Madison Square Garden

The Madison Square Garden (frequently called The Garden or MSG) is an indoor multi-purpose arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is named after James Madison, the 4th President of the United States. 

Madison Square Garden is the home of the New York Knicks NBA team and the New York Rangers of the NHL. It also is the site of many concerts and special events each year, and a few college basketball games are played there as well. 

There have been four arenas with the name Madison Square Garden at three different sites in Manhattan. The first was an open-air arena built in 1879 at East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, also known as Madison Square. It was torn down and replaced with an indoor arena at the same site in 1890. The third MSG, on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, opened in 1925. The current Madison Square Garden opened in 1968. It is at 4 Penn Plaza, close to the intersection of 8th Avenue & 33rd Street in Manhattan, New York City.

 Seats 
The arena has six sections of seats. One of them is not open if hockey is played, because a hockey rink is larger than a basketball court. The other sections used to have different colors. There were red, orange, yellow, brown and blue seats. However, the fans of the New York Rangers only wanted to sit in the blue seats. They did not want to use any of the other sections. They even did not let other fans use the blue seats. For this reason, the MSG does not use these colors today. The most active fans sit in the section 400.
The number of people who can visit the arena changes. If hockey is played and the first section is taken out to make room for the rink, 18,200 people may be there. For basketball, 19,763 people can watch. Up to 20,000 people may watch a concert in the arena.

 Important events 
 The track cycling race known as the "madison" was invented at the second Garden, and named after both the first and second Gardens. Both arenas were important cycling venues in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
 In 1962, the U.S. President John F. Kennedy celebrated his 45th birthday in the third MSG. At the party, Marilyn Monroe sang the song Happy Birthday.
 In 2007, Elton John celebrated his 60th birthday in the current MSG. It was also his 60th concert in this arena with all tickets sold.
 The Big East Conference holds its annual men's basketball tournament at MSG

 Concerts 
 Bob Marley
 Led Zeppelin
 Frank Sinatra
 Elton John
 Elvis Presley
 Rolling Stones
 Madonna
 John Lennon
 Guns N' Roses
 Michael Jackson
 Prince
 Luther Vandross
 Whitney Houston
 Lady Gaga
 Justin Bieber
 One Direction
 Litte Mix
 Ariana Grande
 Phish
 5 Seconds Of Summer
 Billy Joel
 Black Coffee
 A-Reece

 Home teams 
 New York Rangers (NHL)
 New York Knicks (NBA)
 New York Liberty (WNBA)
 St. John's Red Storm men's basketball (NCAA) – most home games

 Other websites 
 Official Site

Category:Sports buildings in New York City
Category:Sports buildings in the United States
Category:WrestleMania host
Category:Buildings and structures in Manhattan
Category:New York Rangers