Tag: University of Memphis

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Football Stadium as Political Football

At his New Year’s Day prayer breakfast, Mayor Willie Herenton proposed that Memphis tear down Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and replace it with a new stadium at the Fairgrounds. Last Tuesday, the Memphis City Council received a consultant’s report on the feasibility of a new stadium and promptly voted to delay further discussion of it until December. Two days later, the University of Memphis announced that it would do its own feasibility study of an on-campus stadium.

Here is a “progress report” on the stadium proposal for the last nine months.

Date: January 1, 2007

Theme: “On the Wall,” the title of the mayor’s breakfast speech.

Venue: Press conference after breakfast at Memphis Cook Convention Center.

Handout: Six stapled pages of color pictures of pro and college football stadiums in Charlotte, Detroit, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Louisville.

Cost estimate: $63 million (Louisville) to $300 million (Detroit).

Research/professionalism: College student hoping for a C grade.

Supporting cast: University of Memphis’ R.C. Johnson and Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Kevin Kane.

Big idea: Replace rather than refurbish the Liberty Bowl.

Reaction: Say what?

Date: February 20, 2007

Theme: “Project Nexus: Fairgrounds Master Plan and New Stadium Proposal.”

Venue: Lobby of City Hall.

Handout: Four-page press release and 40-page report.

Cost estimate: $150 million to $185 million.

Research/professionalism: Five-figure consulting job, with PowerPoint style.

Supporting cast: Various directors and mayoral staff.

Big idea: Economic development with fiscal restraint. No property taxes.

Reaction: In the Flyer, U of M booster Harold Byrd pushes for on-campus stadium.

Date: September 18, 2007

Theme: “Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Development Options.”

Venue: City Council committee room.

Handout: 136-page report.

Cost estimate: $21 million for renovation to $217 million for new stadium.

Research/professionalism: Six-figure consulting job, with footnotes.

Supporting cast: Chief financial officer Robert Lipscomb.

Big idea: Report covers all the bases but was “edited” before release.

Reaction: Put it away until December, two months after election.

Meanwhile, on September 15th, the Tigers defeated Jacksonville State before an estimated 28,000 fans at the 62,000-seat Liberty Bowl Stadium. Last Saturday, the Tigers traveled to Orlando to play Central Florida, which has a new on-campus 45,000-seat stadium with no public drinking fountains. Memphis lost 56-20 before a full house.

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News

Former Tiger and NFL Star Reggie Howard Returns to Memphis With a Mission

The only man to intercept a Tom Brady pass in a Super Bowl, former Memphis Tiger defensive back Reggie Howard, is back in Memphis to make a difference following his retirement from the National Football League.

Howard starred at Kirby High School and walked-on at the University of Memphis, where he suffered a broken neck in a game against Alabama-Birmingham. He made the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent in 2000 and left the team during training camp this year.

Howard and his wife Artesia returned to his hometown and launched the Reggie Howard Foundation with a mission to provide activities that build leadership skills and self-confidence to area youth.

The foundation will host a charitable concert September 28th at the Botanic Gardens, with proceeds going to Memphis City Schools.

For more information, visit the foundation’s website.

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Sports Sports Feature

Will UM/UCF Game Be All Wet?

University of Central Florida will host the University of Memphis in their brand-new stadium on Saturday. Will our city officials be paying attention? You can bet theirs will be, as a situation with opening-day concessions has caused an uproar.

From the Orlando Sentinel: “UCF President John Hitt today blasted the concession contractor at Bright House Networks Stadium for failing to stock enough bottled water for sale at last Saturday’s inaugural game, saying the firm must do better ‘or their successor will.’

Fans were angered when bottled water ran out during the third quarter of last week’s game. There were no public water fountains installed at the stadium. Officials plan to ramp up the number of bottles — from 30,000 to 135,000 — to be sold for this week’s game and to have at least 10 water fountains working.

To read more, go here.

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News The Fly-By

UniverCity

CREDIT: Courtesy University of Memphis

Like many of its students, the University of Memphis has big dreams.

According to its master plan, the university would like to build an impressive alumni center — with a lush, sprawling lawn — on Highland between Watauga and Midland avenues. The center would serve as the school’s “front door” to the community. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t own that property.

But a new state-funding plan will make it easier for the university to achieve its dream. Under a bank line of credit, the state will make $7 million available to the school immediately to buy property targeted under the university’s master plan. Only $4 million can be used at any one time.

“In the past, whenever the university wanted to expand, we had to purchase properties using cash on hand,” says Teresa Hartnett, director of administration and business analysis for the school. “This will allow us to purchase properties when they become available, rather than turn down prospective sellers because we don’t have the cash.”

Even though the credit line was announced last week, the university isn’t wasting time. The paperwork already is under way to acquire several nearby single-family homes.

“There’s been a demand on the part of the sellers to move forward,” Hartnett says. “We’ve been in discussions with them for the past few months.”

As part of the university’s master plan, presented last fall, the school wants to add pedestrian tunnels under Central Avenue — where vehicular traffic doesn’t always stop — and under Southern and Walker avenues — where trains often do.

In addition, the Park Avenue campus near Getwell, formerly called the South Campus, will be home to a new speech and hearing center and the nursing school.

But perhaps the most significant change will be west of the main campus. The university wants to add a new music center, more student housing, and the alumni center, all located west of Patterson and east of Highland. And in a bit of synergy between town and gown, the University Neighborhood Development Corporation has an intertwining plan for Highland.

According to the Highland Street Master Plan, “the very best college towns embody a close symbiotic relationship between the town and the college. A university rarely supports all the services that its population might require on a day-to-day basis, and a small downtown can thrive on the built-in clientele found on a college campus.”

The community’s plan would turn Highland into the area’s “Main Street.”

“The front door of the university used to be near the railroad tracks,” says Melissa Pearce, president of the University District Initiative (UDI). “Instead of going to Poplar, they’re bringing it home and putting it on Highland.”

The proposed location of the alumni center seems to be an almost symbolic change in attitude between town and gown relations. Pearce, a resident of the university area for 12 years, says the last two administrations have welcomed community involvement. The UDI, for example, includes two representatives from each of the seven neighborhoods surrounding the university, two representatives from the school itself, and two from the business community.

“There’s no more, ‘we’re going to wall up the university to the outside world,'” Pearce says. “Instead it’s, ‘we’re going to invite them in.'”

When Pearce first moved to the area, people told her it was a “dead zone.”

“Highland has been overlooked for decades, and it shows,” she says. “When we’re through, Highland will be incredible.”

She thinks the proposed changes to Highland will be hard for some people to get used to but are ultimately needed.

“The most important part of the community plan is the positive impact it will have on Highland and thus the surrounding residential areas,” Pearce says. “We’re trying to incorporate the new and the old, so you don’t lose the history of the area, but you don’t keep things you know need to go.”

And, with the new state funding, students and nearby residents might start seeing changes sooner than later.

“It will allow us to acquire the properties in a reasonable amount of time,” Hartnett says of the state’s line of credit. “We can achieve the goals of the master plan without having to wait 20 years to purchase a piece of land here and a piece of land there.”

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Coming to America

The lives, struggles, and humanity of people from every part of the world have come to the University of Memphis.

Their stories arrived with “Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America,” a multi-media art exhibit originating from immigrants living in the New York City borough of Queens. The result of years of work by Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan, “Crossing the BLVD” captures the energy and personality of these new Americans.

“I find the show incredibly compelling,” said Leslie Luebbers, director of the Art Museum at the U of M. “The show vividly presents portraits of people as thoughtful, funny, hopeful, durable beings who live in two cultures: the past and the rapidly changing present.”

Brief stories and scenes of everyday life accompany portraits of the immigrants who now call New York City home. Headsets hang among the pictures, giving visitors a chance to hear these stories first-hand, and a mobile story booth allows them to contribute their own stories (or those of their families) to the collection. There is a touch screen database for deeper investigation.

On Saturday, September 8th, Lehrer and Sloan will bring “Crossing the BLVD” to life. Lehrer will serve as tour guide, while Sloan will take on the roles of immigrants and refugees.

“Crossing the BLVD” not only illustrates the trials of immigrants but also the cultures they bring with them.

“Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America” at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis through November 10th. Performance by Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan on the Main Stage in the Theatre & Communication Building, Saturday, September 8th, at 8 p.m. free.

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News The Fly-By

Road Trip

Memphis is already home to two biodiesel manufacturers: Milagro Biofuels and Memphis Biofuels. But by next year, the University of Memphis will be making its own biodiesel — and this unit will be on wheels.

The school recently won a $99,000 state grant to make a mobile biodiesel mini-manufacturing unit. The small plant will be taken to area high schools and events to demonstrate how biodiesel is made.

“We’re hoping to advance the manufacture of biodiesel while informing the public,” says John Hochstein, engineering department chair. Biodiesel is a clean-burning fuel produced from renewable resources such as soybean oil, cottonseed oil, and even animal fat. It produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than regular diesel.

The idea for the grant stemmed from one of professor Srikant Gir’s engineering classes, in which students worked together to build a very small biodiesel unit.

“The system the students put together is very nice, but it puts out fuel on a small scale. We’re talking maybe a quart at a time,” Gir says.

But the unit inspired Gir to find funding for a larger, mobile unit.

Once the mobile unit is complete, on-campus cafeterias will donate used vegetable oil to the engineering department. Part of the grant also funds testing equipment so the university can ensure the fuel it produces is suitable for use in vehicles. After the fuel has undergone testing, it will be used in university vehicles.

“We’re not making this to sell on the open market,” Hochstein says. “We’re just trying to make a closed loop on campus. It’s both economically and environmentally positive for the university.”

Andrew Couch, a biofuels advocate with the West Tennessee Clean Cities Coalition, says the mobile facility will create a first generation of college-educated workers with specialties in biodiesel.

“People are going to have a better understanding of what biofuels are before they get jobs working at biofuels plants,” Couch says. “Most people now working in biofuels have come from other process technologies, like chemical plants or food plants. In the future, we’ll have workers who have worked with biofuels in college.”

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Branch Office

CREDIT: Silberschuh9875 | dreamstime.com

For a lot of people, art is a mysterious, half-smiling woman without eyebrows. For Catherine Blackwell, art also includes a tea party at a compost pile.

On Saturday, July 14th, Blackwell, a Memphis College of Art graduate student, will unveil her latest work at the Memphis Botanic Garden. But “Fallen From View” does not incorporate traditional pieces of art. Instead, Blackwell will lead a series of environmental tours on Saturday mornings and Tuesday evenings. As she explains, “The tour itself will be the artwork.”

Consisting of several stops, each tour will last approximately 45 minutes. Blackwell will talk about the environment, touching on topics such as invasive plant species and tree diseases caused by global warming.

The tour ends with a tea party near a compost pile, something Blackwell calls “totally ironic.”

Blackwell realizes that her idea of art might raise a few eyebrows.

“It’s very nontraditional, and I welcome debate on whether it’s art at all,” she says. “I’m all for discourse. I’m trying to offer lots of vantage points to let people make up their own minds on environmental issues.”

Blackwell will lead day and night tours, with the latter showing something people rarely see: the Botanic Garden after hours.

Blackwell says, “I hope my tour will allow people to understand the environment a little more. Information is half the battle.”

“Fallen from View,” Memphis Botanic Garden, Saturday tours at 10 a.m. Tuesday tours at 9 p.m. July 14th-August 28th (no tour on August 18th). $2. For more information, call 576-4100.

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Editorial Opinion

Be Judicious

That’s our advice to the Shelby County Commission and to other would-be guardians of the public mores a propos past, present, and future excesses of the city’s adult-entertainment industry. We certainly applaud the action of the commission last week in voting to send topless-club entrepreneur Steve Cooper a strong message that his proposed “Italian restaurant” will be held to strict zoning requirements.

These would seemingly preclude the facility’s conversion into yet another “adult” club — this one set smack dab in the middle of suburban Cordova, in close proximity to churches, schools, and other established community venues. The windowless concrete-walled facility, now under construction, bears little resemblance to your usual rustic Italian villa, and suspicions of Cooper’s motives seem entirely justifiable, especially in view of the fact that his son has publicly confided his father’s ultimate intent to convert the building into a topless club.

We are not so certain, however, of the wisdom of another initiative coming before the commission — this one from Mike Ritz, a normally thoughtful member, who has, among other things, advised a moderate approach to the pending establishment of a second Juvenile Court.

A key provision of Ritz’s proposed ordinance would, in effect, end the sale and consumption of alcohol at strip clubs and at other adult-entertainment facilities. Memphis police director Larry Godwin has expressed concern about the proposed measure, and we, too have our doubts. It would seem to us that enough laws already exist to limit excessive behavior at the clubs — it is these, after all, that resulted in the recent series of arrests — and an ordinance as strict as the one proposed could have a dampening effect not only on free expression per se but (let us tell it like it is) on the city’s convention trade.

Tiger Baseball

Memphis-area sports fans are normally well-informed about the progress — or lack of same — of the University of Memphis’ major athletic teams. In the case of the basketball Tigers, we all know that Coach John Calipari’s team got into the Elite Eight of the NCAA tourney this spring and has been picked by several astute observers as the team to beat for the collegiate season to come.

It is needless to say, too, that the football team that has generally done well under Coach Tommy West, going to three consecutive bowl games, had a down season last year and that we (and West) can only hope for better things come fall.

What many of us may not have been paying proper attention to, however, is the fact that the university has a baseball team that is suddenly vying for attention and respect with the Tigers’ pigskin and roundball contingents. Coach Daren Schoenrock’s team survived a late-season slump to win a bid as one of just 64 teams invited to compete in this year’s NCAA baseball tournament.

Despite complaints from the other end of the state (where the Vols failed to get a bid), the Tigers have managed to win the respect of the collegiate baseball world — this at a time when NCAA baseball, as a prime feeder of Major League Baseball, is rapidly achieving enhanced stature in its own right.

It’s nice having something else to growl about.

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News The Fly-By

Leafing for Good

CREDIT: Karen Schaber

Maybe, as local architect Lee Askew put it the other day, Memphians simply can’t see the forest for the trees. Literally.

Though residents may not notice just how many trees grow in Memphis, visitors are often
surprised at how green the city is. Maurice Cox, a former mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, and associate professor of architecture at the University of Virginia, was certainly surprised. “This seems like a city within a park,” he said.

Cox and Askew were two panelists at the University of Memphis’ “Urban Design and Placemaking: A Dialogue for Change” symposium last week. Held in connection with the university’s Turley Fellowship (created last year by developer and Flyer board member Henry Turley), the symposium brought local leaders together with experts from Harvard and the cities of Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Nashville to start a dialogue about placemaking in Memphis.

“Every building has to be understood as a building block of the community,” said J. Stroud Watson, an architect in Chattanooga. “The streets, the sidewalks, parks, and plazas are all public space, but the buildings are what frame it.”

During a day-long discussion, the panelists spoke on a variety of topics, including the importance of building structures that can be used for more than one purpose, both for the sake of the physical environment and the city’s collective psyche.

“Yesterday we were shown a historic building that the developer wasn’t sure could be saved,” said Cox. “I was looking at a building that I know can be saved and is the very embodiment of the downtown fabric.”

According to Ann Coulter, the visiting Turley Fellow and the driving force behind the symposium, the panel did not have a set goal when it began. “We didn’t want to hem in the discussion,” she said. “The focus is not just on what you do, but how you do it.”

Recently, in partnership with neighborhood groups, the University of Memphis launched the University District Initiative to address social, health, urban design, and safety issues in the neighborhoods surrounding the school.

“I crossed the street yesterday to go to the Holiday Inn,” said panelist William McFarland, director of the Atlanta Renewal Community Coordinating Responsibility Authority. “[We’re] on a college campus?! It was frightening.”

Even though only 10 percent of students live on campus, the University of Memphis has tried to create an environment that doesn’t shout “commuter college.” The school doesn’t want students to feel like they could simply drive up to their classes. But that perhaps has created a sea of parking lots surrounding the campus, which, to some of the panel, isolated the school from the rest of the city.

“Universities have a way of weakening and collapsing the neighborhoods around them. No one wants to live near loud parties,” said Askew. “There used to be houses from here to Poplar. Now there’s a parking lot.”

But if there’s a time for change, it’s now. “These were professional observers, and they saw it immediately,” said Coulter. “The panelists from out of town commented over and over how the timing is right. The city is ready. The university is ready. The development community is ready. Everyone’s really excited about the opportunities they see.”

Coulter said the group is first taking time to reflect — and to transcribe all the comments — before they decide their next steps. I hope it somehow includes Cox’s idea of Memphis as a city within a park.

I’ve heard enough people mention the city’s wonderful tree canopy to think that Memphis may be overlooking an untapped opportunity.

Frank Ricks, principal of Looney Ricks Kiss Architects, mentioned that he has heard that one of the main reasons people leave Memphis is a lack of recreational activities. But maybe the city needs to frame the question — or the answer — better.

“Instead of wishing for mountains or an ocean,” added Askew, “we should see what we have.”

What if the city committed to the vision of a city inside a park? What would it be like to live in a uniformly lush, yet urban environment? Would people feel more inclined to visit Memphis? It may be last week’s Earth Day talking, but tree-lined streets seem marketable to me. Especially as the country becomes more urban.

A group of arborists and activists recently approached the City Council about applying for the Tree City, U.S.A. program, a designation that says a city commits to a certain level of tree management.

Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee to not have this designation. The administration didn’t make any promises — cities have to spend a certain amount on tree maintenance each year — but it could be a good first step.

Especially if it would mean turning a concrete jungle into an urban forest.

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Talk About It

CREDIT: Denis Pepin | Dreamstime.com

How ’bout them Tigers? Will the recruiting class be good next year? And the Liberty Bowl, what to make of that?

Chances are, you probably don’t know the half of it, and that’s where the Sports Marketing Association comes in. The association is part of the University of Memphis’ Sports and Leisure Commerce graduate program, and every spring its members organize a lecture series on issues in college athletics. The five-part series started last month with a discussion on the Liberty Bowl, which drew about 300 people and featured a panel with city councilperson Carol Chumney, the Liberty Bowl’s Steve Ehrhardt, U of M booster Harold Byrd, and other interested parties. The next talk, on Friday, April 6th, is titled “Division I College Recruiting: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Coach Jimmy Adams, head boys’ basketball coach at Raleigh-Egypt High School, Coach Jay Bowen, the U of M’s assistant women’s basketball coach, and Dr. Joe Luckey, director of the U of M’s Center of Athletic Academic Services, are among the panelists.

According to association member Ryan Luttrell, while there will be plenty of sports talk, the series is not designed to be a debate. When it looks like the discussion may get heated, as it did a couple times during the Liberty Bowl talk, the association members, who serve as moderators, will put the talk back on track. “We want it to be academic,” Luttrell says. “We want experts to get up there and present different ideas. The audience can decide for themselves.”

Issues in College Sports Lecture Series: “Division I College Recruiting: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Ball Hall, Room 124, University of Memphis. Friday, April 6th, 4:30 p.m. Open to the public.