TripleA
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I Root For: Memphis Tigers
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RE: Opinion: Memphis should have stayed in the pyramid.
(02-19-2016 01:48 AM)nzmorange Wrote: (02-19-2016 01:34 AM)TripleA Wrote: (02-19-2016 01:26 AM)nzmorange Wrote: (02-19-2016 12:15 AM)TripleA Wrote: As OT just said. the Pyramid is a striking building on the outside, but was a horrible design on the inside, for a basketball arena. They screwed up something with the design or the construction (I forget which), which caused the steep angles that were downright dangerous.
My parents had season tickets from 1963 through the first year of the Pyramid (1991-2?). They gave them up, b/c the place was too dangerous for them in the upper deck.
From Wikipedia:
On the Pyramid's opening night, the arena floor flooded because of inadequate drainage pumps, and the entire arena began to flood causing stage hands to sandbag the entire perimeter to preserve the electrical runs under the stage. The arena was also assumed to be NBA ready; however, when the Memphis Grizzlies came to town, it was discovered that the cost of upgrading to NBA standards made it more practical to build an arena tailored specifically for the NBA. As a result, the $250 million FedExForum, home of the Memphis Grizzlies, was built and opened in 2004.
The City of Memphis contract with the Memphis Grizzlies forbade the use of The Pyramid without the team's approval, and as a result, it went dark. A committee headed by Memphis businessman Scott Ledbetter studied possible uses of the arena in 2005, and considered such uses as converting the arena into a casino, an aquarium, a shopping mall, or an indoor theme park.[9] In November 2006, Congressman-Elect Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee) suggested that he would attempt to open a "Mid-American branch" of the Smithsonian Institution in the building. However, these plans were never realized. In the end, the committee on the building's future recommended that it be used for "destination retail" which would create more jobs and new tax revenues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Pyramid
Right. That's why I said they should have renovated it.
You just don't get it. As you learned, that building was so screwed up, it would have cost more to renovate it as a BB arena than it did to build a brand new state-of-the-art arena. No city in its right mind would do that.
And now the building is doing quite well as the premiere Bass Pro Shop, with a Disneyland interior, a 100-room upscale hotel, bowling alley, several restaurants, observation deck overlooking the Mississippi River, two lagoons, etc.
It is a tourist destination, having drawn over 2 million visitors in its first 8 months. It is also used as a recruiting tool for the University of Memphis. While the Tigers play in one of the best NBA arenas in the country.
https://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/20...pril/print
http://www.memphisflyer.com/NewsBlog/arc...d-visitors
Win-win. The building was saved, and has become a huge economic engine for the city, and an asset for the University of Memphis. Meanwhile, we play on Beale Street, as opposed to sitting in an industrial area, far from restaurants and night life.
Bold: did you read the OP?
Underlined: pick a landmark. There was a cheaper way to build it and/or get the message across. Sometimes not going cheap is worth it.
Other: it's astonishing how many people are bent on telling me FedEx has nice amenities. I get that. I never said differently. In fact, I called FedEx "luxurious" in my OP. However, how is it different from the next city who feels like building s new gym (I.e. Houston) or the last one (I.e. Louisville)? Great programs are almost never great because they have the best facilities. They're great because they have a unique and attractive value proposition. You turned one of the unique aspects of Memphis' program into a freaking Bass Pro Shop. If you can't see why that was a bad idea, then you're missing"it."
And to clarify, there are other things about your program that add value and are unique. I'm not predicting your doom. You won't fall off and FedEx will work just fine. My only point is that IMHO you blew s chance to be even better - unless the design really was SO bad that it literally couldn't have been saved with a renovation, short of materially changing the outside.
That is EXACTLY what I am saying. The wall angles were too acute going up. There was no way to get all the seats in there without changing the external structure of the building. The seats were steep and dangerous, and the aisles were too narrow. People were dropping their season tickets, and/or refusing to go to games, b/c it was an uncomfortable experience.
I'm not sure, but I think the only way to fix that was to tear down the walls, widen the foundation, and start over with new walls. The lower seats were fine. The upper deck was a disaster. I'm sure I'm not getting details exact, but it was something like that. I guess they could have curtained off the upper deck, but then the arena was way too small.
And as someone else said, the Grizzlies were not coming to town until we built a new arena. So why would the Tigers stay in that screwed up building, with a new pro arena 2 miles away, in the middle of an entertainment area, as opposed to in the middle of an industrial area?
Because the exterior was "unique?" That was the damn problem. They simply screwed up the design, and there was no way to fix it, short of tearing it down and rebuilding it, or altering the walls where it no longer would look like a pyramid. Understand now?
(This post was last modified: 02-19-2016 08:38 AM by TripleA.)
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Opinion: Memphis should have stayed in the pyramid.
