglund Center, whether pro-casino or anti-casino: The entertainment world has changed dramatically since the center opened in 1971, it\u2019s changed dramatically since the pandemic and we can\u2019t have a rational conversation about the proposed \u201centertainment district\u201d unless we all understand just how it\u2019s changed.\u00a0
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* * *\u00a0 <\/p>\n In the late 1960s and early 1970s, American cities rushed to build indoor arenas, facilities that were deemed necessary for municipal economies \u2014 and prestige. Black Sabbath: <\/strong>Ozzy Osborne\u2019s band played 188 shows on its 1971 tour, cut back to 82 in 1972 (with Roanoke being one of those). ![\"Fans](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cardinalnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/berglund.png?resize=780%2C450&ssl=1\")
In 1971 alone, three Virginia cities opened arenas: Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke.\u00a0
Today, one of those facilities is no longer open. The Richmond Coliseum closed in 2019 and may now be torn down.
That\u2019s not unusual. Other arenas that went up during that wave of arena construction have since come down. The Omni in Atlanta, which opened in 1972, was demolished in 1997. Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, which opened in 1972, was demolished in 2021. The McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, which opened in 1975, came down in 2000. All those have been replaced by newer venues \u2014 primarily to host professional sports teams \u2014 but the Richmond Coliseum has not been.
Roanoke is fortunate to have a minor league hockey team that fills 25 or so dates during the winter months.\u00a0
A hockey team is something that Roanoke didn\u2019t have when the Berglund opened in 1971 as the Roanoke Civic Center. In those days, the valley\u2019s hockey team played in Salem. However, other sports at the center have slacked off over the years, through no fault of the center, but because of changes in the sports landscape. From 1977 to 1998, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia always played an annual men\u2019s basketball game in Roanoke. Nowadays, all their games are on campus, either in Blacksburg or Charlottesville \u2014 there\u2019s no financial advantage for the teams to play at a neutral site.\u00a0
In the center\u2019s early days, it hosted some professional basketball games. The Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association were a \u201cregional\u201d team, a since-abandoned concept that involved the team playing home dates at multiple cities across the state. Over time, the Squires gave up on Roanoke as a poor draw, and eventually both the team and the league folded. Even if the team had survived, its main venue, the Norfolk Scope, was considered too small for the Squires to be one of the teams that got absorbed into the National Basketball Association.\u00a0
In 2001, the NBA launched its version of a minor league, what today is called the G League. The eight original teams were all in Southeastern cities intentionally distant from NBA franchises; the Roanoke Dazzle was one of them. The Dazzle lasted five years. The G League is still around, but none of those original cities are included. Today, almost all the G League teams are close to their NBA affiliates \u2014 some so close that they\u2019re even in the same city, such as the Capital City Go-Go, who are related to the NBA\u2019s Washington Wizards, or the Windy City Bulls, who are tied to the Chicago Bulls. That makes it easier to shuttle players back and forth and share administrative operations. The whole concept behind the league has changed in a way that locks out Roanoke.
As recently as 2010, there was an NBA preseason game in Roanoke \u2014 the Philadelphia 76ers vs. the New Jersey Nets. The NBA still plays some preseason games at neutral sites, but last year those sites included Australia, Abu Dhabi and China \u2014 part of the league\u2019s goal to expand its market globally.\u00a0
Whatever ideas existed in 1971 about the civic center being a major sports venue simply aren\u2019t compatible with today\u2019s sports economics.\u00a0
The same is true of another big entertainment sector: music.\u00a0
The construction of all those arenas across the United States in the late \u201960s and early \u201970s gave rise to a new genre of music called \u201carena rock\u201d \u2014 radio-friendly music designed to appeal to a large enough audience to fill an arena when bands went on tour, which they did frequently then.
Here are some of the bands that played in the civic center in its early years, with tour info courtesy of websites such as Concert Archives and Setlist. <\/p>\n![\"Black](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cardinalnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Black_Sabbath_1970.jpg?resize=759%2C490&ssl=1\")
Emerson, Lake and Palmer: <\/strong>The prog-rock trio played 129 concerts in 1971, slowed down to 98 in 1972 and was positively lethargic in 1973 with a mere 64 concerts, including one in Roanoke.\u00a0
Humble Pie:<\/strong> The Steve Marriott-led band, which for a time included a young Peter Frampton, played 89 shows in 1971, ramped up to 132 in 1972, then dropped down to a mere 82 in 1973, the year the band came to Roanoke.\u00a0
Foghat: <\/strong>The band formed in 1971 and took a few years to work up to big tours. However, when it came to Roanoke in 1973 as an opening act for Humble Pie, that was one of 132 shows for the band.
Bands in those days toured constantly<\/em>, which is likely one reason why so many members turned to drugs to ease the wear and tear of life on the road.
Those year-round tour schedules are not how the music business works these days. Of Billboard\u2019s top-grossing tours in 2025, nobody in the top 10 played more than 64 shows (Shakira), and she was an exception. Stray Kids played just 31 shows, Beyonce 32, Kendrick Lamar 39.
Taylor Swift\u2019s celebrated \u201cEras\u201d tour had 60 shows in 2023, which seemed a big deal then but would have seemed pretty slow by early-\u201970s standards. <\/p>\n