Good morning, Memphis! ☀️
It's a big-numbers kind of Thursday.
$226.5 million in stadium upgrades, finishing just in time
$50 million for the zoo, the biggest gift in 120 years
112 feet of bronze saint, headed for Eads
76 high school football schedules, all on one page
Five theatre seasons, opening all at once
$3 for a beer at Liberty Stadium on Aug. 8
That last one is not a big number. It is, however, a good number.
Let's get into it.
🐘 The Zoo Just Got the Biggest Gift in Its 120-Year History
Memphis Zoo
Diane Smith and the family of late FedEx founder Fred Smith are giving the Memphis Zoo $50 million. There's just one condition.
🤝 Double or nothing. The gift is a match. Before the family's money is fully unlocked, the zoo has to raise $50 million on its own. It's the largest gift in the zoo's 120 years, and it's part of a fundraising push the zoo already had underway.
🦁 Africa first. The money starts phase one of a full campus makeover, beginning with a rebuilt Africa exhibit — home to the zoo's elephants.
💰 The Smiths have backed the zoo for more than 30 years, including a $10 million gift in 2006 that built the Teton Trek grizzly habitat. And this is their second $50 million check to a Memphis landmark: the same family helped fund the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium project you can walk into on Aug. 8.
Read more about the campaign here.
Music
🎸 Stars and Guitars Returns to Minglewood Hall
Stars and Guitars
Stars and Guitars is back at Minglewood Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Radio station 99.7 The Wolf throws this benefit show every year, but this time the lineup rocks a little harder.
🎤 Unplugged and up close. Brent Smith and Zach Myers of Shinedown lead the bill. They're joined by The Band Perry and songwriter Greylan James. One more act will be named later. Everyone plays acoustic, on one stage, for one night only.
💜 Playing for the kids. The show raises money for Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Doors open at 5:30 PM and music starts at 7. The event is for all ages, and standing room only seating.
Get tickets here.
Sports
🏈 New Coach, New Stadium, One Month Until Tigers Football
Liberty Stadium / Barton Malow
Memphis opens the season Aug. 29 at UNLV. That's the first game for new head coach Charles Huff. It's also crunch time for a $226.5 million stadium project.
🎉 Free look at Liberty Stadium. Memphis Tigers Fan Fest is Saturday, Aug. 8. Gates open at 3 PM and parking is free. You'll be able to watch a real practice, then meet players and coaches for a 35-minute autograph session. Beers are $3. The first 1,500 fans get a free jersey, and there's a kids zone that opens at 2 PM.
🏟️ Big screens, big plans. The $226.5 million makeover of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium is almost finished. New this year: a 47-by-114-foot video board, a 284-foot ribbon board, surround sound, and color-changing lights.
🎟️ Cheaper than last year. Season tickets start at $99. That's $50 less than last season, or under $17 a game. A three-game plan starts at $60.
See the full schedule and get tickets here.
Theatre
🎭 Memphis Theatre's 2026–2027 Seasons Are Here
Theatre Memphis
Five stages, five seasons. Here's what's up next across the city:
Orpheum. Tony winner SUFFS takes the stage this weekend, July 31–Aug 2. The full 2026–2027 season starts Sept. 15 with Clue, kicking off a year of 10 shows.
Theatre Memphis. The season opens Aug. 14 with The Music Man on the Lohrey Stage, running through Sept. 6. Million Dollar Quartet and a 49th A Christmas Carol follow this fall.
Hattiloo. Season 20 starts Aug. 14, with Speak, Salvation, Speak, a new play by founder Ekundayo Bandele starring Harry Lennix (The Blacklist, the Matrix movies). In October, companies from Norway, Nigeria and South Africa take the stage.
Playhouse on the Square. Already rolling: its 58th season opened July 10 with Your Romeo. Mean Girls The Musical is up next, Aug. 21–Sept. 13.
Bartlett Performing Arts Center. All 18 shows for the 2026-2027 season are on sale now. The season opens Sept. 25 with Tennessee Shakespeare Company, then brings in Brittney Spencer and Matilda the Musical later this year.
Browse the full seasons: Orpheum, Theatre Memphis, Hattiloo, Playhouse on the Square and Bartlett.
Daily Picks
🗞️ Other News Around the 901
🍰 Cheap flight. It's National Cheesecake Day, and DVOUR Desserts is doing $20 cheesecake flights today (usually $34). A flight is four slices, and DVOUR rotates new flavors in every week, so what's in the case today may not be there next month. Both shops are in: 523 S. Main St. Downtown and 175 Goodman Rd. W. in Southaven.
💘 Next slide, please. A singles night called Love at First Slide hits MFS Brewing on Saturday, Aug. 1, and yes — people will pitch themselves to the room using actual PowerPoint decks. Check-in is at 7 PM, presentations start at 7:30, and it goes till 10. Organizers want 10 men and 10 women, all single 30-somethings, so you have to apply ahead of time. Presenters get three to five minutes and a template to work from. Green flags, red flags and hobbies are encouraged.
🍢 Come hungry, stay put. A big traveling food festival called FoodieLand is coming to Tiger Lane at Liberty Park from Aug. 21–23. Think 250-plus food vendors, live music and games. Buy tickets online ahead of time, because they don't sell tickets at the gate. Kids 5 and under are free. And once you leave, you can't get back in, so pace yourself.
⚾ Vol to Tiger. A former Tennessee pitcher is headed to Memphis. Jax Bishop, who appeared in five games as a Vols freshman, is one of seven new players on the Tigers baseball roster. Five of the seven are right-handed pitchers. The other two are infielder Cole Clark (from UC Irvine) and catcher Aaron Orozco (from Charlotte).
🎓 Room to grow. In case you missed it the first time (take that, spam folder): LeMoyne-Owen College has been quietly buying land in Soulsville. The campus grew from 17 acres to 20 over the past year, an 18% jump. The newest buy is a 7,462-square-foot building at 1044 Mississippi Blvd. The college paid the YWCA Greater Memphis $500,000 for it and will use it for its School of Education.
🎆 Lasers and Pink Floyd. MoSH is running its Dark Side of the Moon laser show this Friday night at the Pink Palace on Central Avenue. You sit in a 130-seat round theater and watch the whole thing on a dome above you. One warning: they don't let you in late, so get there early.
🎮 School project goes national. A senior project by four University of Memphis computer science students turned into an actual commercial video game. The Magical Quest of Molly The Marble is a calm puzzle game where you tilt the world to guide a marble through rooms made of cardboard. Memphis-area studio Dapper Duck Software built it with them. It's on Steam as a wishlist, with no release date yet.
🕉️ Statue of the arts. A 112-foot bronze statue is being built in India right now, and it's headed for the Memphis metro. It honors Tallapaka Annamacharya, a poet and composer from the 1400s who wrote about 32,000 devotional songs. It will stand at the India Cultural Center and Temple on Highway 64. If it goes up as planned, it would be the first statue of him in America. The temple is aiming for May 2028.
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That's it for today!
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Have a great Thursday, Memphis. We'll see you tomorrow.
— 901 Today