TD Garden Informations

TD Garden, often called The Garden and formerly known as the FleetCenter is a multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. With a capacity of nearly 20,000 people, it is New England’s largest arena for sports, concerts, and conventions. It is named after its sponsor, TD Bank, a subsidiary of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank. It opened in 1995 as a replacement for the original Boston Garden and has been known as FleetCenter, and TD Banknorth Garden. The arena is located directly above the MBTA's North Station.

TD Garden is the home arena for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association. It is owned by Delaware North, whose CEO, Jeremy Jacobs, also owns the Bruins, and Mike Key. It is the site of the annual Beanpot college hockey tournament, and hosts the annual Hockey East Championships. The arena has also hosted many major national sporting events including the 1999 and 2003 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball regional first and second rounds, the 2009, 2012, and 2018 Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight, the 1998 Frozen Four, the 2004 Frozen Four, the 2014 United States Figure Skating Championships, the 2006 Women's Final Four, and the 2015 Frozen Four. It hosted games 3, 4, and 6 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals and the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals for the Bruins, Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals for the Bruins, and games 1, 2, and 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals and games 3, 4, and 5 of the 2010 NBA Finals for the Celtics. Furthermore, it hosted the NA LCS 2017 Summer Split Finals.

As early as the late 1970s, the Bruins were looking for a new arena. The Boston Garden was approaching 50 years old at the time. The Jacobs family, who had bought the Bruins in 1975, were looking to build a 17,000-seat arena in suburban Boston after negotiations fell through with the City of Boston. The team nearly moved to Salem, New Hampshire around where the Mall at Rockingham Park is today. That fell through and the Bruins continued to reside in Boston Garden. The Celtics, also looking for a new arena, considered moving to Revere.

In 1985, Boston Garden owner Delaware North was awarded the rights to construct a new arena by the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Mayor Raymond Flynn. However, poor economic conditions delayed the project.

On May 8, 1992, Delaware North announced that it had secured funding for a new arena, in the form of $120 million worth of loans evenly split between Bank of Boston, Fleet Bank of Massachusetts, and Shawmut National Corporation. That December, a bill approving construction of the new arena was killed in the Massachusetts Senate by Senate President William M. Bulger. Legislative leaders and Delaware North attempted to reach an agreement on plans for the new arena, but in February 1993 Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs announced that he was backing out of the project as a result of the legislature's demand that his company pay $3.5 million in "linkage payments". Then-Governor of Massachusetts, Bill Weld, lent strong support to a "Chapter 15" piece of legislation that included a "section 7" that explicitly required Delaware North to, as the legislation termed it, "administer, produce, promote and sponsor no less than three charitable events per year at the New Boston Garden" and pay the proceeds from such events to the formerly-titled Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), today's Department of Conservation and Recreation department of Government of Massachusetts. Two weeks later, after a new series of negotiations, the two sides finally came to an agreement, and on February 26 the Legislature passed a bill that allowed for construction of a new sports arena.

Construction began on April 29, 1993. Plans for the new arena stated that it would be slightly north of the old facility. The term "slightly north" ended up meaning that there was only nine inches (23 cm) of space between the two buildings when construction was completed. The site for the new arena occupied 3.2 acres (13,000 m2). It eventually cost $160 million. In 27 months, quick by today's standards, the arena was built. That included seven weeks of delay caused by heavy snowfall.

During the construction phase, the naming rights to the "New Garden" were sold to Boston-based Shawmut Bank, and the arena was originally slated to open as the Shawmut Center. However, just as the arena was being completed, the name of the "New Garden's" sponsor, Shawmut, disappeared upon the bank's merger with Fleet Financial Group. Shortly before the new arena opened, every seat, which had been stamped with the Shawmut logo, had to be replaced. Also, the entire color scheme for the interior had to be adjusted from Shawmut's blue-and-white to Fleet's green-and-gold. The arena opened on September 30, 1995.

The name of the arena was expected to change as a result of the April 1, 2004 merger of FleetBoston Financial with Bank of America. On January 5, 2005, Delaware North announced an agreement under which the bank made a payment to be released from the remaining six years on the naming rights agreement. The agreement left Delaware North free to sell the naming rights to another sponsor. On March 3, 2005, Maine-based TD Banknorth, a U.S. subsidiary of Toronto-Dominion Bank, announced its purchase of the naming rights for $6 million per year. The first major event after the announcement was the 2005 Hockey East Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.

The company named the facility "TD Banknorth Garden" in honor of the original Boston Garden. The name officially became the TD Banknorth Garden on July 1, 2005. Prior to that date, it went under the name "YourGarden".

In early 2005, while still searching for a long-term corporate sponsor, the FleetCenter conducted auctions on eBay to sell one-day naming rights. From February 10 to March 13, the FleetCenter sold the naming rights 30 different times on eBay. The net proceeds of $150,633.22 generated during the auction was donated to charities in the Greater Boston area. The FleetCenter also made private arrangements with a few companies for one-day naming rights, and offered one day's rights in an employee raffle.

During the name auction, only twice were names reported to be rejected. Kerry Konrad, a New York City lawyer and Yankees fan, won naming rights for March 1 with a bid of $2300. He proposed the name "Derek Jeter Center", after the New York Yankees shortstop, a stab at fellow Harvard College alumnus and Boston Red Sox fan Jerry Rappaport, Jr., with whom he had a 25-year-old rivalry. Being in the heart of Red Sox Nation, the name did not sit well with the executives and was rejected. An agreement was reached in which Rappaport added $6300 for a total bid of $8600, representing the 86 years of the Curse of the Bambino, and named the arena "New Boston Garden, Home of The Jimmy Fund Champions".Fark.com founder Drew Curtis held a contest on his website to name the arena after he bought single-day rights. A user vote resulted in the "Fark.com UFIA Center" coming on top, but the name was rejected due to its inappropriate meaning. The name eventually selected by Curtis and company was "Boston Garden".

In April 2008, TD Banknorth became TD Bank, after a merger with Commerce Bancorp, a New Jersey–based bank. Owner Delaware North Companies announced on April 15, 2009, that the building would be renamed TD Garden in July 2009.

Before the 2006–2007 season, the TD Garden underwent a major overhaul, installing a new HD entertainment board. For basketball, video advertising panels (installed by the NCAA for the 2006 Women's Final Four) replaced the traditional scrolling panels, and added a see-through shot clock, joining the FedExForum, Wells Fargo Center, State Farm Arena, Talking Stick Resort Arena, United Center, Quicken Loans Arena, and the Spectrum (this was done before the NBA mandate was installed in 2011). In addition, a vintage siren, just as the original Boston Garden had used, was added to replace the end-of-period horn for hockey only, a feature of the Montreal Canadiens, the Bruins' arch-rivals, at the Montreal Forum (now the Pepsi Forum shopping centre) and the current Centre Bell. In 2009, an LED energy efficient lighting system was added to the exterior of the building. The Boston Globe announced a $70 million project upgrade to TD Garden's concourses and Legends Club restaurant, along with technology upgrades and the relocation of a retail shop. Construction occurred in two phases, summer 2014 and then summer 2015.

On January 25, 2013, during a Celtics vs. Knicks game at the Garden, television announcer Marv Albert accused the TD Garden production crew for being one of those arenas that "constantly" use fake sound effects to intensify the crowd reactions on nationally televised games (which is very similar to "sweetening" on television); however, the official Twitter account of the Boston Celtics stated that the Celtics have never used artificial crowd noise. Following their 2011 Stanley Cup Finals win, the Bruins changed their previous Stanley Cup banners to reflect the changes in the team's main jersey logo through time during their past five Cup wins, as the current logo adorns the 2011 Cup win's banner.

Just before the 2018-19 series of pre-season NHL games began for the Bruins at TD Garden, a serious upgrade to the interior overhead lighting of the playing surface had been completed: as with the NHL hockey arenas for the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks and Tampa Bay Lightning; all-new LED-based overhead lighting technology will be brilliantly lighting up Bruins and Celtics home games at TD Garden from now on.

Among the non-sporting events hosted by the Garden are concerts, shows, graduations, seminars, Disney on Ice, the circus, and commencement exercises for Northeastern University.

The arena is primarily the home venue for the NBA's Boston Celtics and the NHL's Boston Bruins. It has hosted the 1996 NHL All-Star Game, the 2008 and 2010 NBA Finals, and the 2011, 2013, and the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals . While dominant in their previous arena, Boston Garden, the Celtics and Bruins were initially much less successful in their new home as both teams missed the playoffs numerous times and failed to make their league's conference finals until 2008. That year the Celtics defeated their arch-rival Los Angeles Lakers in six games, clinching the 2008 NBA championship in the Garden. The Bruins overcame the Vancouver Canucks in seven games to capture the 2011 Stanley Cup, winning all games in the Garden with lopsided scores (8-1, 4-0, and 5-2) and then taking the championship on the road at Rogers Arena. In the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Bruins overcame a 4-1 deficit in the deciding Game 7 against the Toronto Maple Leafs to win 5-4 in overtime, en route to making it to the Finals; the Chicago Blackhawks hoisted the Stanley Cup in the Garden after a stunning comeback in the final minute of Game Six. The Bruins failed to win the Cup in 2019, hosting the event but losing a critical Game 7 to the St. Louis Blues, 4-1.

From March 28 to April 3, 2016, TD Garden hosted the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships.

Eddie Palladino is the current public address announcer for Celtics games, while Jim Martin is the public address announcer for Bruins games. Ron Poster is the arena organist.

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