Madison Square Garden Concerts No More; City Council Evicts MSG in Spite of $968 Million Overhaul; World's Most Famous Arena Given Ten Years

Madison Square Garden is being evicted. After 45 years, the New York City landmark that staged some of the greatest concerts, was home to the Knicks, the Rangers, the Ice Capades, the circus and boxing matches, including the “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1971, was given ten years to vacate the premises and find a new location by the New York City Council. This is the fifth location Madison Square Garden has had since it opened in 1879. Madison Square Garden opened in this location in 1968.

The New York City Council voted 47 to one to extend Madison Square Garden’s special operating permit for a decade. Madison Square Garden’s owners requested that their permit should be extended in perpetuity. The Bloomberg Administration intended to extend Madison Square Garden’s permit for fifteen years.

The City Council said ten years should be enough time for Madison Square Garden to find a new home and for New York City to make plans to expand Penn Station and develop the surrounding neighborhood. Penn Station is located under Madison Square Garden.

Kim Kerns, a spokeswoman for the Madison Square Garden Co., said "Madison Square Garden has operated at its current site for generations and has been proud to bring New Yorkers some of the greatest and most iconic moments in sports and entertainment."

City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn said, “This is the first step in finding a new home for Madison Square Garden and building a new Penn Station that is as great as New York and suitable for the 21st century. This is an opportunity to reimagine and redevelop Penn Station as a world-class transportation destination.”

Quinn said a commission should be created to make up plans for the renovation.

Developers and civic leaders have been trying to rebuild Penn Station for a while. The site below Madison Square Garden is cramped and labyrinthine and more than 500,000 people travel through it every day. The redevelopment will cost billions of dollars.

James L. Dolan, who controls Madison Garden and its tenants the Knicks and the Rangers, still expects to complete the renovation of Madison Square Garden that was started in 2008. The overhaul is expected to be complete this fall. The overhaul will cost $968 million. Madison Square Garden has been closed off in its off-seasons for the work to be completed.

In a statement, Dolan said, “Madison Square Garden has operated at its current site for generations, and has been proud to bring New Yorkers some of the greatest and most iconic moments in sports and entertainment. We now look forward to the reopening of the arena in the fall of 2013.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spokeswoman Julie Wood said, “Our goal from the outset was to improve Penn Station. In fact, our proposal would have required government leaders to come together and develop a plan to do just that.”

The Alliance for a New Penn Station said the council "has made clear that now is time to get to work and build the Penn Station that New York City and the region desperately need in order to improve transit access and spur economic growth in the city and throughout the region."

This isn’t the last word though. There will be new Mayors and new administrations.

By Tony Sokol