MDC26

Here’s the article https://www.laprensalatina.com/conservancy-could-save-mid-south-coliseum/amp/ And I don’t think it has to be completely reimagined. I think there would be plenty of uses such as concerts/wrestling/other events that are smaller and wouldn’t be ideal for FEF. Also, local graduations. Concerts for Liberty Bowl/Southern Heritage classic. Championship games from the sports complex. Community events. Potential All-Star weekend or WNBA/minor league hockey franchises.

Well, I like that idea then. Retail at both areas. If there’s a need for a soccer field, use the Kroc area. Add a parking deck or two.

I get what your'e saying as there's a big separation between the Soccer Fields/MSC/Sports complex and the "Entertainment/Hotel" area. I agree. Are you suggesting moving the entertainment area over and switching with the soccer fields, or just scrapping the soccer fields and having retail at both? The site of the soccer fields is a little bigger than half the area for retail that is on Central. The other problem with that area is it's not as easily visible/accessible. While it fronts E Parkway, you can't access it from Parkway (unless you turn in on the other side of the sports complex), as there is the overpass that goes over the train tracks. You have to take the narrow exit, make a left turn with no stop light on to Southern. Retail will not like the poor visibilty and accessibility in that area. Also, aren't there soccer fields next to the Kroc Center? Are those a separate use, or could things be combined there?

Article says six stories, but picture shows 7. Also, really high rent prices, but includes all utilities and fully furnished.

Yeah, I do too. I'm a fan of the structural expressionism architecture. I really like the new JP Morgan Chase building that is going up in NYC and the planned 175 Park building that both are structural expressionism.

Might be for the best. Article says several floors are completely empty. Overall, this could probably work fine for residential. Looks much more residentially than the Morgan Keegan tower. Plus they say they will add new ground floor retail. Should liven the area up. Interestingly, I had someone tell me a story about this building years ago. The story was - the person that owned the building had a young daughter. They drove by the building every day together, and the daughter was impressed with the size of the building, and loved the round part on the top. Her father never said anything and she had no idea that he owned it. Then one day, when she was 18, they were driving by, and the father said "Hey, you know that building there that you've always liked, I actually own it, and there's an apartment for you on the top floor to move in to after you graduate." No idea if there's any truth to it or not.

Yeah, I like having more cities involved. Would grow the fanbase across the country

Here’s a cool site with really good photography that just released documenting 100 N Main. They also have pictures from the Tennessee Brewery, Cossitt Library, and Ashlar Hall. The Sterick would be cool to see too. https://www.artofabandonment.com/2023/05/100-north-main-abandoned-skyscraper-memphis-tn/?fbclid=IwAR1besQ5M7gK-puWpPGU_xEp5hchIcV9aUmqgjQlCV42nMiQLVKorh3Yv8o

The runway is only 3800ft. If they are flying on a King Air, they can. But a Learjet or Gulfstream will not be able to use that airport.

Here's an article from Rock City Eats discussing possible reasons https://www.rock.city/what-is-really-going-on-with-the-river-market-restaurant-scene/

I think the renovation plans to become ADA compliant would put fixed seating at MSC at 5,000. Then you have the ability to have around 2,000 temporary seats around the court. It would be perfect for an All-Star weekend for the Celebrity All-Star game and the HBCU games and any practices. Landers Center is an adequate facility, but it is far away (17 miles) with MSC only being 4.5 miles. Chicago used their WNBA arena downtown and 5 miles from the United Center, Cleveland used Cleveland St's arena and less than a mile from Rocket Mortgage arena, and Salt Lake used University of Utah's arena which is 4.5 miles away too. Some cities that have held All-Star weekend in the past and didn't have a 2nd arena, used their convention center with temporary seating. Really need those Hotel projects to come back too. Loew's, Grand Hyatt, Sheraton expansion, The Clipper. I've thought the 100 N Main could be all hotel. When Townhouse planned for that, they had 500 hotel rooms planned. Regarding the flights, there's only so much that can be done on Memphis' side. Ultimately, its up to the carriers.

Downtown Airport? Unless the stars and dignitaries are flying in on Cessna prop planes, I don’t think the Charles Dewitt Spain airport is an option for private jets. Neither is Charles Baker airport. Would have to be MEM, Olive Branch, Millington, or West Memphis.

https://www.localmemphis.com/article/news/local/memphis-all-star-game-nba-grizzlies-fedexforum/522-d3344903-0de6-4821-bee8-4b3ece3e4128?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_ABC24_Memphis&fbclid=IwAR1czX0A-7zCaNzrHHMg6plxK6Zmn5wVLOSsMGvWWVxXNFsbu43_HITNWWg#ligk2pnwriz27w7t808 Good breakdown regarding NBA All star game in Memphis.

Yes, long overdue, but I like the idea of it on the other end of Beale St. Take over & expand the police substation. That way the have the New Daisy next door for the HOB concert hall. For the Hard Rock location, Margaritaville or 2nd location for Johnny Cash Bar & BBQ

Does the local architect really much say in the design? I figured the lead architectural firm - the world renowned international firm - would have design control.

I saw this posted on Facebook: In July 2023, the lease for Hard Rock Cafe Memphis, located at 126 Beale Street, will expire. The location will permanently close as a result. We are currently expanding operations in 50 locations within the next five years and are open to having another location within the Memphis market if the right space can be identified. It may be that with the lease coming up, the rent is going way up to something that would make it unfeasible for them. I think that's why they moved the first time. It could also be that the owner isn't renewing their lease. That could be for several reasons. New tenant willing to pay more, Hard Rock is a bad tenant that is always late on their rent, or Lansky's is wanting to expand. Who knows, but whatever reason, sad to see it go.

Isn't this Hard Rock Cafe a franchise? I could be hopeful and think that they didn't want to renew their lease, because they plan on having the restaurant in the new Hard Rock Hotel that has been talked about being built on Beale St.

And the crazy thing, we had two teams fighting to relocate to Memphis at the same time. Both the Grizzlies and Hornets requested to relocate to Memphis. The Grizzlies got the nod, and Hornets ended up relocating to New Orleans a year later. Memphis was a finalist two different times for NFL expansion. In 1974, the five finalist cities were Honolulu, Memphis, Phoenix, Tampa, and Seattle. Tampa and Seattle were awarded the new teams and 14 years later, Phoenix was able to lure the Cardinals to relocate from St louis. In 1993, the 5 finalist cities were Memphis, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Baltimore, and St. Louis. Jacksonville and Charlotte were chosen, and Baltimore and St Louis were able to lure the Browns and Rams for relocation. The only other two expansion teams since then, went to Cleveland and Houston. I don't think there were any finalists, they just awarded teams to those two cities because they felt sorry for them for losing the Browns and Oilers. I'm sure most know the story of the Oilers playing in Memphis for a season. While the reason the Seattle Supersonics chose OKC to relocate to was because how well they supported the Hornets when they temporarily relocated there after Hurricane Katrina, I doubt it would have made one difference if Memphis had supported the Oilers well. The Rams and Chargers were dead set on going to LA, and the Raiders weren't going to leave the West Coast. I don't know if the 49er's is technically a relocation since they moved from San Francisco to San Jose metro, but they still kept the San Francisco name. Whenever the NFL expands again, it wouldn't surprise me if Memphis is in the mix, and it wouldn't surprise me if Memphis falls short again. https://www.sports-king.com/memphis-mad-dogs-nfl-expansion-3647/ https://allsportshistory.com/2020/09/25/what-happened-to-the-houston-oilers/#:~:text=So fans in Houston couldn,they could move to Nashville.

I have no idea what dimensions are required for good sight lines for hockey, no idea if it’s capable at FEF, no idea how much it would cost. I have heard that the FEF renovations could be major and gutting all the seats and reformatting. No matter what is done at FEF and no matter what the city does, getting an NHL team is very unlikely. The person most capable of getting it done is Pera, but there’s no guarantee he could achieve it, even if it was his ultimate goal. What is much more achievable is is getting an ECHL franchise. There’s 28 ECHL teams and expanding to 29 next year. So, that will leave 3 NHL teams without ECHL affiliates. Predators are one of those, unless the expansion team affiliated with them. The team could reside at Landers or a renovated MSC. The league’s goal is to get to 32, so the only barrier is someone willing to put the money into it.

The unwavering support by the NHL for the Coyotes in Arizona is kinda sad. They went bankrupt. Then the league blocked the sale and relocation of the team to Hamilton, ON and bought the team themselves before reselling it to someone to keep it in Arizona. The Coyotes have been kicked out of two arenas (Footprint & Gila River), and are now relegated to playing in a 5,000 seat University multi-purpose facility. They tried to get taxpayer's to pay to build a new $2.1 Billion arena project that failed this month. One of their owners was just arrested for felony strangulation/assault on his wife. They are perennial bottom 3 in attendance every year. Have missed the playoffs in 10 of the last 11 years. NHL wants them to stay in Phoenix Metro just because its top 10 population in the US. If the majority owner doesn't sell, they likely relocate to Houston or Salt Lake City. If he does sell, then depends on who buys it.

I don't think the WNBA has named any of their expansion city finalists, but it would be a shame if Memphis isn't on there because the city put no effort into it at all. Memphis is a great basketball city, has a very well supported NBA team, and has an All-Star/DPOY who's mother works for the WNBA-PA, and another superstar that is very vocal in supporting the WNBA. I hadn't thought about the renovation plans for FEF could be done in mind for having a potential hockey franchise. I think it would require having someone like Pera or Smith with close ties to Memphis and believes in Memphis, to buy a franchise like the Coyotes, and move them to Memphis. I find it very unlikely an outside ownership group would have Memphis at the top of their list unless someone did some very good convincing. At the very least, I hoped for renovation of MSC for plans of getting minor league hockey and WNBA. There are other options for a soccer stadium than tearing down MSC.

Yeah, Memphis was never capable of landing the HQ2. It was originally awarded to NYC, but AOC threw a fit about it, so they said fine, we will look elsewhere. They decided to split it up into two different cities, being DC & Nashville. But, that wasn't what I was referring too. I was talking about the Amazon Air Hub, which landed in Cincy. I don't think the aerotropolis term had much to do with being the Northwest/Delta hub. More so with FedEx. I think the term was describing the airport and the surrounding logistical businesses. All the warehouses, trucking, and rail components around the vicinity of the airport.

Yeah, I don't think the racial makeup of the city has anything to do with it, but just people in the South in general. While there are definitely hockey fans in the South, I just don't think its in the same numbers as you will find in Mid-West or Northern cities, and definitely less compared to NFL/NBA/MLB fans in the South. Weather and lack of ice rinks throughout the South prohibit as many kids growing up playing hockey, so there's not that funnel to becoming of fan of something you play as a kid. Some larger metropolitan cities in the South can achieve adequate support for the NHL, but they are helped with larger quantity of people and if they have high numbers of people that have relocated there from the Mid-West or Northeast. Atlanta failed to keep an NHL team. Houston, the 4th largest city in the country has never had an NHL team. I don't watch or keep up with the NHL, but if Memphis got a team, I would likely become a fan. I don't have any strong opinions on whether Memphis could or could not support a hockey franchise, I just think it is very unlikely that an ownership group would look towards Memphis as a relocation city, when there's numerous other cities that look much better on paper. Especially if there's not any initiative from the city leaders in garnering support to bring in a team, or having a plan to bring in a team. I think Memphis would be great for a WNBA franchise. They are planning on expanding in the next year or two with two new franchises. Many cities have presented plans for an expansion franchise. Nashville had a detailed report with local surveys and everything. I think they are down to 12 finalists, and Nashville is considered one of the leading cities. I've heard nothing of Memphis pursuing one. They do prefer their WNBA teams to be able to partner with NBA teams, but its not necessary. A renovated MSC would be great for a WNBA team, but there's also the FedEx Forum, as many WNBA teams play in NBA arenas. I think a women's professional soccer team would be great too, but that won't happen until we get a soccer stadium. Hopefully with the new state funding, it will happen. And ideally not at the expense of the MSC. https://lastwordonsports.com/basketball/2022/06/17/possible-wnba-expansion-cities/

They made it. Final plan came out in 2014, in all of its 265 pages of glory. Please thoroughly investigate it and give us a detailed report next week. https://memphismpo.org/sites/default/files/images/initiatives/memphis_aerotropolis_finalReport_lores.pdf I haven't read it, so no clue how much has been realized. Grand Master Plans are usually visions, pie-in-the-sky, and plans become outdated, impractical, or there's inadequate funding, or new government officials take over, and its not a priority or they don't have the same vision. I bet there's some good ideas in it, though. It would have been cool, back when cities across the country were groveling and trying to land the Amazon HQ2, if Memphis would have made a proposal to be the home for the future Amazon Air. I think Amazon was still shipping everything through FedEx, but it was obvious they wanted to do it themselves. Amazon had a falling out with FedEx, over I don't know what, as they were phasing them out and they put the Amazon Air Hub at Cincy/N Kentucky, along with DHL. I think there's enough room on the vacant land south of the airport to add another runway, but would require Shelby & Holmes to go under the runway. Having both FedEx and Amazon Air would have been huge and greatly multiplied the attraction for companies to bring a presence to Memphis.

Yeah, I don’t think NHL or MLB are viable in Memphis. NFL or MLS would have much better viability. Don’t think anyone with Memphis ties would have much interest in NHL. Other cities like Houston, KC, Milwaukee, Portland or Hamilton much more likely. Even a return to Quebec City, Hartford, or Atlanta more viable than Memphis. I’d rather renovate MSC and get an ECHL there. Regarding MLB, as others said, too much of Cardinals territory. There is already an ownership group for Nashville with a plan. There is a stadium plan for Portland. Charlotte, San Antonio, and Salt Lake City have already expressed interest. MLB will like expand with two new franchises once Tampa stadium situation is settled. So, it’s possible to have 4 new MLB cities in the next few years. Obviously Vegas is one. Nashville very likely too.