For more than five decades, the University of Memphis football program played in a stadium — the Liberty Bowl, now called Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium — at least 50 percent too large for its fan base. A healthy crowd of 40,000 on a fall Saturday would be framed by 20,000 empty, concrete seats. On the heels of the greatest decade in the program’s history (and at a cost of more than $200 million), the stadium is being redesigned and will feel cozier — with a smaller capacity — and more modern when the Tigers take the field this fall.
Alas, we now have University of Memphis basketball at FedExForum. Even under the guidance of a certifiable Memphis icon — head coach Penny Hardaway — the Tigers are playing their games in front of more empty seats than human beings. Tigers games averaged fewer than 7,000 fans in 2024-25, a season that ended with Memphis in the NCAA tournament (and with a second-team All-America in uniform). This winter, it’s been even gloomier. A pair of gigantic black drapes dangle from the rafters, blocking the arena’s upper deck on the north and south sides, an attempt at minimizing the bad look. It hasn’t worked.
I’ve been at games that tipped off with sections of the lower bowl almost entirely empty. These are premium seats for Division I basketball. More painful for longtime Memphians: These are premium seats for Memphis Tigers basketball. This is an institution that galvanized this town long before there was such a thing as AutoZone Park or a Memphis Grizzly. Long before the Tigers football team started going to bowl games with regularity. Also, it should be said, long before digital media provided ways to consume basketball without so much as leaving one’s bedroom, let alone one’s house.
Something must be done. The current arrangement is not healthy for FedExForum management, U of M athletics, Hardaway, or the players who choose to play for the Tigers. And it’s not healthy for the still-devoted fans who choose to spend their money and time by attending games.
There are times I fantasize about the Mid-South Coliseum being brought back to life. Attendance at Larry Finch’s old barn maxed out at 11,000. Current attendance trends would still breathe life into a smaller arena, but no meaningful basketball game has been played under that silver dome since 1991. If you think reconfiguring the Liberty Bowl was problematic, you might double the concerns over the seating, plumbing, and bones of that once-loved gym. (Among my happiest Memphis sports memories are RiverKings hockey games at the Mid-South Coliseum. Small arenas enhance the communal experience of cheering the home team. Or booing the bad guys.)
If not FedExForum, though, where might the Tigers play? Elma Roane Fieldhouse sits on the U of M campus, but can seat only 2,500. You scoff, but look at the picture above. It would have been tight on February 8th, but could have worked.
The dwindling attendance comes at a time when college basketball teams are as good as the money they can pay their players. Whether NIL (name/image/likeness) or directly from the athletic department, cash pays for contenders, and fewer ticket sales mean fewer dollars to spend. Hardaway’s job is harder today than it was when he took the gig in 2018. Building a roster for long-term success? That’s so 2010. What kind of talent can you attract in the transfer portal for next season, and can you pay them enough to stay?
It’s been a forgettable season for Tigers basketball. The program is staring at its first losing season since 1999-2000, and its most losses in 56 years. Here’s hoping brighter, louder, more crowded days are ahead. The program, the city, and a still-loyal fan base deserve better. The days of black drapes must end.