Encyclopedia
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
Madison Square, thus the name. Subsequently a new 20,000-seat Garden was built at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, and the current Garden is at 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station. The present arena is informally known to some by its 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, and soon special concert and entertainment events, that are held in the Garden.
History
Madison Square Garden derives its name from the park where the first two gardens were located on Madison Avenue at 26th Street. As the venue moved to new locations the name still stuck.
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." It 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 , 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 Nesbithad 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 . It was built in 249 days on the site of the city's street car barns.
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. 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 .
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. 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. Ironically 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 . The current Garden is the hub of Madison Square Garden Center in the office and entertainment complex known as Pennsylvania 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 an office tower.
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 home games , the
Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus when it comes to New York City , selected home games for the
St. John's men's Red Storm , 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 . 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 , 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 , 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. In 2005, WWE temporarily severed business ties with the arena because WWE felt that increased rental costs would prevent them from making a profit in the building. However, a year later, World Wrestling Entertainment patched things up with MSG and the hiatus ended with a September 11, 2006 edition of
WWE RAW is the Monday night professional wrestling [i] television program [i] for World Wrestling Entertainment [i] ...
.
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,
Bruce Springsteen,
Frank Sinatra,
Billy Joel,
Phish,
Elton John and
Elvis Presley.
Pearl Jam released a DVD of a concert at the Garden. Bands including Phish,
Cream and
The Jacksons have had reunion shows there.
The arena is also used for other special events, including Tennis, Circus, and Wrestling events. The
New York Police Academy also holds its annual graduation ceremony for new officers at Madison Square Garden. It has become the New York site of the annual
Grammy Awards and hosted the 2005 Country Music Association Awards .
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. 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. No seat is more than 177 feet 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 Garden President Irving Mitchell Felt. In the early 1990s, it was renamed the Paramount, after Paramount Communications, which then owned the Garden The theater received its current name in the mid-90s.
- The 36,000-square-foot Expo Center, is used for trade shows, cat show, 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.
Other corporate operations
In addition to the Garden itself, Madison Square Garden, L.P. also operates two major sports venues in
Connecticut.
The
Hartford Civic Center, an indoor
arena in
Hartford, is home to the
Hartford Wolf Pack, a minor-league hockey team also owned by MSG, and also serves as the part-time home of the men's and women's basketball teams of the
University of Connecticut.
Rentschler Field, a
stadium in East Hartford, hosts UConn's
football team. The original plan was to build a larger stadium that would also have hosted the
New England Patriots.
Notable firsts
...
for the first time .
- March 19, 1954 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at the Garden in the first televised
...
prize
boxing fight shown in color.
- March 31, 1985 - The World Wrestling Federation , presents the inaugural WrestleMania. The annual event would return to Madison Square Garden in 1994 and 2004 for WrestleMania X and WrestleMania XX, celebrating the 10th and 20th anniversaries of WrestleMania.
- August 29, 1988 - The first SummerSlam event takes place. The event would return to the Garden in 1998 and will again in 2007.
- June 14, 1994 - After 54 years, the New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup at Madison Square Garden. It is the first time that a Stanley Cup has been won by the Rangers at the Garden.
- June 29, 1997 - The New York Liberty professional women's basketball team plays its first home game - the first WNBA game to be played at Madison Square Garden.
- March 1, 2003 - Quinnipiac University defeats the University of Connecticut 4-3 in the first college hockey game played at Madison Square Garden since 1977.
Historical events
Throughout its long history, the Garden has been involved its share of historical events. These events have included ones with political implications. On February 20, 1939, A large German-American Bund convention was held prompting riots and protests in and around the arena by American Jews. Former Republican presidential candidate
Wendell Willkie led 20,000 African-Americans on June 7, 1943, the largest Civil Rights rally of its time, in demanding equal rights and victory in the war against Hitler.
President John F. Kennedy's 45th birthday celebration took place at the Garden on May 19, 1962. During it,
Marilyn Monroe sung her now infamous
Happy Birthday, Mr. President is a variant on the traditional
Happy Birthday to You [i] song [i] ...
.
On July 1, 1982 Rev. and Mrs.
Sun Myung Moon held a Blessing Ceremony in the Garden for 2075 couples. This event attracted a lot of public and media attention , often being called a "mass wedding."
Madison Square Garden has been host to a series of historical concerts as well. On November 28, 1974,
John Lennon made a surprise guest appearance at an
Elton John concert - Lennon's last ever concert appearance. They sang together as a duet on
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,
Whatever Gets You Thru the Night and
I Saw Her Standing There.
On August 1, 1971,
George Harrison held his Concert For Bangladesh. This historic event was the first special benefit concert to raise funds for charity . There were two concerts held that day, with one taking place at 2:30pm and the other at 7:00pm. The show featured artists such as Harrison, Shankar,
Eric Clapton,
Bob Dylan,
Ringo Starr,
Billy Preston, and
Klaus Voormann, to name a few.
In 1978
reggae superstar
Bob Marley definitely introduced reggae music to America with his performance at the Garden. In 1980 Marley played two concerts as the opener of The Commodores; the performances were sold out, but the Garden was almost empty after Marley's show. The day after Marley, already fatally ill, collapsed while jogging in the
Central Park and performed one last concert in
Pittsburgh before cancelling the tour. Marley died months later of
cancer.
English rock band
Led Zeppelin filmed and recorded their, for many years, only live album and accompanying concert film,
The Song Remains the Same, at The Garden during their 1973 U.S. tour.
New Jersey native
Bruce Springsteen sold out a then record 10 night stand at the Garden in June and July 2000.
Billy Joel played a four hour concert for the New Year's 1999, dubbed 'The Night Of The 2000 Years." Two songs from this concert were broadcasted live on ABC-TV as apart of the
ABC 2000 news program.
The Garden has also played host to the significant charity concerts "The Concert for New York City" and "From the Big Apple to the Big Easy".
On 7 September and 10 September 2001,
Michael Jackson gave 2 shows commemorating the 30th Anniversary of his legendary career. The show featured tribute performances by artists such as Gloria Estefan,
Shaggy and
Britney Spears, as well as the
Jackson 5's first concert together since 1984.
The Garden held the
Grammy Awards in 1997 and 2003.
In 2005 the Country Music Awards were held at the Garden.
On November 2, 2006 the 7th Annual
Latin Grammy Awards will be held at The Garden.
In 2006,
Billy Joel set a record with a string of 12 sold-out performances, breaking the record of 10 set by
Bruce Springsteen in 2000. On night 12 of the stand, MSG raised a #12 to the rafters on top of the Garden to join the numbers of Rangers and
Knicks players that have had their numbers retired by their respective teams, making Joel the first ever non-sports individual to have his "number" retired at The Garden.
In 2006, Madonna was marked as the performer with most performances played ever at the venue, beating out the
Rolling Stones, with 23 performances. The artist who holds the all-time record for the greatest number of appearances at the Garden is
Elton John who has played the arena 58 times. The band that played more dates in the Garden than any other is
The Grateful Dead, rocking the arena an amazing 52 times from 1979 through 1994.
Film and television appearances
As an iconic figure, Madison Square Garden has made various appearances in
film and television programs. It was featured in the 1979
Robert Redford film
The Electric Horseman is a romance film starring Robert Redford [i] and Jane Fonda [i]. ...
. Madison Square Garden is featured in the opening scenes of
Highlander , which included footage of former tag team
The Fabulous Freebirds.
Madison Square Garden was the "nest" for the carnivorous Godzilla babies and was later destroyed by F-18 bombers in the Americanized version of
Godzilla 
