Anyone familiar with the Memphis area, whether living near or driving through, has seen the distinctive Pyramid arena. The facility was built in the early 90s, mainly to house basketball games and concerts.When the Grizzlies came to town they were promised a new stadium and they got it--the Fed Ex Forum. The other main Pyramid user, the University of Memphis Tigers basketball team, also made the switch, leaving the facility to collect cobwebs.
Many ideas have been discussed about what to do with this partially-taxpayer funded white elephant, but one of the more bizarre ideas was to turn the place into a giant Bass Pro Shops outlet. Looks like that dog just might hunt:
Bass Pro Shops has reached an agreement in principle to convert The Pyramid into an outdoors mega-store.Jeff Foxworthy, what say you?!
This agreement doesn't guarantee the store will become reality, but is a step toward a formal development agreement, city chief financial officer Robert Lipscomb said Wednesday.
2 comments:
I saw no reason that the UM basketball team couldn't keep playing in the Pyramid. When it opened in 1991, I was excited to go to games there. The acoustics were excellent!
I was home for the holidays, but I didn't get a chance to go to a Grizzlies game at the FedEx Forum, so I'm not qualified to remark on it. It looks great on TV.
But I did wonder: are Memphians still paying for the Pyramid, despite the fact that no one's using it for anything these days? My dad said "Yes." How pitiful.
It needs to be used as something if the taxpayers are going to be subsidizing it. But a Bass Pro Shops? My dad will be thrilled, since he's an avid bass fisherman. Still, the Pyramid as a Bass Pro Shop is definitely weird.
Remember Sidney Schlenker? I believe he passed away not so long ago. He was really a persona non gratis around here after the Pyramid was built.
And let's not even go into that NFL team fiasco...
Still, seems like mayor Willie could have come up with a better plan. Guess it's better than another casino.. we'll have to see.
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