TD Banknorth Garden
TD Banknorth Garden, named after its sponsor,
TD Banknorth, is often called simply
the Garden, or the traditional
Boston Garden and formerly known as the
FleetCenter and the
Shawmut Center, is a sports
arena in the North End neighbourhood of
Boston,
Massachusetts. It is the home arena for the
Boston Bruins, an
NHL team, and the
Boston Celtics, an
NBA team. It is site of the annual
Beanpot, 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 First and Second Rounds and the
2006 Women's Final Four. In addition, the facility has hosted the 2001 US Figure Skating Championships, the 1996 and 2000 US Gymnastics Trials, the 2004 and 1998 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship (aka the
Frozen Four), the
1996 NHL All-Star Game, and the
World Wrestling Federation's
WrestleMania XIV in 1998. It will also be hosting the 2006
SummerSlam. Like most sports arenas, it also hosts other events, such as concerts, shows, conventions, graduations, seminars, ice shows, circuses, and most notably the
2004 Democratic National Convention.
TD Banknorth Garden is one of three NBA arenas (
Target Center in Minneapolis and
TD Waterhouse Centre in Orlando) with parquet floors
When constructed to replace the aging
Boston Garden as the home of the Boston Bruins
hockey team and the Boston Celtics
basketball team, the arena was called FleetCenter. The arena opened on
September 30,
1995.
During the construction phase, the naming rights to the "New Garden" were sold to a major Boston-based regional bank, the Shawmut Bank. However, just as the Shawmut Center was being completed, Shawmut merged with its somewhat larger rival, the Providence-based Fleet Bank. The merger was negotiated in secret while Shawmut and Fleet's marketing departments were simultaneously engaged in a spirited bidding war for the arena's naming rights. The post-merger bank had effectively been bidding against itself. The bank which won the competition for the "New Garden's" naming rights, Shawmut, was the bank whose name disappeared during the merger. 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.The name of the arena was expected to change as a result of the
April 1,
2004 merger of
FleetBoston Financial Group with
Bank of America. On
January 5,
2005, Bank of America and FleetCenter's owner,
Delaware North Companies, 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, the U.S. subsidiary of
Toronto-Dominion Bank, announced its purchase of the naming rights. The first major event after the announcement was the 2005
Hockey East men's 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, and $40,000 worth of My Grandma's Coffee Cakes was donated to local food banks. 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. He proposed the name "DerekJeterCenter," after the
New York Yankees shortstop, a stab at fellow
Harvard alum 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 the arena would be named "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[
1], but the name was rejected due to its inappropriate meaning. The name eventually selected by Curtis and company was "
Boston Garden".[
2]
*Including its present name, the TD Banknorth Garden has had 33 different names.
*During its time as the FleetCenter, the building was also known as "The Vault" by Boston sportswriters.
Just as the
Boston Garden was, The TD Banknorth Garden is built on top of Boston's
North Station, a major transportation hub. The
Commuter Rail waiting area becomes crowded during events due to this design: the fans share a relatively small area with commuters and several fast food concessions. (There is a concourse on the second floor which is about the same size as the main ground floor concourse, but this is utilized only as an entryway for the arena.) There are current plans under development to enlarge the MBTA's North Station concourse.
Connections to the
Orange Line and
Green Line are at the eastern entrance. The Green Line formerly ran on an
el in front of the building: however, a Green Line tunnel was completed in 2004. (The original plan was to tear down the el before the 2004
Democratic National Convention, but in the end the tracks were purposely left up through the Convention, to serve as a platform for security forces.)
In 2006, the
MBTA announced plans to double the size of North Station's concourse.
*
TD Banknorth Garden 
