Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG, known colloquially simply as The Garden, has been the name of four arenas in New York City, United States. It is also the name of the entity which owns the arena and several of the professional sports franchises which play there. There have been four incarnations of the arena. The first two were located at the Northeast corner of Madison Square (Madison Ave. & 26th St.) from which the arena derived its name. Subsequently a new 17,000-seat Garden (opened December 15, 1925) was built at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, and the current Garden (opened February 14, 1968) is at 7th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station. The present arena is informally known to some by the advertising slogan "The World's Most Famous Arena".

Connecticut-based World Wrestling Entertainment considers it a home arena, due to the fact that all generations of the McMahon family, including Vince McMahon's father and grandfather, have promoted shows at the Garden. MSG has hosted several WrestleMania and SummerSlam events, two Survivor Series events and the Royal Rumble 2000. WWE's strong relationship with Madison Square Garden prevented competitor World Championship Wrestling from ever having a show at the Garden. In 2005, WWE severed business ties with the arena because WWE felt that increased rental costs would prevent them from making a profit in the building. However, over a year later, World Wrestling Entertainment temporarily patched things up with MSG and the hiatus ended with a September 11, 2006 edition of WWE Raw. Though they pulled the 20th installment of SummerSlam, which would have been held at the Garden on August 26, 2007 (It will now be held at the Continental Airlines Arena), WWE continues to make appearances from time to time.

Notable firsts

 * March 31, 1985 - The World Wrestling Federation (now known as World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE), presents the inaugural WrestleMania. The annual event would return to Madison Square Garden in 1994 and 2004 for WrestleMania X and WrestleMania XX, celebrating the 10th and 20th anniversaries of WrestleMania.