Madison Square Garden iterations

I was watching a movie the other day called 'Cinderella Man' with Russell Crowe, it was about boxing and was actually a really good movie. The thing that I noticed when watching it though, was the Madison Square Garden, where many of the boxing matches were held, look entirely different to the Madison Square Garden that I had seen when I visited New York. This got me to wondering if they were even the same building. As usual I went to my trusty friend Google and asked my question. It turns out that it was not the same Madison Square Garden that I had seen, and in fact there have been four different Madison Square Gardens throughout history. 

The first Madison Square Garden was built on the corner of 26th street and Madison Avenue (diagonally across from Madison Square Park, which gave the arena its name). The building was a open air arena, with seating for 10,000, which had been converted from an abandoned railway depot. The arena was open from the early 1870s as an arena, but was only named Madison Square Garden in 1879. It was closed in 1890 and replaced by the second Madison Square Garden in 1891 on the same site. The second Garden was an indoor arena with seating for 8000, but standing room for thousands more. It operated until 1925 and after its closure it was demolished so that the New York Life Building (which stands currently) could be built on the site. In 1925 once the old arena closed a third Madison Square Garden, which was built in a different location away from Madison Square on 8th avenue between 49th and 50th streets, was opened. This is the Garden that was featured in 'Cinderella Man' and was also an indoor arena, with a different seating size for crowds depending on the sport, the largest capacity being 18,496 spectators for boxing or basketball. This arena operated for 43 years, from 1925 until its closure in 1968 (it was demolished and remained a parking lot until 1989), when it was replaced by the fourth and current Madison Square Garden, the one that I saw whilst visiting New York, which is located on top of Pennsylvania (Penn) Station, still on 8th avenue, however between 31st and 33rd streets (further downtown than the third Garden, and closer to Madison Square Park). This is also an indoor arena and has a different seating capacity depending on the attraction, with up to 22,292 squeezing inside for a professional wrestling match. The current Garden is the longest serving of that name, but who knows what the future may hold and whether there might be a fifth Madison Square Garden.

If you would like to read more about the various Madison Square Gardens, check out the Wikipeida articles, MSG, MSG2, MSG3 and MSG4.