The facility was opened in 1964, and became known "The Entertainment Capitol of the Mid-South" due its significance in hosting events such as concerts, sports games and professional wrestling shows.

In the late 2010s, efforts emerged to help preserve and refurbish the arena as part of a larger redevelopment of the surrounding area.

[5] Unlike most facilities in Memphis, which largely hesitated to integrate following the 1963 Watson v, United States U.S. Supreme Court case regarding local segregation,[5] and which was also argued two days after construction began on the Mid South Coliseum,[5] Mid South Coliseum management would not include any signs advising segregation.

Canadian singer Celine Dion performed a two-night stand at the arena on March 14 and 15, 1997 as part of her Falling Into You Around the World Tour, which was also filmed for the concert video Live in Memphis.

[13] On April 27, 1987, Austin Idol defeated Lawler in a steel cage match, causing the audience to riot.

The venue closed at the end of 2006, when Memphis and Shelby County Governments refused the request from the Mid-South Coliseum Board to pay its operating losses, which were projected to be $1 million a year.

[19] In 2016, an assessment found that a renovation and restoration of the Coliseum (including ADA compliance) would cost around $23.8 million.

In 2018, a group known as the Coliseum Coalition was formed to pursue the preservation of the facility as part of redevelopment of the Memphis Fairgrounds into a youth sports complex.

In 2018, a plan was proposed to use funding from the designation of the Fairgrounds as a tourism development zone (TDZ) to "achieve the reactivation, adaptive reuse, or redevelopment of the Mid-South Coliseum".

The Coliseum was not included in the plan approved the state, but it was suggested that the development could help spur private investment.

[20][21][4][22] In 2022, professional soccer team Memphis 901 FC announced plans to build a soccer-specific stadium at the site of the Mid-South Coliseum, which would be demolished.