📍 Norfolk, Virginia
🏒 Home of the Norfolk Admirals
One of the Mid-Atlantic’s most iconic and eye-catching arenas, the Norfolk Scope is home to the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals and plays host to a myriad of other events all throughout the year. With an incredible architectural style and a uniquely Norfolk gameday experience, an Admirals game at the Scope is an experience that all hockey fans should have at least once.
Opened in 1971, the Norfolk Scope seats a little over 8,700 for hockey, but the venue can hold up to almost 14,000 for other events due to the flexibility of its setup. The name “Scope” is a shortened version of the word “kaleidoscope”, alluding to both the architecture and the versatility of this multi-purpose facility. Forgoing the usual suspects of “arena” or “center”, the Norfolk Scope is the only venue in the world with such a name.
The arena also features the world’s largest reinforced thinshell concrete dome, supported by two dozen exemplary flying buttresses, giving the venue its iconic look. The overall design of the exterior is based on the Palazzetto dello Sport, a much smaller venue in Rome that was built for the 1960 Olympics.
A hockey palace, the Scope has been home to the Admirals, in one form or another, since 1989. Then known as the Hampton Roads Admirals, the team was a flagship franchise of the fledgling ECHL and helped bring both attention and validity to the league, drawing crowds sometimes twice as large as peer franchises at the time. In 2000, after winning three championship titles, the success of the Admirals prompted team ownership to seek admission into the AHL, the highest tier of minor league hockey. For fifteen seasons, the Admirals entertained crowds at the Scope, peaking in the 2011-12 season, when the team went on a record-breaking 28-game win streak and clinched the Calder Cup. The following season, the team became affiliated with the Anaheim Ducks, who ultimately moved the team to San Diego in 2015.
Thankfully, the relocation of the Bakersfield Condors franchise that autumn helped supplant the Admirals and marked the return of the ECHL to Norfolk. Although this new iteration of the Admirals has struggled on the ice since then, they continue to draw decent crowds at the Scope, which has now hosted nearly 35 consecutive years of hockey.
Today, despite being based in Hampton Roads’ largest city, the Admirals do their best to be inclusive of all the locales in the Tidewater region. Throughout each season, the team hosts “City Series” nights in an attempt to represent each of the area’s population centers, with players donning different uniforms and skating as the Admirals from Newport News, Portsmouth, Hampton, and Virginia Beach, among others.
With a moniker that acknowledges the rich and ongoing maritime history of the Hampton Roads area, it’s no surprise that naval themes are at the leading edge of the Admirals gameday experience. Though a bit mellow, a goal horn resembling that of a battleship air horn echoes through the Scope after each goal netted by the home team, followed by sounds of artillery launched from a warship turret. In addition, there’s a social area and bar called “The Flight Deck” located in the seating bowl near the end which the Admirals defend twice.
The condition of the Scope itself could be better – age has started to take its toll on the revolutionary building and both the concourse and seating areas are looking a bit drab. Some much needed renovations to the old arena have the potential to breathe new life into the venue and the Admirals organization. Despite these aesthetic shortcomings, don’t pass up a hockey game at this unique old barn, a place truly anchored in tradition.
Info Invasion
Parking: The Scope Garage underneath the arena; $10
Nearby Venue(s): Chartway Arena, Harbor Park
In the Area: Explore the USS Wisconsin battleship at Nauticus
Stadium51 