Dolan Bails on Plan for New MSG, Decides on Wasteful Upgrade Instead
Cablevision Systems Corp., owner of Madison Square Garden and the teams that play within its storied walls, announced last week that they have pulled out of an agreement to build a new facility across the street from the existing location, despite state and city officials urging them to reconsider.
The World’s Most Famous Arena will undergo a $500 million renovation instead, which will widen hallways, raise ceilings and add a number of restaurants and luxury boxes to the building that has stood since 1968. Smaller renovations were completed during the 1990s, but this overhaul should drastically change the way the building looks (and probably smells).
Cablevision, which is headed by SUNY-New Paltz dropout Jimmy Dolan, backed out of a government plan to move the Garden to the Manhattan Post Office site across Eighth Avenue, which would allow further renovations to Penn Station, which currently sits below the Arena.
Madison Square Garden executive Hank Ratner says the renovation will start sometime in 2009 and should be finished by 2011. Plans include a 25-foot skylight at the main entrance, more bathrooms, bars and restaurants and upgraded luxury suites, which currently sit very far away from the court/ice.
It comes as a surprise that Cablevision decided to pull out, as they have shown over the years that they have no qualms in wasting money, especially when it comes to executives and players for the New York Knicks. However, I suppose one could say this is in line with their historical decisions, as fans have repeatedly called for a new arena and now Cablevision is choosing to go in the opposite direction.
might I suggest the first upgrade be those dingy stairwells that people leave from? I know the employees of the garden like them because they can smoke a joing there, but they are disgusting and look like they haven’t been cleaned since 1990.