About Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden (also referred to as the Garden or MSG) is a 20,000-seat arena located in Midtown Manhattan and serves as the home to four professional sports teams: the Knicks (NBA), the Rangers (NHL), the Liberty (WNBA) and the Titans (NLL). In addition to its sports teams, it also hosts concerts along with many other types of events. Despite the name, the building is round, not square.

  1. History

    • The current MSG is located at 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets (directly above Penn Station), and opened its doors in 1968. Three previous venues were named Madison Square Garden, the first two at Madison Square (Madison Avenue and 26th Street), which operated from 1879 to 1925, and a third Garden (1925-1968) at 8th Avenue and 50th Street. Since 1994, MSG and its properties have been owned by Cablevision.

    Significance

    • Known as "The World's Most Famous Arena," many of the music industry's biggest stars, including The Rolling Stones, Elvis, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John among many others, have recorded live albums or videos at the Garden. In the sports world, highlights have included the first Stanley Cup win in 54 years for The Rangers (1994), the first Ali-Frasier bout (1971), along with the most recent Knicks championship seasons (1969-70 and 1972-73).

    Function

    • In addition to top-tier entertainment and sports, MSG has seen several famous (and infamous) events. Democratic National Conventions (and one Republican Convention) have been hosted at the Garden. The most infamous events at the Garden were Rev. Sun Myung Moon's "Mass Wedding" (1982), in which over 2,000 couples got married in one huge ceremony, and the JFK/Marilyn Monroe "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" (1962) serenade.

    Size

    • The seating capacity at MSG is 19,000+ for basketball, 18,000+ for hockey and up to 20,000 for concerts. Different acts have different stage dimensions, so every event has a different capacity. After a major upgrade (1989-1991), the arena added 89 suites, eliminating several hundred "nosebleed seats."

    Features

    • In addition to the arena itself, there is an attached theater (formerly known as the Felt Forum, currently named the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden), an expo center and a restaurant, the Play-By-Play Sports Bar. The arena itself has a wide variety of concessions, selling many types of food. Previously, the Garden also housed a bowling alley, which was featured on the New York edition of "Bowling For Dollars" in the 1970s.