Hypothetical new MSG design question

[Kane One]

Oooh, I'm going to like this thread. I have OPINIONS about what a new arena should have.

The "new generation" of arenas starting with Anaheim, Boston, etc. are starting to age out, and they all suffered from a degree of sameness and blandness that robbed fans of any kind of unique character from city to city.

We need a few must-haves to modernize:
- Steeper seating bowl like you mentioned they have in Montreal. There's still too much "DOWN IN FRONT!" needed at the Garden
- Front seats right up against the glass all the way around the rink
- Dressing room access directly from both benches
- Longer distance between glass panel seams
- Better ice by any means necessary
- No obstructed views. The bridge is an interesting gimmick, but obstructing the view of the scoreboard for thousands of people is not the way to go about it
- For the love of f***, emergency exits that are up to code

Nice-to-haves:
- Overall seating capacity for hockey over 20,000
- More leg room and consistent seat pitch across the entire arena
- Cup holder at every seat
- Luxury boxes that are similar in number but don't feel like they separate bowls as much
- Actual customizable horn
- More bathrooms
- More/wider/higher concourses
- More views of the street from concourses
- Similar unique roof but with a lot more head room to allow for steeper bowl and a bigger scorebaord
- LED informational signage the whole circumference of the arena
- Intuitive section and seat numbering
- Some ability to walk the circumference of the arena while inside it (MSG used to have this on 6 and 7 - newer arenas tend to have it all the way in the back, or at least partially, like at UBS arena)

This, and although not going to happen, the ability to walk down from the top to the bottom, like we used to be able to. It was such a good shortcut to leaving. Now it’s honestly mind blowing that their current exits are legal.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

This, and although not going to happen, the ability to walk down from the top to the bottom, like we used to be able to. It was such a good shortcut to leaving. Now it’s honestly mind blowing that their current exits are legal.

Unfortunately not a likely thing in the era of mid-height luxury suites.

 

[Kane One]

Unfortunately not a likely thing in the era of mid-height luxury suites.

Yeah, that’s why I said it’s not going to happen. They just need to have better exits. At this point that’s kind of all I care about.

I might be a grumpy f***, but I don’t care about the food, concourses, or bathrooms.

 

[duhmetreE]

 

[Megustaelhockey]

I'm a huge sports fan and even I can admit what a crime against architecture this was.

 

[Machinehead]

Yeah, that’s why I said it’s not going to happen. They just need to have better exits. At this point that’s kind of all I care about.

I might be a grumpy f***, but I don’t care about the food, concourses, or bathrooms.

With you on the food. Baseball, sure. Baseball is a different vibe. Nice weather, 162 games.

I go to hockey games to yell and be miserable.

 

[mas0764]

I prefer further back and a less steep view. I hate it when everything is so vertical

Ditto.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

The LA Clippers new arena is definitely going weird with some of their features... including a "wall" feature designed to have 51 uninterrupted rows of fans. Features destined to make arenas tougher on opponents should definitely be part of any design process.

 

[WhereO Is Kakko]

Nice-to-haves:
- Cup holder at every seat

Out of your 80-billion ideas, I wonder how this would work in the current context of 20”wide seats where I’m barely avoiding elbowing penalties with my seat mates?

 

[Megustaelhockey]

Out of your 80-billion ideas, I wonder how this would work in the current context of 20”wide seats where I’m barely avoiding elbowing penalties with my seat mates?

Just build the arena assuming the way people are in 2024, rather than the mid 1960s.

 

[NYRFAN218]

Cup holders should be a requirement in any new arena. But they simply can't be a thing in the current MSG with the lack of leg room.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

Cup holders should be a requirement in any new arena. But they simply can't be a thing in the current MSG with the lack of leg room.

I remember going to a game in Buffalo and being super impressed by how much leg room there was. I said out loud, "This leg room is amazing," and a woman nearby shouted, "We're just fat!" lmao

 

[ecemleafs]

25,000 person arena. upper deck required to be cheap and for rowdy rangers fans. roof of the garden to look the same. name of arena to be madison square garden. arena needs to be near mass transit "hubs"

 

[ecemleafs]

View attachment 851773
It was almost Barclaysesque in the way those seats sat at each end, and the corners were squared off.

pull a college arena thing and have the steepest possible seats to code right behind the opposing goalie for 2 periods. put the student, i mean cheap seats, in those steep behind the goal seats.

 

[JRinNYC]

Another thing I wished a new hypothetical MSG would have are more tables, or ledges along the walls where you could set your drink and eat. The 8th floor would be hard to do since it's much narrower, but there is plenty of space on the 6th floor.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

I've never experienced as long of an exit time from the building as I did last night. It took me almost 30 minutes to get from the bridge to the street. Absolutely terrifying.

 

[JRinNYC]

I've never experienced as long of an exit time from the building as I did last night. It took me almost 30 minutes to get from the bridge to the street. Absolutely terrifying.

Yeah, it was insane! Took the stairs down tower A and we just stood there waiting and that was waiting till after the 3 stars were announced. I don't know what the hold up was. I rarely take the escalators since they are even slower. I should have gone up to the 10th floor and used one of the less used stair cases to exit. Wonder how they were.

 

[Machinehead]

Random thought I had during game 1 intermission: we should put 99 in the rafters.

It's retired anyway. He played for the Rangers. I cannot put into words, especially for those of us old enough to see Gretzky play, what an all-time honor it was that he played for the Rangers. To me, it's literally one of the most important things in our history. It's Wayne f***ing Gretzky.

His number is properly retired by Edmonton and LA. It should be retired here. If Wayne Gretzky played for my team, I would hang that up in my building.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

Random thought I had during game 1 intermission: we should put 99 in the rafters.

It's retired anyway. He played for the Rangers. I cannot put into words, especially for those of us old enough to see Gretzky play, what an all-time honor it was that he played for the Rangers. To me, it's literally one of the most important things in our history. It's Wayne f***ing Gretzky.

His number is properly retired by Edmonton and LA. It should be retired here. If Wayne Gretzky played for my team, I would hang that up in my building.

Ehhhh, I go back and forth on this. He did play his last games with us... but it's also like the Avalanche retiring Bourque's number.

I don't want to remember much beyond 1994 about an era where we had to get talent from literally everywhere else in order to win. Between the Rangers, Knicks, and Billy Joel (lol), there are a lot of banners already.

 

[Machinehead]

Ehhhh, I go back and forth on this. He did play his last games with us... but it's also like the Avalanche retiring Bourque's number.

I don't want to remember much beyond 1994 about an era where we had to get talent from literally everywhere else in order to win. Between the Rangers, Knicks, and Billy Joel (lol), there are a lot of banners already.

If it wasn't already retired, I wouldn't do it, but it is, so it's not that much of a reach for me.

 

[JRinNYC]

Ehhhh, I go back and forth on this. He did play his last games with us... but it's also like the Avalanche retiring Bourque's number.

I don't want to remember much beyond 1994 about an era where we had to get talent from literally everywhere else in order to win. Between the Rangers, Knicks, and Billy Joel (lol), there are a lot of banners already.

Don't forget about the Phish banner as well.

 

[dstoffa]

I'm a huge sports fan and even I can admit what a crime against architecture this was.

While beautiful, it was outdated very quickly. I am a Cooper Union grad, and fellow alumn Adolf Weinmann carved all the stonework for the old Penn, which is why the school was bequeathed an Eagle, and I know about the station's history.

It was designed as a showpiece, but wasn't practical when the use of the station changed from long distance to commuter traffic. It was deep in order for trains to go under the rivers, and that left a lot of sky to the imagination, but also ensured that it could be buried without loss of functionality. I could go on, but I digress...

Amazon Prime recommended a movie to me some time ago. It's called "The Tenth Victim". So I gave it a play. The opening scenes were shot in then under destruction Penn Station. As soon as I saw the main waiting room, I knew were it was filmed. There are even some shots in the train shed... But I was even more surprised when I realized how much this film inspired Mike Meyers and the Austin Powers films... I won't give any spoilers here, but you won't need to wait long after starting the film.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

While beautiful, it was outdated very quickly. I am a Cooper Union grad, and fellow alumn Adolf Weinmann carved all the stonework for the old Penn, which is why the school was bequeathed an Eagle, and I know about the station's history.

It was designed as a showpiece, but wasn't practical when the use of the station changed from long distance to commuter traffic. It was deep in order for trains to go under the rivers, and that left a lot of sky to the imagination, but also ensured that it could be buried without loss of functionality. I could go on, but I digress...

Amazon Prime recommended a movie to me some time ago. It's called "The Tenth Victim". So I gave it a play. The opening scenes were shot in then under destruction Penn Station. As soon as I saw the main waiting room, I knew were it was filmed. There are even some shots in the train shed... But I was even more surprised when I realized how much this film inspired Mike Meyers and the Austin Powers films... I won't give any spoilers here, but you won't need to wait long after starting the film.

Great info here. Thanks. I'll have to check it out.

 

[dstoffa]

Ehhhh, I go back and forth on this. He did play his last games with us... but it's also like the Avalanche retiring Bourque's number.

I don't want to remember much beyond 1994 about an era where we had to get talent from literally everywhere else in order to win. Between the Rangers, Knicks, and Billy Joel (lol), there are a lot of banners already.

I'd rather see them take care of Brad Park first...

 

[nyrmetros]

1910 please