7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd
Streets
Box Office (212) 465-6000
www.thegarden.com
What's
New?
Inside
Tips
Aptly named "The World’s Most
Famous Arena", the Garden has over five million fans a year
passing through it’s doors. It is the home of three different
New York Sports franchises; The Knicks , The Rangers and the
Liberty (WNBA). It is also the site for numerous other events like the
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Ringling Bros. And Barnum
& Bailey Circus, World Championship Boxing and much more.
Madison Square Garden is located
directly above Penn Station on 34th Street, making it highly accessible by public transportation. This
location is actually the fourth Madison Square Garden to be in
New York. The original Garden was unveiled in 1874 and was
called Barnums Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome.
Located at 26th Street and Madison Ave., it hosted
circus-type attractions like fire-eaters and chariot races. The
lease changed hands a couple of times, changing it’s name to
Gilmores Garden and eventually to Madison Square Garden
in 1879. This Garden was demolished and rebuilt on the same spot
and was in operation here until 1925.
The New York Life Insurance
Company owned the land occupied by this Garden and decided it
was the perfect location for it’s national headquarters. The
Garden was then demolished again, moving to a location on 8th
Ave. This venue lasted until 1968 when construction of the new
Madison Square Garden was completed.
In 1968 the new Garden was
unveiled and was opened by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby with a
"Salute to the USO". Since then, the Garden has seen
the Knicks win two championships (1970 & 1973), the Rangers
win a Stanley Cup (1994) and some huge sporting events like Ali
– Frazier in 1971.
The Garden has also become one of
the premier concert venues in the world. It attracts some of the
biggest names in entertainment to it’s stage. A bit of trivia
is that the Grateful Dead have played the Garden 52 times, more
than any other group.
The Garden occupies 820,000
square feet of land and is comprised of the 20,000 seat main
arena, The Theater (formerly known as the Felt Forum and the
Paramount), the 40,000 square foot Expo Center, two restaurants
and 89 club suites.
Some of the Garden’s legends
are enshrined in the Garden Walk of Fame. This tribute to 45
stars that made the Garden great can be seen in the Mall as
visitors enter the building from 7th Avenue.
For more Information, check out
the official Madison Square Garden site @ www.thegarden.com
