Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG, known colloquially simply as The Garden, has been the name of four arenas in New York City, United States. It is also the name of the entity which owns the arena and several of the professional sports franchises which play there. There have been four incarnations of the arena. The first two were located at the Northeast corner of Madison Square ( Madison Ave. & 26th St.) from which the arena derived its name. Subsequently a new 17,000-seat Garden (opened December 15, 1925) was built at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, and the current Garden (opened February 14, 1968) is at 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station. The present arena is informally known to some by the advertising slogan "The World's Most Famous Arena".

The arena lends its name to the Madison Square Garden Network, a cable television network that broadcasts most sporting events that are held in the Garden, as well as concerts and entertainment events that have taken place at the venue.

History

Madison Square Garden derives its name from the park where the first two gardens were located ( Madison Square) on Madison Avenue at 26th Street. As the venue moved to new locations the name still stuck, although since 1925 Madison Square Garden has been neither a garden nor on Madison Square.

1879-1890

The site of the first Madison Square Garden, now known as Madison Square Garden I, was formerly the passenger depot at 26th and Madison Avenue of the New York and Harlem Railroad. When the depot was moved to the current site of Grand Central Terminal in 1871 the depot was sold to P.T. Barnum and converted into a hippodrome called "Barnum's Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome." In 1876 it was renamed "Gilmore's Garden" in honor of Patrick S. Gilmore, America's most well-known bandmaster at the time. Gilmore's most famous composition was "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Gilmore's Garden was an open air arena.

William Henry Vanderbilt officially renamed Gilmore's Garden " Madison Square Garden" and reopened the facility to the public on May 30, 1879 at 26th Street and Madison Avenue. The first arena was originally built for the sport of track cycling, which is still remembered in the name of the Madison event.

1890-1925

The second Madison Square Garden (now known as Madison Square Garden II), also located at 26th and Madison Avenue was designed by Stanford White, who would later be killed at the Garden's rooftop restaurant on June 25, 1906 by Harry K. Thaw allegedly because the murderer's wife, Evelyn Nesbit had been White's mistress before her marriage. White kept an apartment, site of the famous red velvet swing, in the building.

The new structure was 200 feet by 485 feet of Moorish architecture with a minaret-like tower soaring 32 stories over Madison Square Park and was the city's second tallest building. The Garden's main hall, was the largest in the world, measured 200 by 350 feet with permanent seating for 8,000 people and floor space for thousands more.

Topping the garden was a statue of Diana which is now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A copy is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The statue is 18 feet high and is made of finely wrought copper and is gilded. It was designed by Augustus St. Gaudens, and was made by W. H. Mullins at Salem, Ohio. It weighed 1,800 pounds but spun in the wind.

It hosted the 1924 Democratic National Convention, which nominated John W. Davis after 103 ballots. Afterwards, it was torn down to make way for the landmark New York Life Insurance Building.

White was a member of the architecture firm McKim, Mead and White which designed Pennsylvania Station which was torn down to make way for MSG IV. The firm also designed the James Farley Post Office which is being proposed as the anchor for the proposed new Pennsylvania Station as well as the proposed MSG V.

1925-1968

The third garden, now known as Madison Square Garden III, was built on 50th Street and Eighth Avenue by boxing promoter Tex Rickard and was dubbed "The House That Tex Built." The New York Rangers got their name in a wordplay on Tex's name (e.g., Tex's Rangers). It was built in 249 days on the site of the city's street car barns.

While the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus had debuted at the Garden in 1919, the third garden saw large numbers of performances. The circus was so important to the Garden that when the Rangers played in the 1928 Stanley Cup Finals, the team was forced to play all games on the road (the Rangers won the series anyway). The circus would continue to perform as often as three times daily, repeatedly knocking the Rangers out of the Garden at playoff time, throughout the life of the third Garden. Even at the fourth Garden, games would have to begin as late as 9:00 p.m. to accommodate the circus.

In 1928 Rickard built " Boston Madison Square Garden." The name got clipped to Boston Garden.

Boxing was Madison Square Garden III's principal claim to fame. The building exterior in contrast to the ornate towers of the first two Garden was a simple box. Its most unique feature was its ornate marquee that was above the main entrance, with its seemingly endless abbreviations(Tomw., V/S, Rgrs, Tonite, Thru, etc) Even the name was abbreviated: Madison Sq. Garden. On January 17, 1941, 23,190 people witnessed Fritzie Zivic successful welterweight defense against Henry Armstrong. That is the biggest attendance record of any of the Gardens. MSG III was featured prominently in the 2005 Ron Howard film Cinderella Man (although exterior montage shots glorified it by placing it against the Times Square signs on Broadway when it was in fact one block west).

It hosted the only indoor bout in the career of Jack Dempsey. It cost $4.75 million to build; this one hosted seven NCAA men's basketball championships between 1943 and 1950. It also hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1954 and 1955. Ironically one type of event that was never held in the 50th St. MSG (except in the movies) was a national Democratic or Republican nominating convention as neither of these parties met in New York to select their candidates for President and Vice President of the United States between 1924 and 1976.

The third Garden had poor sightlines, especially for hockey, and fans sitting in the upper deck could count on having some portion of the ice obstructed, unless they sat in the first row. The fact that there was poor ventilation and that smoking was permitted often led to a haze in the upper portions of the Garden.

When it was torn down, there was a proposal to build the world's tallest building on its site prompting a major battle in its Hell's Kitchen neighborhood that ultimately resulted in strict height restrictions. The space remained a parking lot though until 1989 when Worldwide Plaza designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill opened.

Madison Square Garden Bowl

Madison Square built an open air arena, the Madison Square Garden Bowl at 48th and Northern Boulevard in Long Island City in 1932 that could seat 72,000. This was the site where James Braddock defeated Max Baer for the World Heavyweight title on June 13, 1935 that was dramatized in the film Cinderella Man. Braddock was born on West 48th Street in Hell's Kitchen just a few blocks from the West 49th Street location of MSGIII. Braddock's first come back fight against John "Corn" Griffin was also in the venue. Jack Sharkey and Primo Carnera also captured the heavyweight crown in the 1930s at the Madison Square Garden Bowl.

The bowl was torn down after World War II to make way for U.S. Steel and Ronzoni Macaroni Company factories. They in turn were torn down and the area is now home to a series of car dealerships.

1968-present

On February 11, 1968 the fourth Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Garden IV, opened after the financially troubled Pennsylvania Railroad tore down Pennsylvania Station (although the tracks remained underneath). The resulting outcry over the demolition of the magnificent Beaux-Arts structure led to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The current Garden is the hub of Madison Square Garden Center in the office and entertainment complex known as Pennsylvania Plaza (commonly shortened to " Penn Plaza"), for the railroad station atop which the complex is located.

In 1972, the Garden's then chairman, Irving Mitchell Felt, talked about moving the Knicks and the Rangers to what was then merely a proposed arena in the New Jersey Meadows. This was a result of a row between the Garden and New York City over real estate taxes owed by MSG. The situation flared up again in 1980 when there was a reported threat by the Garden to move the Knicks to Nassau Coliseum and the Rangers to the nearly completed Meadowlands Arena if its city real estate taxes were not reduced. Both threats were not taken seriously by the city however, and no moves ever materialized.

In 1991 Garden ownership spent $200 million to renovate the Garden including adding 89 suites. In the process hundreds of seats in the upper mezzanine were removed to make way for the suites. Additionaly the color scheme of the garden was changed.

In 2004-2005 Cablevision was involved in an intense battle with the City of New York over the proposed West Side Stadium which they said would be competing with their venue. During the battle, Cablevision announced plans for $360 million in proposed renovations. When the stadium ultimately was stopped, Cablevision signed on to tear down the Garden and rebuild it on Ninth Avenue.

New arena

As of September 2005, the Garden's current owner, Cablevision, has plans to build a fifth Garden. If the project moves forward, a new Garden would be built at the western end of the James Farley Post Office, on 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue across the street, which is also eyed for a western expansion of Pennsylvania Station. The new Garden, which would remain home to the Rangers and the Knicks, would feature wide concourses with stores and restaurants, luxury boxes with better sight lines for basketball and hockey games, a museum, and a hall of fame. The current Garden would be torn down to be replaced with office buildings.

Present operations

The present Garden hosts 320 events a year but it is best known as the home of the New York Knicks of the NBA and New York Rangers of the NHL. The aforementioned professional sports teams play their home matches in the arena and are owned by the Garden itself. It also hosts New York Liberty (WNBA) home games (also owned by the Garden), the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus when it comes to New York City (although Continental Airlines Arena and Nassau Coliseum also host the circus each year), selected home games for the St. John's men's Red Storm (college basketball), the annual pre and postseason NIT tournaments, the NBA Draft, the Millrose Games athletics meet, and almost any other kind of indoor activity that draws large audiences, such as the 2004 Republican National Convention. It has previously hosted the 1976, 1980 and 1992 Democratic National Conventions, and hosted the NFL Draft for many years (now held at Garden-leased Radio City Music Hall). In 2007, 4 of the 8 home games for the New York Titans will be played at the garden, with the other four to be played at Nassau Collesium.

MSG hosted the 1994 NHL All-Star Game and 1998 NBA All-Star Game, two WNBA All-Star Games (2003 and 2006), and a portion of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

Connecticut-based World Wrestling Entertainment considers it a home arena as well, due to the fact that all generations of the McMahon family, including Vince McMahon's father and grandfather, have promoted shows at the Garden. MSG has hosted several WrestleMania and SummerSlam events, two Survivor Series events and the 2000 Royal Rumble. WWE's strong relationship with Madison Square Garden prevented competitor World Championship Wrestling from ever having a show at the Garden. [citation needed] In 2005, WWE severed business ties with the arena because WWE felt that increased rental costs would prevent them from making a profit in the building. However, over a year later, World Wrestling Entertainment temporarily patched things up with MSG and the hiatus ended with a September 11, 2006 edition of WWE Raw. It seems that WWE has, again, severed ties with the arena due to the rental costs after the announcement of WWE pulling the 20th installment of SummerSlam, which would have been held at the Garden on August 26, 2007. (It will now be held at the Continental Airlines Arena) There are currently no future WWE events, of which its live show calendar has been released as far as July of 2007, scheduled at Madison Square Garden.

MSG is also known for its place in the history of boxing. Many of boxing's biggest fights were held at Madison Square Garden, including many of Joe Louis, the Roberto Duran-Ken Buchanan affair, and the first and second Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali bouts. Before promoters such as Don King and Bob Arum moved boxing to Las Vegas, Madison Square Garden was considered the mecca of boxing.

Many large popular-music concerts in New York City take place in Madison Square Garden. Particularly famous ones include The Concert for New York City following the September 11 attacks and John Lennon's final concert appearance before his murder in 1980. The Garden usually hosts a concert each year on New Years Eve, with the Knicks and Rangers usually playing on the road.

Many musical acts released seminal live albums recorded at MSG, including Led Zeppelin,Fania All Stars, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Phish, Elton John, Elvis Presley, and Barbra Streisand, who set the highest grossing event at MSG after her two "farewell" concerts in Sept. 2000. Pearl Jam released a DVD of a concert at the Garden. Bands including Phish, Cream and Michael Jackson held his 30th anniversary concerts, which included The Jacksons reunion, there. Mariah Carey released a DVD showing her live performance at the Garden.

The arena is also used for other special events, including Tennis, Circus, and Wrestling events. The New York Police Academy and Yeshiva University also hold their annual graduation ceremonies at Madison Square Garden. It has become the New York site of the annual Grammy Awards (which are normally held in Los Angeles) and hosted the 2005 Country Music Association Awards (normally held in Nashville).

The Big East Conference men's basketball tournament has been held at MSG every year since 1983.

Seating

Seating in the present Madison Square Garden is arranged in five ascending levels. The lowest one is referred to as "rink-side" for hockey games or "court-side" for basketball games. Next above this is the First Promenade, followed by the Second Promenade, First Balcony and Second Balcony. The seats of these five levels originally bore the colors red, orange, yellow, green, and blue, respectively; however, this color scheme has since been changed, mainly because the "blue seats" had become synonymous with rowdy behavior by fans, particularly those attending New York Rangers hockey games. It was a common sight for Rangers fans to set fire to the jerseys of fans from visiting teams, especially those from the New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, and the Philadelphia Flyers. Rangers fans in the blue seats would defend their home from the invading hordes of visiting teams' fans at all costs. Fights were constantly occurring, and ushers would often let Rangers fans get their last punches or kicks in before hauling away the opposing fan. Today, the Garden is not as hostile for opposing fans to visit. For the past six years, the Garden has become more of a divided arena, especially at Rangers/Islanders games. Thousands of Islanders fans "invade" the Garden due to it's location right above Penn Station, which services the Long Island Rail Road. Tickets can be purchased from websites such as Ebay.com which allow fans who do not hold season tickets access to games. The result of this is a more divided Garden than ever before. For hockey, the Garden seats 18,200; for basketball, 19,763; and for concerts 20,000 center stage, 19,522 end-stage. The arena features 20,976 square feet of arena floor space.

Because all of the seats are in one monolithic grandstand, distance from the arena floor is significant from the upper sections. Also, the rows rise much more gradually than other North American arenas, which can cause impaired sightlines, especially when sitting behind tall spectators or one of the concourses.

Other venues

Today's Madison Square Garden is more than just the arena. Other venues at the Garden include:

* The Theater at Madison Square Garden, which seats between 2,000 and 5,600 for concerts and can also be used for meetings, stage shows, and graduation ceremonies, and was also the traditional home of the NFL Draft until 2005, when it moved to the Jacob Javits Convention Center after MSG management opposed a new ground for the New York Jets. No seat is more than 177 feet (54 m) from the 30-foot-by-64-foot stage. There is an 8,000-square-foot lobby at the theater. When the current Garden opened in 1968, the Theater was known as the Felt Forum, in honor of then president Irving Felt. In the early 1990s, it was renamed the Paramount, after Paramount Communications, which then owned the Garden (and which had previously been known as Gulf & Western.) The theater received its current name in the mid-90s, after Viacom bought Paramount, and sold the MSG properties to a group consisting of ITT and Cablevision, which each owned 50% of the Garden. In 1997, ITT sold their share to Cablevision, giving the cable company full control of the venue.

* The 36,000-square-foot Expo Center (formerly known as "The Rotunda") is used for trade shows, cat shows, stamp shows, often in combination with the arena, banquets, and receptions.

* A 9,500-square-foot terrace and two restaurants: the Garden Club and the Play-by-Play.

Madison Square Garden Online