The World's Most Famous Arena

Went with my dad to watch the Knicks beat the shockingly woeful Bulls and whatever one may say about Isaiah Thomas or the Knicks, there's no question that the crowd at Madison Square Garden is light years better than anything DC has at the Verizon Center. The level of intensity and spontaneity and fan understanding of the events on the floor is off the charts. It's easy to see why the owners want to build a new facility with more and better luxury boxes and sightlines, but they've got a pretty good thing going with their fanbase and their home crowd despite the crappy teams, and they'd better not screw it up.

Comments

Can't speak to the crowds at the Verizon Center, but the extraordinariness of basketball knowledge possessed by the NYC fan has always been one of the biggest canards in sports. Every now and again, you see some NBA player admit it.

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | November 24, 2007 5:01 PM

"the extraordinariness of basketball knowledge possessed by the NYC fan has always been one of the biggest canards in sports."

Meh. In my experience, NBA crowds in Philly and MSG really do have a better responsiveness to the intricacies of the game than crowds out in the provinces.

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The one point that no one ever seems to make is that while MSG is a great place to watch a game for a variety of reasons, the building itself really does suck. It's old in a non-charming way, dirty and literally smelly.

Now that the Dolans have vanquished the west side stadium proposal, they ought to get busy building a new hall.

Posted by Petey | November 24, 2007 5:10 PM

Plus, the building is not square.

It's the most blatant case of false advertising that I've ever seen.

Posted by Petey | November 24, 2007 5:34 PM

And its not in Madison either.

Posted by Peter Driscoll | November 24, 2007 6:14 PM

Nor, for that matter, has it ever struck me as very garden-esque.

Of course Matt is right: the knowledge in NYC is far superior to that in DC. In a similarly amazing feat, I run faster than Stephen Hawking.

NYC's basketball knowledge is decent, but I'd say it lags behind Chicago, Indy, Toronto, Detroit, Boston, Philly, Oakland and probably one other city I'm missing. This still puts it above 70% of the league's cities. Not too bad.

Posted by jhupp | November 24, 2007 6:27 PM

Plus, the building is not square...
And its not in Madison either.

And, even granting those two points, the building is also not on Madison Square (which is over a mile from the present Garden.)

For those non-history buffs, the original MSG was on Madison Square and the name proved so strong brand-wise that when the venue moved (in the 1920s, I believe) the name was kept.

Posted by James Gary | November 24, 2007 6:58 PM

The building would become both square and a garden if they brought back Jeff Van Gundy.

Posted by Flevy | November 24, 2007 7:28 PM

The building would become both square and a garden if they brought back Jeff Van Gundy.

Posted by Flevy | November 24, 2007 7:29 PM

Well, to put it simply: DC is a football town. There will always be much more interest in the Redskins at .500 than a playoff basketball team.

Posted by Oliver Willis | November 24, 2007 7:43 PM

I actually love MSG. The seating bowl is curved and the design of the tiers of seats means that most of the seats are close to the court and between the goals, pointing towards center court and not off to the sides.

Modern arenas, with acres of luxury boxes close to the court, can't accomplish that.

Posted by Dilan Esper | November 24, 2007 8:41 PM

"...the building itself really does suck. It's old in a non-charming way, dirty and literally smelly."

Of course the building sucks. It's a cheesy, third-rate piece of architectural detritus put up by cheesy, third-rate grubs.

Yeah, and here's what they knocked down to build it, in case some of you never saw it:

http://www.trainweb.org/rshs/VD%20-%20Penn%20Station%202.htm

Knicks, Schnicks. I'm going to return now to curmudgeon-land, from whence I came. Y'all continue on without me.

Bitter? Me? Nah.

Posted by dougr | November 24, 2007 9:51 PM

Does the present incarnation of the Garden still have the famous red velvet swing? Probably not . . .

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/white/1.html

Posted by rea | November 24, 2007 10:33 PM

so you think the reasons the Dolans want to build a new arena have something to do with better "sightlines?" Or, at least, that sightlines are enough of a par with luxury boxes as a reason as to be mentioned in the same sentence?

Cute.

You've been gone from NY for too long, and/or you know nothing of the Dolans.

"Sightlines" has comically little to do with the impetus behind wanting a new stadium.

Posted by david | November 24, 2007 11:52 PM

You've been gone from NY for too long, and/or you know nothing of the Dolans.

The less one knows of the Doleful Dolans, the better. My cable Internet service is reliable, but I greatly regret the fact that it's from Cablevision, the Dolans' company.

Posted by Peter | November 25, 2007 1:01 AM

The World's Most Famous Arena

Feh. These people really need to get over themselves...

Posted by Steve in Sacto | November 25, 2007 2:38 AM

No one is actually from DC who goes to the games so the crowds not invested. Not true of MSG.

You should see a baseball game in St. Louis.

Posted by Jake | November 25, 2007 3:42 AM

Oakland, for sure. There's nothing like seeing a Warriors home game. It's an actual throwback. They don't play music and shoot t-shirts into the stands while the ball's in play, and yet, people still care.

Posted by too many steves | November 25, 2007 3:57 AM

It's really sad how many architects still think modernism is the end-all of style.

Posted by Adam Villani | November 25, 2007 5:54 AM

New York fans ran Patrick Ewing out of town and we've been crying the blues ever since.

Posted by James | November 25, 2007 7:57 AM

I love how the model doesn't show any NYC in the background!

Posted by Rich | November 25, 2007 12:05 PM

They should get started on Madison Cube Garden /Futurama

Posted by N M | November 25, 2007 12:12 PM

Rich - that's typical of big-name architects. Their creations exist as objects to be admired, not as parts of the fabric of a working environment.

Posted by Adam Villani | November 25, 2007 2:44 PM

No one is actually from DC who goes to the games so the crowds not invested. Not true of MSG.
Here's an idea: quit buying the idea that DC consists of (mostly white) pols and associated hangers on who parachute from out of town, and understand that the majority of the city's majority black population have lived in the District for generations. And they're all diehard Redskins fans.

Posted by Oliver Willis | November 26, 2007 10:40 AM