TD Garden will keep name at least to 2045

TD Garden, which was opened in 1995, when it was called the Fleet Center, after a disappeared New England bank.

TD Bank has renewed its agreement to keep its name on what many of us still call the Boston Garden, now officially the TD Garden, for an additional 20 years. Under TD Bank’s original 2005 agreement, its naming rights to the arena were set to expire in 2025, but that has now been extended to 2045.  TD Bank is part of Toronto-based Toronto-Dominion Bank, a huge multinational financial-services company.

TD Bank will remain the official bank of the Boston Bruins until 2045. The Bruins’ home ice, of course, is at TD Garden. The Celtics are also based there. The bank is also committing $15 million to local programs, including free event tickets provided to people from underserved communities and funds to artists working on community projects.  

In a 1994 photo, the old Boston Garden, built in 1928, and known for its smoky and gritty interior and occasional violations of the fire codes through overcrowding. A lot of people remember being taken there to see the Ringling Brothers circus. Ah, the smell of manure!

Garden-variety humor and bribery

The old Boston Garden, built in 1928 and torn down in in 1998, three years after its successor arena, TD Garden, was opened.

New England Diary editor Robert Whitcomb and two fellow reporters from the Boston Herald Traveler were each given $50 to take to a Bruins game in The Garden in 1971 with which to bribe the police there to let us in although the fire-code-approved crowd capacity had long been exceeded when we arrived. The air was blue with cigarette and cigar smoke.

The bribes worked and wrote a scandal story about it, but the publisher, fearing retribution, killed the story.

TD Garden. Now, if they’d only connect by train South and North Stations it would be a lot easier for some of us to get there. The arena is built right over North Station. and it houses the Sports Museum of New England.

“The old Boston Garden seats, some of which are placed here, were, as we remembered not much fun to sit in. The museum displays a sense of humor, by placing one seat behind a pole, symbolizing the 1,895 such seats.’’

— Jim Sullivan, on the Sports Museum of New England, in the April 11, 2002 Boston Globe article “Take Me Out To’’

TD Garden to be closed for most of summer for makeover

From The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com)

“The TD Garden {the most important arena in New England} has announced that it will be closing for most of the summer of 2019 to undergo a makeover. The arena will be closed for nine weeks as the finishing touches on $100 million worth of upgrades are implemented before the next hockey and basketball seasons.

While the arena is closed, giant cranes will be brought in to rearrange about 16,500 seats in the arena’s bowl. The project will also see expanded concourses and club areas, as well as about 400 new seats hanging over existing stands from the ninth floor and the replacement of all loge and balcony seating. When complete, around 50,000 square feet of space will have been added. The project will begin in July following the conclusion of the Boston Celtics’ season.

Amy Latimer, President of TD Garden, commented, “We knew we had two teams that were going to be in the playoffs. We said we might as well not plan on any construction in June, anyway.” Speaking about how some events had to find alternative venues, Latimer said, “People were great. Everyone understands these are massive projects.”

The Council congratulates TD Garden for making these impressive upgrades and for enhancing the fan experience at the arena.’’