Madison Square Garden - Must See Tourist Attraction in New York City

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".

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.

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 Big East Men's Basketball Conference Tournament, 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 Veterans Memorial Coliseum.


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.
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 Royal Rumble 2000. WWE's strong relationship with Madison Square Garden prevented competitor World Championship Wrestling from ever having a show at the Garden. 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. Though they pulled 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), WWE continues to make appearances from time to time.

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 making it the longest period a conference tournament has been held at a single location.

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