Many fans are unaware that the current Madison Square Garden is the fourth incarnation of "The World's Most Famous Arena." The first was a converted 19th Century railroad station across from Madison Square Park in Lower Manhattan. When the original Garden became too old and decrepit a massive new one was built near the first site and that lasted until 1925. Stan Fischler On Rangers Cup Chances The third one – and first to house National Hockey League teams – was built on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets. And guess what? When completed the architects discovered that they forgot an important item – a box office. That problem was solved by construction of the missing ticket selling booths right in the middle of the main entrance on Eighth Avenue. When the current arena was built, once again a key element was missing. I was given a tour of the new – but still unopened – building early in 1968 along with two other hockey journalists. Garden p.r. man Bob Wolff proudly showed us the inner layout when I asked the location of the press box My question was greeted with silence. They forgot to install a section for the writers. The immediate problem was solved by annexing several arena seats and affixing temporary wooden planks on which typewriters could be placed. In fairly reasonable time, room was found for a more permanent place for hockey writers to do their jobs. The Maven was one of them.
