(07-07-2017 10:45 AM)FlyingTiger2016 Wrote: (07-07-2017 10:34 AM)FlyingTiger2016 Wrote: (07-07-2017 10:29 AM)FlyingTiger2016 Wrote: (07-07-2017 08:32 AM)FlyingTiger2016 Wrote: (07-06-2017 08:47 PM)ncrdbl1 Wrote: Hear is an idea. Get with the city and CBU and have a .City/U of M/CBU parking garage build on central. Partially paid for by the city partly by UofM and partly by CBU.
Will allow for more parking year round for the students at CBU and then give more parking for football fans during games at the LBS. It could also be used for the Children's museum. Give CBU a parking pass and then charge for the general public.
CBU doesn't have any money. Their endowment is less than a third of ours, and they completely rely on tuition to keep the doors open. If they don't get enrollment up they will end up like Lambuth and the numerous other small colleges that have gone under. [1]
We would have to foot the entire bill, when we already have serious parking issues on the main campus. And honestly, we compete for the same students, and not to mention the same pool of donations.
I believe. We should give the fairgrounds completely to the University and start a public-private partnership with local companies and start an innovation campus with local companies like what Wichita State has done. [2]
There would be huge demand for class A office space in Midtown.
[1] - https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015...riple-2017
[2] - http://wsuinnovationcampus.org/
Speaking of WSU, their Innovation Campus is organised through a partnership called WSU Ventures. [1]
Memphis announced a new company called UofM Ventures this week. [2]
[1] - http://www.wsuventures.org/
[2] - https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news...erson.html
This article sheds a bit more light on what's going on with the fairgrounds. [1]
They want to run the fairgrounds like Shelby Farms, with a private board. In theory this is fine, but it matters who is on it. I don't know who the Friends of the Fairgrounds (FOTF) are, but I would be concern if people are pushing back.
[1] - https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news...posal.html
Yeah. I don't know about these guys. [1] Looks like a real estate developer is AstroTurfing. Who knows.
[1] - http://www.fairgroundsfriends.org/
I was involved in the stakeholder meetings of the Friends of the Fairgrounds group, and they are an extremely diverse group of civic leaders, residents to the north, south, east & west of the LB, and business owners who want to see that area go to its best use. It's not a developer. The group actually grew from concerned citizens pushing back when the city was trying to force the Lipscomb plan down everyone's throats.
Reps from the Liberty Bowl (the building as well as the game), as well as other entities have been present at past meetings. I never saw Jones, although he may have been at a couple I had to miss.
IMO, the area needs to be developed into something that serves the residents of the area - you have Cooper-Young, Chickasaw Gardens, Orange Mound and the Beltline all right there, and all areas were well-represented during discussions. Don't make it solely a tourist attraction - make it an area the locals want to come to, and the tourists will follow.
At any rate, Jones is flat-out wrong here. An empty area 3/4 of the year is NOT the best use for the area, nor does not having more parking dissuade attendance.
Memphis in general needs to get out of this mindset of needing a parking space for every single seat in a place, and that it needs to be within a 5 minute walk.
As for expanding the LB itself, I think that's a pretty dumb idea at this point unless there's a desire to do it for something other than concerts. I'm going to Nashville this weekend to see the US Men's National Soccer team play at Nissan Stadium, so if they're courting year-round events like these, then maybe expansion makes sense, but again, those are few & far between.