April 04, 2008

Stop me if you've heard this: MSG reno plan announced

One week after announcing a $350 million renovation plan for Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks and Rangers owners Cablevision announced it again, this time with renderings and a $500 million price tag. Unfortunately, almost all of the press coverage has featured the same two renderings (of a corridor and another corridor), which doesn't explain much about what the renovations will entail.

You can sneak a few more peeks in this report on cable news channel NY1, which gives more details on the fate of the arena's "blue seats" that have been the traditional home of cheap-seat diehards (and which haven't been blue for nearly two decades). The grade of the top level would be increased by 17%, according to Cablevision, enabling the seats to be closer to the floor - this may sound confusing if you equate "steep" with "high," but actually steeper seats can be closer to the action horizontally, since fans in the back rows don't have to worry about their views being blocked by those in rows ahead of them. That would presumably enable MSG to reclaim some of what's now dead airspace inside the arena and turn it into extra concession and corridor space behind the seating - though it's hard to tell exactly from one grainy rendering via web video. (It's also worth noting that luxury boxes would be moved down from their current perch atop the arena to lower down, presumably displacing more regular seating to higher altitudes.)

The bigger question is whether Cablevision can really expect to make back its $500 million just from having a few more restaurants and nicer suites; consider that they'd need to clear at least $40 million a year in new revenues every year, plummeting economy or no. The company does say it would do the work entirely with its own money, though, and since most local politicians are enraged at Cablevision for backing out of the plan to move them to a new arena across the street, they're not likely to get any from the public anyway. So New Yorkers should at least be able to rest easy that if they end up paying more at the box office for seats in a renovated Garden, they won't have to be paying again on tax day.