By:  Hellen Zaboulani

For months, Madison Square Garden has been awaiting a response from the city council on its request to extend its special operating permit.

As reported by the NY Times, the arena on top of Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, which has been dubbed the world’s most famous arena, had its 10-year permit expire in July.  Following months of talks about whether MSG should be moved to allow for Penn Station’s expansion and revamping, two NYC council committees voted on Monday to grant MSG a shorter five-year special operating permit.  The full council is slated to vote on the matter in September, and is expected to follow the committees’ recommendation, which will grant Madison Square Garden its shortest permit in its history.  The iconic arena, first opened in 1968, had been granted its first permit for a duration of 50 years.

“At this time the Council cannot determine the long-term viability of an arena at this location, therefore five years is an appropriate term for this special permit,” said Erik Bottcher, a Manhattan councilman whose district houses MSG.  The 20,000-seat arena is situated on top of Penn Station, the busiest train station in the United States.  The arena, which requires a special permit to hold events with over 2,500 people, has many support columns and beams protruding into the station below to hold its weight.  For years, civic leaders have been proposing moving the arena to another location, freeing up the space for Penn Station’s reconstruction.  In fact, Community Board 5 has been pushing for just a 3-year extension of MSG’s permit, so as to force the arena to make plans to relocate.

The arena’s owner, James Dolan, 67, the Cablevision heir who also owns the New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, Radio City Music Hall and the Beacon Theatre, has long fought to stay put, resisting every effort to move MSG.  Dolan, who boasts an estimated net worth of roughly $2 billion in 2023, has said that MSG owns the land where the arena is and that it would cost $8.5 billion in public funding to build a new arena elsewhere.  “If the Garden’s [permit] is denied, MSG would retain the right to operate the Garden, but would have to limit capacity to 2,500 seats,” MSG has said.

Per the NY Times, last month, the NYC Planning Commission had recommended that the Garden’s permit be renewed for another 10 years, so long as the Garden cooperates with the railroad’s expansion plans and agrees to make improvements on the pedestrian experience outside the station. Urbanists, however, said MSG may not keep its part of that deal if granted so long a permit, as the city can’t easily enforce the conditions.  The critics hope that the shorter permit will give the city and state an upper hand in negotiating with the Dolan family and MSG.

MSG slammed Monday’s decision for a five-year permit.  “A short-term special permit is not in anyone’s best interest and undermines the ability to immediately revamp Penn Station and the surrounding area,” said a statement from Madison Square Garden.  “The committees have done a grave disservice to New Yorkers today, in a shortsighted move that will further contribute to the erosion of the City.”