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THE FUTURE OF MADISON SQUARE GARDEN REVEALED

Concerns that the legendary Madison Square Garden, the longtime home for WWE in NYC going back many decades, have officially ceased.

It was announced yesterday that the venue will not be forced to move as part of the planned renovaton of the Penn Station train hub, which sits underneath MSG.  There had been pitches for the legendary venue to be razed and relocated so that Penn Station could expand and take over MSG's footprint.

The accepted pitch for the renovation will not require that and MSG will continue to be connected to Penn Station when the renovations have completed.  Amtrak, New Jersey Transit an The Long Island Railroad all stop in Penn, allowing easy access for riders from several States to MSG.

Back in 2013, the city of New York only renewed MSG's permit to exist and operate above Penn Station for an additional 15 years, through 2028.   At the time, there were forces within NYC's political scene that pushed to have MSG Arena relocated to somewhere else in Manhattan in favor of the Penn Station expansion.  At the time, Madison Square Garden had been seeking a permanent permit to operate above the Station as at it had just paid millions of dollars for a complete overall and renovation of the legendary facility, which took several years.  The MSG renovations were not funded by the city, so at the time, it appeared MSG ownership had spent a ton on a venue that had a finite lifespan.  That worry is no longer the case.

For those who don't know the geography, MSG is literally in the center of Manhattan, within walking distance of every major NYC subway line and above the trains from New Jersey and Long Island.  This version of MSG is the Arena's third location, having opened in February 1968.  It would have been near-impossible to find another location that could have housed the venue in such a perfect location in NYC, although there were some who pitched moving MSG one block to the former site of the Penta Hotel, which was knocked down in 2023.

The Garden, long considered WWE's home arena, has hosted more historic title changes and milestone WWE events than any other dating back to the earliest days of professional wrestling promoted by the McMahon family.  It has hosted three Wrestlemanias, including the first, tenth and 20th renditions of the event as well as countless other events, including Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Supercard.  The Infosys Theater, as it is now known, within the Garden complex, has hosted events from WWE NXT, WCW, GLOW and AAA Lucha Libre.

The cost of moving the arena could have racked up to $8.6 billion dollars, according to previous hearings.

WWE will return to MSG this July for a live Saturday Night's Main Event special on Peacock.

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