GEOFF CALKINS:

Fairgrounds needs clear vision for future, not memories of Coliseum’s past.

At the latest public forum to debate the future of the Fairgrounds, the organizers asked participants to write their “visions, dreams, hopes and ideas” on sticky notes.

There were sticky notes about skateboard parks and roller coasters. There were sticky notes about ice rinks and running tracks. There were sticky notes about late-night basketball and a wrestling museum and a man-made lake for fishing rodeos.

But most of the sticky notes concerned the MidSouth Coliseum. One neatly summed up the sentiments.

“Coliseum needs to keep open to bring back the good old days,” it said, which was both really sweet and really wrong.

The good old days are unfolding at FedExForum — and they are better than they’ve ever been. And while I admire the efforts of the small group that has tried to save the Mid-South Coliseum, it’s hard to imagine it will be a success.

We knock down old arenas in this country. Not because we have no regard for history or our memories, but because arenas are built for a very specific use.

Yankee Stadium — the house that Ruth built — was demolished. As was Tiger Stadium, as was the Kingdome. Texas Stadium, that iconic building with the hole in the roof, was given over to dynamite. So were Busch Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Fulton County Stadium and Ebbets Field.

You want basketball arenas, specifically? The same thing happens to those. Chicago Stadium was demolished. Boston Garden was replaced. St. Louis Arena, The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Market Square Arena (Indianapolis), HemisFair (San Antonio). All of those are gone.

Again, this isn’t because we are unsentimental or unappreciative. On the last night at Tiger Stadium, former Tiger great Kirk Gibson sat in the right upper deck as a fan.

“Because I came to the stadium as a fan, I wanted to go out as a fan,” he said. “It’s not a time to be sad, it’s a time to reflect about growth.”

FedExForum is growth. The Coliseum is three decades and two arenas ago. By all means, if there’s an economically feasible way to restore it and keep it operating, do that. But it’s hard to imagine what that would be.

At Wednesday’s public forum, most of the participants seemed to want it operated as an arena. But as an arena doing what?

High school basketball games and graduations don’t pay the bills. Wrestling has gone national. Concerts are a non-starter because of the Grizzlies’ noncompete clause, which gives the NBA franchise the right to block any events in a facility with more than 5,000 seats.

And, no, that noncompete clause will not and should not be renegotiated. Without it, the Grizzlies would not have agreed to take on the operating expenses of FedExForum, and the city could have been saddled with millions in annual losses.

The upshot of all this is that the Coliseum almost certainly will be demolished at some point. But that doesn’t begin to settle the Fairgrounds debate, generally.

Indeed, in many ways, the Coliseum issue has become an unfortunate distraction. The more important question is what to do with the huge swatch of land at the center of the city. And while I am skeptical about any real future for the Coliseum, I’m equally skeptical about the city’s ability to build and execute a youth sports complex that will draw kids from across the region and the country.

Do we really think Memphis can compete in that market with places like Orlando and Indianapolis? And is that what we even want for the city? To turn the Fairgrounds into ball fields built specifically for other people’s children?

In that respect, Wednesday’s public forum was instructive, even humbling. A couple hundred people turned out to talk about what they want for their city. They wrote on their sticky notes, and they scribbled their dreams on giant maps, and they talked about what might be possible.

They want museums and they want green space. They want trees and fountains and museums. They want safe places for their kids to play. They want cool stuff for Memphians.

It strikes me that if you look at the last couple of decades of development in this city, you can sort projects into what worked and what did not. The things that did not work — the Convention Center, the Pyramid, Mud Island, Beale Street Landing — were largely developed or inspired by the city. The things that worked — FedExForum, AutoZone Park, Overton Square, the Greenline, the zoo expansion, Shelby Farms, the Kroc Center — were largely developed or inspired by someone else.

This isn’t even a slam at the city, really. It’s just the nature of things. Ideas that grow organically, and are executed by people of passion, will tend to be more successful. It’s the difference between a committee recommendation and a dream.

Building a sports entertainment complex in the heart of Memphis has become another committee recommendation. Maybe this one will work out. But after a decade of looking for the right use for the Fairgrounds, my sense is that we have not found it yet.

To reach Geoff Calkins, call 901-529-2364 or e-mail calkins@ commercialappeal.com.