John Branston, as usual, has written a provocative article, this time with insight on Bass Pro Shop. Here's the link.
Bass Pro or a theme park - both feel once again like Memphis is chasing yesterday's big idea. When you get in on the tail end of a trend, well, you are on the tail end.
What if we actually concentrated on inventing our own next big idea?
Part of our problem with all of this is that we began with the wrong question. It shouldn't have been: how do we fill up The Pyramid with a tenant, but rather, what should we do with the building and/or the site that makes the most sense for a city that desperately needs more vibrancy, more ambition, more talent, more innovation and more entrepreneurship?
When you ask the wrong question, you inevitably come up with the wrong answer. And that's what Bass Pro Shop feels like to us.
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5 comments:
Precisely! Which is why we would like to have the skate park on Mud Island before the next decade. It's a 40 year trend and it continues to gain momentum. It's decline is unlikely.
Another emerging trend that Memphis may identify in a few more decades are indoor wave pools. Ron Jon in Florida has put 3+ years research into developing a perfect wave indoors. Keep an eye on when they open this spring. Their membership base is sold out.
Here is the biggest waterpark in the world ...http://www.sunway.com.my/lagoon/index.asp
The CA did a whole story last week on this emerging trend. But the key is in having the wavepool. If the activity is not highly addictive then the trend remains a trend rather then becoming a permanently adopted mainstream activity. But then hey , I am a bit biased having been addicted to surfing for the last 25+ years. It's been cold turkey in Memphis!
Then again fishing is rather addicting so maybe BPS has a chance. I had to really resist some puns there...
Aaron:
We want to return to the subject of the skate park in the coming days. In the meantime, we hope every one is keeping up with the latest developments on your website. The badly-needed skate park, at $3 million, will do more to address the qualities that we cited in our post than the $100 million of Bass Pro Shop.
Skate park link: http://skateparkformemphis.blogspot.com/
In my opinion, it is a great idea to create a new skate park in Memphis because a skate park is an area where young people are able to meet, talk and have fun together. People interact with each other in these parks so it prevents them from playing computer games or watching TV eight hours a day or doing other stupid things.
How about a million small ideas that could one day be big ideas, rather than one big bloated idea? Or the only big idea is the support of a million small ideas? A place where 100 people meet to figure out the NEXT BIG IDEA and expect the other 800,000 to wait passively for it will not develop a culture of vibrancy, ambition, talent, entrepeneurship, innovation, or creativity.
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