Madison Square Garden - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
4.5
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Tours run daily beginning at 9:30 AM.
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The area
Address
Neighborhood: Midtown
This is the iconic New York that so many visitors imagine before they visit - spectacular skyscrapers like the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building, iconic public buildings like Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library, and the non-stop hustle and bustle of the city streets. Fifth Avenue is a shopper's paradise where you can find every kind of store imaginable, with fashion brands ranging from the affordable to the ultra-fancy. Visit Rockefeller Center to experience towering Art Deco grandeur, and foodies will love the busy restaurants that stay open late in Koreatown. After dark, Midtown calms down a bit, but at any time of day or night it still feels 100% New York.
How to get there
  • 34th St – Penn Station • 3 min walk
  • 34th St – Penn Station • 4 min walk
Reach out directly
See what travelers are saying
  • Toni C
    2 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Billy Joel at Madison Square Gardens
    We came from the UK to NYC and managed to get Billy Joel tickets on my 40th Birthday. Getting into the arena was a bit of disorganised chaos, but we had good seats and his performance was amazing!!! However drinks and snacks were incredibly expensive, a beer and packet of Twizzlers for $26!!! A great experience overall…
    Visited July 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written August 15, 2023
  • Jack
    Old Bethpage, New York868 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Lionel Richie Concert was great!
    I attended Madison Square Garden for a Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind, and Fire concert and it was great. I managed to get good seats near the floor and it was great. The venue is amazing. Pretty much every seat has a nice view of the stage. There are many restaurants and bars for food and drinks and everything is organized well. It was busy getting out, but, Penn station is right next to the garden so it was easy to get home back to Long Island. Overall I highly recommend seeing a concert here or a basketball or hockey game.
    Visited August 2023
    Written August 16, 2023
  • Josh D
    New York City, New York484 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    My life goal was finally achieved!!
    I know all motivational speakers say to follow your dreams and never give up but one of my major dreams was to come to a show here but I was very broke for a long time and they have strict security so it’s very hard to break in!! I happened to be born in 2003 and then this year I turned 20 and I asked my mom to make my life dream come true and she did!! I went here last night with my dad to see Patti Smith and the National and it was very fun!! I had to go up five flights of escalators to get to my seat which shows how big the arena is and then I was in a fancy section with plexiglass!! I could see the band well and it was a vibe!! The lady who was selling the beers was nice and may have secretly known about my obsession so she gave me free lemonade!! I hopefully will be back many times in the future!!
    Visited August 2023
    Traveled with family
    Written August 19, 2023
  • apf9930
    Spring Hill, Florida154 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Billy Joel Show#94 Madison Square Gardens
    This was our second visit to MSG and Billy Joel was amazing! The seats were in Section 104 Row 15 Seat 19 & 20 and we had a great view. The staff are so helpful. There are multiple food and drink options available. Easy in and out of the building with access to trains. It was a great evening.
    Visited September 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written September 18, 2023
  • Mike J
    Nazareth, Pennsylvania407 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Queen rocked the Garden
    First time at MSG for a Queen concert. First off, Queen rocked the house, amazing show, one of best I’ve ever seen! In terms of the arena, it was humbling to be at such a storied place for sure. While the building was a bit dated in some regards, it still was nice - seats were comfortable, sound was good, facilities were clean, staff was helpful and friendly. One downside, drinks were very overpriced. Got two mixed drinks, no prices posted, cost me $50 with the tip. A bit steep even for the city! There is a lot of work going on (construction) outside so finding the right entrance and line to get in was a bit confusing. But there were people around trying to direct people to the right place. Leaving took forever as you have to herd down escalators turned off (so basically stairs) winding down several flights. Seemed much tighter and packed than other arenas we have been to. But all in all, we will consider coming back for a show in the future.
    Visited October 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written October 15, 2023
  • D P
    Wellington, New Zealand6,710 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    What an amazing space to visit and watch an event at.
    What a stadium!! It’s vast and beautiful with great seating and 360° views. I don’t think there is a seat you could pick that wouldn’t give you greater clear views of whatever it is you are going to see there. We watched the Nicks play and it was a fantastic experience! Hot dogs were mega too!!!!
    Visited October 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written October 19, 2023
  • Cheslav P
    Bloomfield, New Jersey2 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Overpriced drinks
    My experience with Madison square on UFC 295 is great, entertainment on highest level of the world. but drinks prices on bar are insulting highest. 4 small cocktails and one beer cost me 125 dollars. one single drink cost 20-25 dollars
    Visited November 2023
    Traveled solo
    Written November 15, 2023
  • good_ants
    Doha, Qatar633 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Quite possibly true: “The World's Most Famous Arena”!
    'MSG' is an historical, hauntingly beautiful, legendary, and timeless venue. Whether you can make it in for a sporting event (Rangers? Knickerbockers?!? other), live music (Phish anyone?), or other event, you should. You are etching your own wee scratch into the annals of history. "Caveat emptor" - scalpers do still lurk around the gardens' outskirts; DO NOT fall for it. My buddy and I almost jumped at "2 floors for $200 each" as we were champing at the bit to get into our first night of the Phish. Luckily intuition told us "no", only to be confirmed by our box-office helper saying, "No paper tickets are submitted here anymore". Do not buy paper tickets.
    Visited December 2023
    Traveled with friends
    Written January 1, 2024
  • BF826
    Birmingham, United Kingdom89 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Go Knicks
    Have wanted to visit Madison Square Garden for the longest time. Our visit was to watch the Christmas Day New York Knicks Basketball vs Milwaukee Bucks. What an amazing experience. Do not hesitate to book tickets (they can be a little pricey, but the experience is so worth it) worth doing at least once in your lifetime. You don’t have to be court side, the tickets further up are great, you can see the whole court and there are monitors for the smaller details. The crowd interaction is something I haven’t seen before. It was such a great experience from start to finish.
    Visited December 2023
    Traveled as a couple
    Written January 8, 2024
  • sarah
    York, United Kingdom38 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Billy Joel!!
    What a dream to come here. We came to see Billy Joel for his 98th show and it was truly life changing. The staff at MSG were extremely efficient and we went through security very quickly. The merch line wasn’t long which was down to the friendly staff who were running it in a well organised fashion.
    Visited January 2024
    Traveled with friends
    Written January 12, 2024
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles9,198 reviews
Excellent
6,221
Very good
2,286
Average
480
Poor
120
Terrible
91

Jennifer K
Chicago, IL3 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020 • Friends
We went on the tour today and it was absolutely horrible. We felt as if our tour guide Rosalyn knew absolutely nothing about the arena. She “liked” and “um’d” her way through the entire thing. Within the first few minutes of the tour, we knew it was going to be bad. She literally walked past all of the Wayne Gretzky displays and made no mention of him. She walked away from us twice and we needed help from another employee to find her. She would speak at the front and not wait for the entire group to catch up so they would miss whatever she said. Any of the information she shared was very basic and we felt like we could learn more from Wikipedia. We did not see any locker rooms because there was a Rangers game tonight. She didn’t seem to know anything about the events that go on there. I’ve never been on a worse tour in my life. We literally thought it was a joke. What a rip off! We mentioned to several employees along the way how horrible it was and they just apologized but would not offer a refund. Save your money!
Written January 20, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

The travel guy 1990
London, UK149 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020
I have always wanted to see a basketball game in America and to visit Madison Square Gardens so two boxes ticked.

I was quite disappointed that they forced the LGBT agenda on to the crowd with an LGBT theme for everything all night! it's the 21 century and no one cares about your sexuality! everyone is human and everyone is accepted.

The atmosphere was amazing and the fans are brilliant but the sport itself was quite dull but maybe its because the team isn't very good. haha

Drinks, food and merchndise are so expensive $20 a wine and $15 for a bud light haha

but its a great event and the crowd go wild when the staff shoot t-shirts into the stand.

oh yeah nearly forgot the best part THE CHEERLEADERS!
Written April 28, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jay B
Detroit, MI264 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020 • Couples
Great location, but the people handling is quite slow and inconvenient. The facility has to move everyone up many floors to seating, I get that, there is a train station in the basement. What I don't get is why they have such small escalators with almost no room on the numerous landings between. Moreover, at departure time the escalators are switched off and used like stairs. Probably saves some electricity, but the pitch of escalator treads is not the same as normal stair treads and the varigated nature of the treads makes it visually difficult for many people to safely descend.

Here's an idea, put in some big wide ramps like virtually every other large venue uses. There is tons of room outside the structure for ramps. It might disrupt the appearance of the facility, but it would help drag the 'ol barn into the modern era.

On the up side, the staff was great. The usher in our section really knew his territory.
Written February 13, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Kay R
Essex, UK198 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020 • Family
I booked to see the Harlem Globetrotters during our stay in New York - mainly for the experience of watching anything at all in MSG. I regularly watch shows at The O2 in London, so wanted to watch something in MSG.

The arena itself was great, during the show the top tier was visibly closed (had nobody seated there at all). All the seats on the lower tier appeared to be good tickets with a reasonable view. We was in block 101.

The show itself was very well rehearsed - I would say geared more for children, although I was surprised at the volume of adults with no children in tow.

A fun couple of hours during our trip to New York.
Written February 18, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Betty D
Canton, MA33 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2022
Just went the last 2 days for a Harry Styles concert. The garden itself has been kept up nicely and the staff did an excellent job keeping people in line and getting the line moving and communicating with people waiting for various reasons (merchandise, pit numbers and entrance). HOWEVER, they are ripping people off with their merchandise sales. When they ring things up it doesn't say you bought a water bottle or a key chain, it just gives a number. You also have to watch them like a hawk when they are bagging up your purchases. We came back minus one $50 t-shirt and charged for a $25 tote when we actually bought a $5 or $10 keychain. It wasn't until I realized the shirt was missing that I looked at the receipt and was trying to figure out the price of the keychain. We'd purchased some items earlier in the day and I matched the tote code on one receipt to the 2nd. My daughter said they never put a shirt in the bag but she didn't know one was purchased so she didn't know to say something. Very disappointed. I'm trying to get my money back but was told by CS that it was basically my fault. I agreed to pay the price. Which I did but I agreed to pay what I purchased. It's a $75 mistake.
Written August 29, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Nancy J
Long Island, NY100 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2021
Attended the last NY Ranger game on May 5 against the Washington Capitals in Section 106. The security let us know to wear a mask when not consuming food or drinks. He asked me as I was returning to my seat to ask my son to put his mask on while he was consuming a drink. He then came over and harassed him some more. He was finishing up his overpriced beer and answering a text. As I looked around us, there was a NYPD officer wearing his mask below his nose the whole night as well as many other fans with masks below their noses. Photo of this man below. I would like to know why we got singled out. We weren't loud or disrespectful at any time. It put a damper on the night. I spent a lot of money for these special tickets and was treated with disrespect. As a 1/2 season ticket holder, I do hope you speak to your employees about how to treat patrons.
Written May 19, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Rhysinwales
Cardiff, UK15 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020 • Family
As a music or event venue it was very good. Easy to get in and out of. Good signage. Seats are very close together and not a lot of leg room.
My big complaint is the price of drinks. It is bordering on daylight robbery. Two pints of beer and a diet Coke was $38!! I don't mind paying over the odds but that is ridiculous. We paid good money for a ticket and felt that it was just wrong to charge that much and was the venue being greedy
Written February 22, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

BDZTravels
Pittsburgh, PA369 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2023 • Family
If you do not like cramped, tight seats with people screaming obscenities all around you with people randomly standing and blocking your view, then this is the perfect arena for you! We were Section 210, Row 23, seats 19 and 20. Precisely 2 rows from the very back. It is easiest to take the elevators all the way up to the 11th floor and get to seats from there. You will have a lot less stairs to climb. There is a few snack/bar options up there as well, but nothing to write home about. I searched all over for a rangers jersey since I wear a 3XL, and just a plain blue Rangers jersey with no name or number on it is $200 alone! Yikes. Plus when I went in the one store on the 6th floor the woman with huge fake eyelashes told me they didn’t have any jerseys. The kiosk on the 8th floor told me they would have them, so I went back and asked one of the guys who were more than nice to go in the back and find me my size since I guess most rangers fans aren’t bigger people…!? Either way, if you are looking for their lowest cost jerseys in a 3XL, you must ask them, (preferably a guy) to actually go look in the back for one for you. In a way though, I guess this is good because you know nobody’s hands were on the jersey!

The song that rangers fans sing after every goal is absolutely annoying too! It is very clear to me that Madison square garden does EVERYTHING in their power to guzzle money from people and keep any average people from buying tickets to one of their games. Also, in the 200s you can’t even see the freakin Jumbotron!!! They have tvs there instead, (pictured) because the Jumbotron is blocked by a sky suite with a much more premium view/experience.

Bottom line is this arena is trash and easily the worst I’ve had the displeasure of being at. Fans are crude and unwelcoming to opposing fans even though tons of Rangers fans make trips to opposing arenas with wearing their jerseys there. I hope they get crushed in the playoffs!
Written April 6, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Tatjana B
Swanton, OH48 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020 • Couples
We finally went to a long planned Eagles concert in NYC, after we missed seeing them back in Las Vegas when Glenn Fry was still around. It was a great experience all together. Good organization to get everyone in and start the concert on time (+10 min). The atmosphere was awesome. Everyone was really relaxed and we enjoyed the concert very much! The acoustics were surprisingly good considering the big space. I usually prefer smaller, more club like venues for concerts. So, we were pleasently surprised how well everything came together. Great experience!
Written March 3, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Michael S
Voorhees, NJ2 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2023 • Friends
I went to the Depeche Mode concert on 10/28/23. The tickets were very overpriced at $175 each for seats that were 3 rows from the top. I had two tickets and brought a friend. The seats were section 210 row 23 seats 15 and 16. I even bought the tickets an hour after the show started on StubHub so I could save money and time it so that I got there just after the opening band finished and the main band took stage. I could have gotten the same seats for the same concert at Wells Fargo Center in Philly for $26 each. The concession stand vendors were very overpriced too: one small 8 ounce liquor drink that was mostly ice which I bought for my friend cost $45; probably worth $9. I bought a soft pretzel and medium Diet Coke for $25 total. The same would have cost me $4 at a Wawa in New Jersey. The construction on the outside of the building made the facility look unrecognizable. The climate control on the inside was poorly regulated as it felt like a sweat box. The seats were very close together and there was not much personal space for comfort. The view was semi obstructed by the elevated club section seats. My seats were so high up, I had minimal view of the Jumbotron; only some large screen tv was in place for supplemental livestream views of the concert for my section seats. I must say that the acoustics were very good and that the crowd had a lot of energy and the band kept the crowd engaged in the show. Because of the excessive and unnecessary overpricing, the next concert for me will be at Wells Fargo Center in Philly!
Written November 1, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Madison Square Garden - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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