Today we had a short walk to Madison Square Garden and took a tour, we were not sure if they would be operating because Adele was playing there tonight and tomorrow night.
There have been 3 locations of the Gardens and only recently (2010-2012) they spent $1 billion US to modernise the current building which was constructed in 1968. When you first go in to the lower concourse it has been retained in the original format with memrobillia from the original building.
You move up 3 levels to the modern concourse and all around the walls are memrobillia of events that have been staged at Madison Square Garden.
We were then shown the arena where they stage all types of events from concerts, basketball, ice hockey, boxing, rallies. Today they were setting up for the Adele concert.
Billy Joel plays to a full house once per month, he is up to show 32, he said he will play each month until he cannot sell out the house (19000 tickets) or until he retires.
View from ground level. Under the black temporary floor is the ice rink, it is ready to go as they usually only have 1 day and sometimes less to change the arena to accommodate a different sport or concert.
We also got to see the locker rooms for the basketball and ice hockey teams.
There a four keg rooms to service the bars throughout the venue and they go through approximately 500 per week.
Private suites can cost upto $25k USD an event or some corporations purchase a year at $1m USD.
This was a private dining area where only 100 invited guests have access.
The Strawberry Fields memorial to John Lennon, created by Yoko Ono.
The front gate where John Lennon was shot.
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