Abandoned - Memphis Pyramid

[Music] what's up guys my name is jake and welcome to abandoned episode 60. when i was driving down to new orleans to shoot my feature documentary i stopped for a night in memphis tennessee we had a nice time but just down the road from our hotel was probably the most insane looking retail store i have ever seen that being the bass pro shops at the pyramid so of course i had to check it out before we left town and the entire time i was there i just couldn't understand how this thing got built because of course bass pro shop didn't build it so join me today as i figure out how this unbelievable monument became a reality and the ultimate downfall of a very ambitious project this is the great american pyramid otherwise known as the memphis pyramid it all began in the mid-1950s when a local artist envisioned a trio of massive steel pyramids alongside the mississippi river this was merely an ambitious dream at that point but it was so strange and so captivating that the idea would be resurrected over 30 years later with his son john brent hearts jon saw an opportunity in the growing tourism industry in the home of blues memphis tennessee at least to john was the perfect place to bring his father's weird idea back to life so by 1986 the project was officially announced it was dubbed the great american pyramid and its main function was to serve as a 20 000 seat basketball arena but there was so much more to it in early concepts of the project this proposed 330 foot high aluminum structure would be painted gold and according to the concept art would be located just south of the downtown core even at this early stage over 150 thousand dollars had been invested for a feasibility study as the project entered the approval stages of city planning many were enthusiastic though as the project was thought to have been a great location for sporting events and with its proposed rooftop hall of fame museum it could attract hundreds of thousands of tourists total costs were estimated at around 60 million dollars the vast majority of that being taxpayer money around 50 million dollars worth of city funds another 10 million dollars of private investment was also secured in 1989 the daily news journal published an article quoting sydney schlenker the lead construction manager he said quote i think it is the next great building that's been built since the houston astrodome what is being built here is a monument it's like the statue of liberty and the eiffel tower disney and mgm just built a park themed to movies and television this one will be themed to music and will be a similar operation so obviously optimism was pretty high among the people dealing with the project five thousand years ago the world trembled before the might of chiops pyramid soon there will be another occasion for awe soon mankind will be dazzled by a new wonder of the world from the banks of the mississippi across the oceans and continents and up to the heavens a vibrant message will ring out [Music] feel the power of the great american pyramid and with that everything was ready to go and construction began in september of 1989. after a very theatrical groundbreaking ceremony construction continued into the new decade and was completed in november of 1991. the owners saw this as a pretty strong start despite the accidental flooding in the basement the stadium portion seemed to have been working just fine but then again that's all that was built by opening day there was over 150 000 square feet of undeveloped space within the memphis pyramid this was for the promised music museum hard rock cafe and observation deck and those were just within the structure itself as a music theme park of sorts was planned for the adjacent mud island sydney schlenker claimed another 50 million dollars in what was apparently private capital would have to go into the construction project to finish these important projects however in june before the grand opening he was fired and his management company filed for bankruptcy as they were in 16 million dollars worth of debt despite this the owners began looking for tenants to fill the vacant space as progress was made getting the stadium filled regularly over the next decade the venue was fairly successful hosting 12 seasons of basketball the first and second rounds of the ncaa and was home to the university of memphis tigers it was the area's main stadium and saw notable players like michael jordan and kobe bryant but also a number of concerts were held at the pyramid with performances from huge artists like billy joel metallica guns and roses pearl jam bob dylan and many many more the memphis pyramid also played host to the iconic fight between lennox lewis and mike tyson an event that brought famous people from all over the world to memphis and the very unique venue it took place in arguably making that event the most iconic in memphis's history despite all of this notoriety though there were looming issues with the stadium while many praised the unique architecture that came along with the venue that unorthodox design for a stadium proved to be a bit of a challenge because of the enormous space above the stage in seats below the acoustics were an extra annoyance for crews for players in the nba the intimidating scale of the wide open space above gave the pyramid the nickname the tomb of doom additionally locals in the area were rather underwhelmed with the end product remember the great american pyramid that was being touted as the next wonder of the world a disney level attraction that would become the new iconic symbol for the midwest well general enthusiasm on the master project quickly fell apart as people began realizing that the taxpayer money helped fund the construction of a massive steel pyramid in the middle of the memphis tennessee the tourism aspect of the pyramid never got off the ground and essentially sat vacant and abandoned through this whole time by the early 2000s the city of memphis was looking to lure a professional nba team back to their city and more specifically into the pyramid as their home stadium the grizzlies were the main focus and the city secured a three-year contract with them while another 250 million arena was being built a mile south of the pyramid around 7 million was spent on updating the decade old event space getting it ready for a major nba team to play it the excitement for this however soon plummeted as once the team started playing there the facility began losing money by 2002 it was reported that the memphis pyramid lost around 200 thousand dollars mainly because in the agreement with the city the grizzlies kept all the ticket sales so just on rent alone from the team it wasn't enough to outweigh the losses especially after a notable decrease of events were held within the building by september the new stadium opened as the fedex forum and the grizzlies moved to it as planned this now meant the memphis pyramid was without any regular tenants and had been losing money at an alarming rate by now the city had been debating on whether or not they should just close it down entirely city council members argued the facility would cost them over 1.6 million dollars if it were to stay open others suggested a committee should look into alternative uses for the space and ultimately the vote came down to a tie this topic was very contentious but ultimately the city voted to keep it open however with a larger modern stadium literally a few blocks down a non-compete clause meant that the amount of events held at the pyramid would be limited by the mid-2000s the memphis pyramid was just used a few times out of the year eventually hosting its final events on february 3rd 2007 with bob seeker this was the official send-off immediately after the building was shuttered and abandoned indefinitely the interior was maintained as best as it could be as the city began seeking out other development opportunities one of which was from a rather odd potential buyer that being bass pro shops an outdoor retail chain that is best known for their ultra-themed superstores they officially unveiled their intentions to lease out the property and turn it into a mega retail store mixed with other entertainment activities they stated that over 75 million dollars would be invested to make their crazy idea a reality but talks were still ongoing with the city on the specifics of the deal progress was slow and during this the memphis pyramid continued to sit disused and abandoned the exterior of the weathered structure appeared unmaintained with crumbling concrete and foliage breaking through the cement entranceways clearly the building was in a limbo state yet still a pretty eye-catching landmark to anyone who isn't used to a massive abandoned steel pyramid in the middle of their city as if this whole saga wasn't strange enough i guess the immense oddity of the whole vacant building started stirring up conspiracies mainly and i swear i'm not making this up with alex jones claiming the building was cursed with bad luck from the developers who were in a cult and put a crystal skull on the top of the pyramid apparently it represents the new world order and the illuminati's subliminal messaging in the form of the memphis pyramid now obviously everything he claimed here is untrue apart from the skull yes so apparently in 1991 just after it opened a crystal skull was found welded at the very top allegedly put there by hard rock cafe ceo for good luck i guess yeah it's a bit weird and sort of makes you think if all hard rock cafes around the world have skulls welded behind their walls well regardless that weird fact ended up attracting a lot of other weird stuff with other wacky people thinking the building is some sort of satanic devil's palace they're literally talking nonsense but yeah it probably has something to do with religion anyways on june 30th 2010 bass pro shops announced they had reached a deal with the city with another 30 million dollars worth of taxpayer money invested into the new project over the course of the next two years the pyramid was gutted creating a concrete shell of the former 20 000 seat stadium the crumbling exterior walkways and entrance ways were also torn down during this time construction then began on the elaborately themed bass pro shop interior turning the inside of the former stadium into a wilderness adventure store on april 29th 2015 the bass pro shops at the pyramid officially opened to the public the final product that the brand ended up building was pretty insane considering what it was housed in the once hardwood floors of the basketball court had now been turned into an artificial swampland fitted with fake cypress trees and a sprawling water feature with the dock and boats among the actual fishing you can do a restaurant contained in its own building and even a bowling alley there is everything else you might expect to find in a bass pro shop but you can additionally practice your archery shoot some guns and walk through a museum about duck hunting the weirdness doesn't stop there however as surrounding the entire shopping floor is a hotel yes that's right for around 200 a night you can stay in the 103 room big cypress lodge which has most of the rooms looking down onto the shops below from the top looking down the shape of the former grandstands is still apparent as the concrete frames from those remain in place and were repurposed for the hotel speaking of the top the apex of the pyramid had finally been developed into a restaurant and bar surrounded by an observation deck bass pro shops actually extended the glass from the top and added two overhanging glass bottom balconies to which offer great views of memphis and the mississippi river to get up there you take the longest freestanding elevator in the world traveling up 28 floors directly up the middle of the structure after just four months over a million people had visited the shopping and entertainment complex but that's what's key here the entertainment and tourism draw the property has remember when it was all first conceived all of this was part of the plan a must-go-to destination filled with unique experiences contained in an unorthodox structure the stadium aspect was never meant to be the only draw however of course that's what ended up happening and on its own the memphis pyramid never worked the abandoned entertainment spaces remained untapped and the pyramid never became the iconic tourist attraction that so many thought it would have become at the end and adjusted for inflation over 130 million dollars of city funds had been invested into the project all for something that never really worked all that well nor did it achieve the whole point of building this weird structure not only that but it was also taxpayer money that helped fund another brand new stadium just on the other side of the city essentially sabotaging the temple of doom eventually however regardless of how strange it might be the bass pro shop inside the pyramid actually fulfilled what it was supposed to do with building out those unfinished areas and actually making visitors to the city curious on what on earth that enormous triangle is i know it did for me and as someone who really enjoys good theming and unique structures i really liked it and i think it has a long and prosperous future ahead of it but the bizarre history of this strange pyramid will always be intriguing to me and how it ultimately led to an outdoors retailer taking up perhaps the least american outdoorsy icon you can possibly imagine with every topic i cover on this channel there is always so much more to talk about and explore as of recently i've become more active on our subreddit our slash brights and films another less talked about branch of the community is our discord server one which i'll be spending a lot more time on and one you can join today via the link in the description below both of these platforms are fantastic ways to discuss and share interesting information with me and the community of course if you want to support the channel even further patreon has always been a great place for you to do that and get rewards thanks for the continued support and there is a lot on the way including closer storm anyway guys my name is jake and thank you very much for watching 1935 baby boy [Music] is [Music] 19 years old in memphis tennessee

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 2,699,070

Keywords: Memphis, Memphis Pyramid, Bass pro Shops, weird building, abandoned stadium, arena, NBA team, basketball, mike tyson fight, abandoned pyramid, theme park, never built, history, pramid, mempis, bright sun films, Jake williams, documentary, HD, family friendly, clean, 4K, 2020, 2021, 2022, update, Bass Pro Shop Pyramid, what is

Id: FEB-YG2iiYA

Length: 16min 21sec (981 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 05 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/misinformedmagician]

I really miss the OG Disney content, but that can only go so far.

It's cool. Definitely a great back catalog of stuff to go through. Jakes great.

[u/Nosedivelever]

Forbes has a good story about how this abandoned building came to be a Bass Pro shop. https://www.forbes.com/sites/joesills/2020/08/26/the-unbelievable-true-story-of-how-the-memphis-pyramid-became-a-bass-pro-shops/?sh=50cc010e2ffc