TD Banknorth Garden

TD Banknorth Garden

"The Garden"
Former names	Shawmut Center (1995) FleetCenter (1995-2005) various names (February 10 to March 13, 2005)
Location	100 Legends Way, Boston, Massachusetts, 02114
Broke ground	May, 1993
Opened	September 30 1995
Owner	Delaware North Companies
Operator	Delaware North Companies
Construction cost	$160 million
Architect	Ellerbe Becket, Inc.
Capacity	18,624 (basketball) 17,565 (hockey) 19,580 (maximum)
Tenants
Boston Celtics (NBA) (1995-present) Boston Bruins (NHL) (1995-present) Boston Blazers (MILL) (1996-1997) Boston Blazers (in 2009) (NLL)

TD Banknorth Garden is a sports arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Banknorth (soon to be renamed TD Bank, N.A.), and is often simply called The Garden, or the traditional Boston Garden and formerly known as the FleetCenter and (before it ever opened its doors) the Shawmut Center. It is the home arena for the Boston Bruins, an NHL team, and the Boston Celtics, an NBA team. It was formerly home to the Boston Blazers of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL, later the National Lacrosse League) and in 2009 will be home to the NLL's new Boston Blazers.^[1] It is the site of the annual Beanpot, and hosts the annual Hockey East Championships. The arena has also hosted many major national sporting events including the 1999 and 2003 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball First and Second Rounds and the 2006 Women's Final Four.

In addition, the facility has hosted the 2001 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the 1996 and 2000 US Gymnastics Trials, the 1998 and 2004 NCAA Men's Frozen Four, the 1996 NHL All-Star Game, and the 2008 NBA Finals.

It has hosted World Wrestling Entertainment's WrestleMania XIV in 1998, as well as King of the Ring 2000, Royal Rumble 2003, SummerSlam 2006, and Survivor Series 2008.

It also hosts many non-sporting events, such as concerts, shows, graduations, seminars, Disney on Ice, the circus, and most notably the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Bruce Springsteen has, despite the notoriously poor acoustics, played several shows in the venue, and in 2001, U2 recorded four consecutive concerts there for use on their 'Elevation 2001: Live From Boston' DVD. Also, Fleetwood Mac recorded and filmed their 2004 CD and DVD package Live in Boston (2004) at this venue. Also, The Who and Genesis recorded live CDs as part of the Encore Series in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Most recently, the filming of Celine Dion's Taking Chances World Tour took place on August 12 and August 13, 2008.

TD Banknorth Garden is one of two NBA arenas (along with Amway Arena, home of the Orlando Magic) with parquet floors. The Celtics are best known for the tradition of the parquet floor, originally built after World War II because of cost and the scarcity of lumber in that time. However, a traditional floor was used in the 2006 NCAA Women's Final Four.

History

Construction

Planners drew up designs for a new arena in the early 1990s as the need for a new facility became apparent. Plans for the new stadium stated that it would be slightly north of the Boston Garden. The term "slightly north" ended up meaning that there was only nine inches (23 cm) of space between the two buildings, when construction was completed.^[2] The site for the new stadium occupied 3.2 acres. It eventually cost $160 million. Ground was broken on April 29, 1993. In 27 months, quick by today's standards, the stadium was built. That include the 7 weeks of delay caused by heavy snowfall.^[2] It is slightly shorter than the old Garden, being ten stories compared to the old Garden's twelve. The Fleetcenter opened on September 30, 1995.

Naming

When constructed to replace the aging Boston Garden as the home of the Boston Bruins hockey team and the Boston Celtics basketball team, the arena was called the FleetCenter. The arena opened on September 30, 1995.

During the construction phase, the naming rights to the "New Garden" were sold to a major Boston-based regional bank, Shawmut Bank. However, just as the Shawmut Center was being completed, Shawmut merged with its somewhat larger rival, the Providence-based Fleet Bank. The merger was negotiated in secret while Shawmut and Fleet's marketing departments were simultaneously engaged in a spirited bidding war for the arena's naming rights. The post-merger bank had effectively been bidding against itself. The bank which won the competition for the "New Garden's" naming rights, Shawmut, was the bank whose name disappeared during the merger. Shortly before the new arena opened, every seat, which had been stamped with the Shawmut logo, had to be replaced. Also, the entire color scheme for the interior had to be adjusted.

2004 Celtics game at the then-FleetCenter

The name of the arena was expected to change as a result of the April 1, 2004 merger of FleetBoston Financial with Bank of America. On January 5, 2005, FleetCenter's owner, Delaware North Companies, announced an agreement under which the bank made a payment to be released from the remaining six years on the naming rights agreement. The agreement left Delaware North free to sell the naming rights to another sponsor. On March 3, 2005, Maine-based TD Banknorth, the U.S. subsidiary of Toronto-Dominion Bank, announced its purchase of the naming rights. The first major event after the announcement was the 2005 Hockey East men's tournament.

The company named the facility "TD Banknorth Garden" in honor of the original Boston Garden. The name officially became the TD Banknorth Garden on July 1, 2005. Prior to that date, it went under the name "YourGarden."

In early 2005, while still searching for a long-term corporate sponsor, the FleetCenter conducted auctions on eBay to sell one-day naming rights. From February 10 to March 13, the FleetCenter sold the naming rights 30 different times on eBay. The net proceeds of $150,633.22 generated during the auction was donated to charities in the Greater Boston area, and $40,000 worth of My Grandma's Coffee Cakes was donated to local food banks. The FleetCenter also made private arrangements with a few companies for one-day naming rights, and offered one day's rights in an employee raffle.

The FleetCenter (at the time of the photo) hosting the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

2008

During the name auction, only twice were names reported to be rejected. Kerry Konrad, a New York City lawyer and Yankees fan, won naming rights for March 1. He proposed the name "DerekJeterCenter," after the New York Yankees shortstop, a stab at fellow Harvard alum and Boston Red Sox fan Jerry Rappaport, Jr., with whom he had a 25 year-old rivalry. Being in the heart of Red Sox Nation, the name did not sit well with the executives and was rejected. An agreement was reached in which the arena would be named "New Boston Garden, Home of The Jimmy Fund Champions."

Fark.com founder Drew Curtis held a contest on his website to name the arena after he bought single-day rights. A user vote resulted in the "Fark.com UFIA Center" coming on top, but the name was rejected due to its inappropriate meaning. The name eventually selected by Curtis and company was "Boston Garden".

• Including its present name, the TD Banknorth Garden has had 33 different names.
• Celtics players dubbed it "The Jungle" during the team's 2002 playoff run.

In April 2008, parent company TD Banknorth became TD Bank, after a merger with Commerce Bancorp. The company will announce a new name for the TD Banknorth Garden by the end of 2008 with rebranding anticipated in 2009.

Renovations

Before the 2006–07 season, the TD Banknorth Garden underwent a major overhaul, installing a new HD entertainment board, the first of its kind in any arena. For basketball, video advertising panels (installed by the NCAA for the 2006 Women's Final Four) replaced the traditional scrolling panels, and added a see-through shot clock, joining the FedExForum, Wachovia Center, Philips Arena, and the Time Warner Cable Arena.

Facilities

The Garden sign as seen from below at night, exiting the Green Line station.

Just as the Boston Garden was, the TD Banknorth Garden is built on top of Boston's North Station, a major transportation hub. The Commuter Rail waiting area became crowded during events due to this design: the fans shared a relatively small area with commuters and several fast food concessions. (There is a concourse on the second floor which is about the same size as the former main ground floor concourse, but this is utilized only as an entryway for the arena.) Work finished on the expanded North Station concourse in early 2007. A new, larger, railway concourse gives railway passengers a waiting area which does not interfere with patrons entering or leaving the Garden.

Connections to the Orange Line and Green Line are near the eastern entrance to the Garden. The Green Line formerly ran on an elevated train in front of the building: however, a Green Line tunnel was completed in 2004. (The original plan was to tear down the rail tracks before the 2004 Democratic National Convention, but in the end the tracks were purposely left up through the convention, to serve as a platform for security forces.) The elevated rail has since been demolished.

References

External links

• TD Banknorth Garden