On our recent visit to New York one of the things on our' to do' list was a visit to Madison Square Gardens. Whether you are a sports fan or not most people have heard of this great entertainment centre.
History I fact there have been four Madison Square Gardens ( MSG from now on).
The First Garden 1 (1879- 1890 ) Garden 1 was situated at Madison Square; 26th Street and Madison Avenue. It was a building without a roof and was named MSG by William Vanderbilt in 1879 and was used for horse shows, dog shows and circuses. Boxing events were also staged there.
Garden 2 ( 1890- 1925 ) Garden 2 was constructed on the same site as Garden 1 it was designed by Stanford White and contained an 8,000 seat main arena, a 1,500 seat concert hall, a 1,200 seat theatre plus the world's largest swimming pool. It was built in the Spanish Renaissance style and was topped by a 32 story tower and roof garden in which stood a gold statue of Diana, Goddess of the Hunt. It mainly hosted sporting events like boxing and wrestling but also bicycle races and horse shows.
Garden 3 ( 1925- 1968 ) Garden 3 was built in just 249 days at 49th street and Eighth Avenue under the watchful eyes of promoter Tex Rickard and architect Thomas Lamb. Known now as the Old Garden it opened with a six-day bicycle race. It continued for 43 years to be America's premier sports and entertainment showplace. One very famous event to take place here was when Marilyn Munroe sang happy birthday to John F Kennedy in 1962.
Garden 4 (1968- present day) The current MSG is located at 7th Street and 33rd Street and was opened on February 11th,1968 by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. It stands 10 stories tall and covers 8 acres. The arena floor is 5 stories above street level and can reach a maximum floor space of 25,400 sq ft. Beneath the arena is the theatre, the expo centre, the box office and 2 restaurants. The Gardens are built directly above Pennsylvania Station the busiest train station in the United States.
It is the home to the New York Knickerbockers or Knicks for short, Rangers and Liberty. We tried to get tickets for the Knicks but unfortunately it was sold out and they have a cancellation line you can join in the hope of getting tickets but that was very long and the touts very expensive. For non-sports fans the Knicks and Liberty are Basketball teams and the Rangers are ice hockey team. The ice takes 18 hours to lay and ends up 1inch thick. This process is completed 3-5 times during the ice hockey season. It is not unusual for the gardens to host a circus in the afternoon and either hockey or basketball at night this was what was happening when we were there. Many events take place on insulation boards atop of the ice that is except the Westminster Dog Show when the ice has to be melted as the dogs can sense the ice under their paws and try to scratch through the boards to reach it.
The biggest names in music have played the gardens with Elton John and Billy Joel leading the way with most performances and the Grateful Dead topping the list for returning rock groups. The current Garden is the only arena in the world where all 4 Beatles have performed solo.
There have been many great events over the last 38 years The Knicks won their first NBA World Championship in 1970. Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier in the "Fight of the century" in 1971 The Rangers skated round to show the Stanley Cup they won in 1994 The Great One Wayne Gretzky played his farewell game in 1994 The Grammy awards have been hosted here Pope John Paul 11 in 1998 Democratic and Republican Conventions Country Music Awards 2005 That just names a few the list could be endless as the Gardens plays hosts to 400 events and 4 million people every year.
We really enjoyed our behind the scenes visit to the Gardens and our sneak look behind the scenes and into the dressing rooms where we saw trainers size 22 belonging to one of the players. We had a bird eye view from the VIP box of them setting up the circus in the main arena. It was very interesting and I think it cost $15-$18 each and last just less than 1 hour. The guide was very knowledgeable but it was all done at breakneck speed and involved long walks and stairs, which they omitted to mention even though I walk with a stick. Having said that I am a big sports fan and would not have missed it for the world.
