Venue: FedExForum
Town: Tennessee, US
Capacity: 18,119

FedExForum is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. It is the home of the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the NCAA Division I men's basketball program of the University of Memphis, both of whom previously played home games at the Memphis Pyramid. The venue also has the capability of hosting ice hockey games, concerts, and family shows. The arena officially opened in September 2004 after much debate and also a derecho wind storm on July 22, 2003, that nearly brought down the cranes that were building it near the famed Beale Street. It was built at a cost of US$250 million and is owned by the City of Memphis; naming rights were purchased by one of Memphis's best-known businesses, FedEx, for $92 million. FedExForum was financed using $250 million of public bonds, which were issued by the Memphis Public Building Authority (PBA). Before FedExForum was built, Memphis' primary indoor entertainment venue had been The Pyramid, built in 1991. However, when city officials sought to lure either the Vancouver Grizzlies or Charlotte Hornets to Memphis, they discovered that the Pyramid was already obsolete as a potential NBA venue despite being only 10 years old. Retrofitting the Pyramid to NBA standards of the time would have not only been prohibitively expensive, but would have also required shuttering the arena for an entire season. When the Grizzlies moved to Memphis for the 2001-02 season, they temporarily shared the Pyramid with the Memphis Tigers men's basketball team while a new arena was being built. FedExForum was designed by architectural firm Ellerbe Becket. Concrete work done with the help of Dowco Construction and Apac. The arena is 805,850 ft2 (75,000 m2) in size, covering 14 acres (57,000 m2). The Arena is round, with a dome. The playing floor is lower than ground level. It is capable of seating 18,119 for basketball and has 1,000 premiere courtside seats. There are 27 courtside suites, 32 club suite