Carmelo Anthony Likes the New Madison Square Garden


Carmelo got a chance to see MSG being torn up and rebuilt from up close, and he likes what he sees so far. Good thing, too, since it’s going to cost the organization (and New York Knicks fans) a fortune to rebuild the World’s Most Famous Arena. From the NY Post: “Carmelo Anthony says if the Knicks work half as hard as the construction crews rebuilding Madison Square Garden, the team will breeze through next season. ‘I can’t complain about my summer after seeing what these guys have been doing,’ the star forward said of the $850 million construction site. ‘They’re working 24/7 to get this thing done.’ A thousand construction workers have been splitting round-the-clock shifts to complete the first phase of the renovation, which includes a completely new lower bowl, new locker rooms and event-level suites for the home of the Knicks, Rangers and St. John’s … New dark, almost Yankees-blue seats have been installed throughout the lower bowl, and over the next two years will be added throughout the arena. But the seating won’t be entirely monochrome, MSG president Hank Ratner said. Roughly 1,000 lighter blue seats will be installed in the upper bowl to pay homage to the ones way up in the rafters which were once the MSG equivalent of the Yankee Stadium bleachers. ‘How many arenas have been around since 1879,’ Ratner said. ‘The blue seats are part of honoring that history.’ The 20 new event-level suites, which are all under contract to ‘a who’s who of corporate America,’ are located directly below the seats and open right onto the lower bowl, Ratner said. ‘These are nicer and bigger than most Manhattan apartments,’ he said.”