Memphis Grizzlies Game Day: Security Around FedExForum

If your business is anywhere near the FedExForum corridor, you already know what game day looks like. Third Street and Beale Street fill up hours before tip-off. Parking lots charge premium prices and fill to capacity. The bars and restaurants between Union Avenue and the arena are operating at maximum volume. It's good for foot traffic, and it creates a set of security challenges that quiet Tuesdays don't.

Preseason games typically start in October, but the planning for game-day security should happen well before that. If you wait until the first home game to figure out your staffing, crowd management, and parking lot protocols, you're already behind.

The Security Environment Around FedExForum

The arena itself has a professional security operation. The question for surrounding businesses is what happens outside that perimeter. Downtown Memphis during a sold-out Grizzlies game means significant pedestrian and vehicle congestion, elevated alcohol consumption in the surrounding venues, and the kind of crowd energy that can turn in either direction quickly.

For retail businesses on Main Street or Second Street near the arena, the concern is usually a combination of opportunistic shoplifting in a crowded environment, parking lot security for customers, and the occasional dispute that spills from a bar into an adjacent sidewalk or parking area. None of these are exotic threats. They're predictable, manageable, and best handled with a plan rather than improvisation.

Restaurants and bars in the immediate vicinity deal with a different version of the problem: crowd management at entry points, handling guests who've been over-served, and managing the departure rush when the game ends and thousands of people are simultaneously trying to get to their vehicles.

What Professional Event Coverage Looks Like

For businesses that see significant game-day volume, deploying a security officer during game nights through the end of the third quarter makes a measurable difference. The officer's job is to manage the immediate perimeter of your property: your entrance, your parking if you have it, and the sidewalk directly in front of your location.

That presence signals to the crowd that your space is being watched. It gives your staff someone to call if a situation escalates. And it creates a point of visible authority that, in most cases, prevents problems from developing rather than requiring a response after they've already happened.

Hotels near the arena have a slightly different set of needs: they're dealing with guests who may be intoxicated, vehicle management in their lot or adjacent to it, and the security of non-game-night guests who didn't choose to arrive on the same night as 18,000 basketball fans. A lobby-posted officer and a parking lot patrol during game hours handles most of what comes up.

Parking Lot Management Is Underrated

In any high-traffic event environment, parking lots are where a disproportionate share of incidents occur. People are returning to their vehicles at the same time, some have been drinking, and the relative isolation of a parking structure or surface lot creates opportunity for vehicle break-ins, confrontations, and the occasional more serious incident.

A dedicated parking lot officer, or at minimum a regular patrol check during the post-game window, addresses this directly. The time between the final buzzer and when most fans are actually in their cars is typically 20 to 40 minutes. That's the high-risk window. Coverage during that specific period, rather than across the whole evening equally, is a smarter use of resources for most businesses.

Coordinating With Downtown Neighbors

One thing that works well in the FedExForum corridor is informal coordination between neighboring businesses. If you and the restaurant next door are both planning game-night security coverage, there's often an opportunity to share a security presence for the areas between your two properties, particularly if you share a parking area or both face the same stretch of sidewalk.

We've helped organize this kind of neighborhood-level coverage arrangement for clients in the South Main and Downtown areas. It's not complicated, but it requires someone to initiate the conversation, and security providers who are willing to structure flexible arrangements around shared needs.

Our commercial patrol services and stationed officers can be deployed on a game-night schedule rather than requiring a full weekly commitment. If you want to cover the 20 to 25 home game nights this season without paying for coverage you don't need the rest of the time, we can structure that.

Call (202) 222-2225 or contact us to talk through what game-night coverage makes sense for your specific location and operation.