The Richmond Coliseum needs millions of dollars of work soon to continue operating safely while the city decides whether to replace it.

Richmond plans to spend about $300,000 from this year's budget to make the most critical repairs to the 38-year-old downtown building to avoid losing major users, such as the Colonial Athletic Association, that are unhappy with the Coliseum's condition.

"I don't think you can afford to let that building become a detriment to bringing other things to the city," said CAA Commissioner Thomas E. Yeager, whose organization is committed to using the Coliseum for its men's basketball tournament through 2012 but has raised concerns about the building's condition.

New studies obtained from the city last week by the Richmond Times-Dispatch recommend that Richmond make $3 million in repairs to extend the Coliseum's life for one to three years. The studies also provide other options that would add from 10 to 30 years to the building's life. The most expensive options would cost the city more than $14 million.

The immediate repairs, recommended this fall by a team of consultants hired by the city, include:

• $213,000 in critical repairs to the Coliseum's multilevel roofing system to prevent rainwater and melting snow from falling into the building, as it did just before the CAA's four-day men's basketball tournament in early March.

• $1.3 million to repair the deteriorating concrete plaza around the Coliseum at 601 E. Leigh St. and above the service tunnel that runs under the building. The repairs are necessary to make the walking surface safer and to prevent water from leaking into underground storage and mechanical areas, as well as the tunnel.

• $1.3 million in repairs to the building's mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

• $214,000 in repairs to the Coliseum's exterior, including cracked brick masonry and concrete entrance canopies that "pose life safety concerns and should be, at minimum, removed until repairs can be performed."

The consulting team, led by Richmond-based SMBW Architects, concludes that, "despite this list of needed maintenance, repair and replacement work, the Richmond Coliseum is a substantial and serviceable building whose original character and quality are intact."

The consultants advise the city to make immediate repairs sufficient to extend the building's life by 10 years, "thereby allowing the city of Richmond the time to choose how best to meet the region's need for a major civic arena for decades to come."

The team recommends against upgrading the Coliseum to function as an emergency shelter during a hurricane or major storm involving high winds and rain, but serve only as a shelter for people after the storm has passed. Otherwise, the city would have to spend up to $3 million to replace the roofing system to meet emergency standards.

. . .

Richmond received the reports in October through the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities, which contracts with SMG and Johnson Inc. to operate the Coliseum. Richmond paid the SMBW and its partners about $297,000 for the two studies, which was $46,000 less than budgeted.

Chief Administrative Officer Byron C. Marshall said Friday that the city is using existing funds to fix the roof and drainage system, as well as emergency electrical repairs, to satisfy the concerns of the CAA and other users. "What we're doing is trying to prioritize the things that need to be done first," he said in an interview.

Marshall said the need for additional short-term repairs and improvements at the Coliseum also are being discussed in preparation for a capital budget that Mayor Dwight C. Jones will propose next year.

Jones said in an interview last week that he wants a new Coliseum, but he conceded that improvements may be needed to keep the current building functional. "There's going to have to be some upkeep done," he said. "Clearly, [construction of a new facility] is going to have to be when the economy takes a turn."

Marshall welcomed the discussion of a regional approach to the long-term challenge of replacing the Coliseum.

"Clearly, the region benefits," he said. "Clearly, that's on the table."

. . .

Richmond commissioned the initial Coliseum study last year to survey the condition of the building's structure and operating systems, and to determine its suitability as an emergency evacuation shelter.

In February, the city hired the same consulting team to examine the Coliseum's roofing system and recommend options for its repair or replacement.

John F. Berry Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Richmond Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau, said he was not aware of the two reports.

However, Berry said his board of directors, chaired by Richmond City Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, is making the future of the Coliseum a strategic priority and convening a task force to study the issue.

"This will be very, very good information to have," Berry said.

Robertson and other board members say the possible solutions include making the Coliseum a regionally owned and operated entity, with the convention center.

"It's a difficult issue," said Henrico County Supervisor David A. Kaechele, a member of the convention and visitors bureau board. "And I think that while it hasn't been treated as a regional facility in the past, it definitely serves the region in many respects."

The question of what to do with the Coliseum has not yet come before the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority, a regional board of government executives that oversees the operation and payment of debt service on the expanded convention center.

However, authority Chairman Virgil R. Hazelett said local governments in the region are financially unable to shoulder the cost of major repairs to the Coliseum anytime soon. "It's going to have to be an interim solution," said Hazelett, Henrico's county manager. "It's going to have to be a city solution."

As for a long-term regional solution, Hazelett said Richmond first must determine whether the facility is "something that the city would want to make regional, as opposed to city owned and operated."

The regional approach also would require state legislative approval to increase the transient occupancy tax, now at 8 percent of hotel billings in four localities, for use on anything other than the debt and operation of the convention center, he said. "It's not an easy question. I don't know of any other alternatives."

. . .

The future of the Coliseum is an urgent priority of the Colonial Athletic Association. The association said it faced a near disaster this year when a heavy snowfall forced the Coliseum staff to place waste barrels on the court to collect water leaking through the roof days before the tournament was to begin.

The bad weather abated and crews cleared snow from the roof in time for the tournament, but the conference commissioner said the consequences would be severe if rain or snow disrupted the four-day tournament with national television present.

"The public embarrassment and complications of an unusable building for 'March Madness' would be of epic proportions nationally," Yeager said in a letter to SMG on July 9 that outlined the conference's concerns about the condition of the Coliseum.

In the letter, Yeager questioned why public concern has focused on the future of The Diamond, but not the condition of the Coliseum.

"It is way past time to start that dialogue," he said.

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com .