'Now is our moment': Councilmember details decision to extend Madison Square Garden's permit 5 years

Madison Square Garden is known as “The World's Most Famous Arena.” But to a lot of New Yorkers, its relationship to the city's infrastructure is just as frustrating as rooting for the Knicks and the Rangers.

The Garden notoriously sits atop New York Penn Station, and the city needs to periodically reapprove its permit to operate.

On Monday, a City Council committee voted to extend the arena's permit for five years. And while they did vote to extend the permit, it's only half of the city Planning Department's 10-year recommendation.

Councilmember Erik Bottcher represents the West Side neighborhoods around MSG, and pushed for that shorter extension. He spoke about the vote with WNYC’s Sean Carlson on "All Things Considered" on Tuesday.

An interview transcript is available below. It was lightly edited for clarity.

Hey, councilmember, thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

So why the shorter permit?

Well, today in 2023, it's the 60th anniversary of one of the greatest architectural and civic crimes of the last century, and that is the demolition of McKim, Mead and White’s Pennsylvania Station. So for six decades…almost 600,000 commuters a day have been forced to trudge through a drab, confusing subterranean maze that is the current Penn Station.

And one of the things that's been holding us back from improving those conditions has been the fact that Madison Square Garden sits on top and that Madison Square Garden's cooperation is gonna be needed for us to improve that station. So yesterday, we voted to extend their permit…for five more years.

I believe that that'll give us the opportunity to bring all the stakeholders to the table and help us come up with a solution for a new Penn station.

So let's talk about that. We said extend the permit as-is right now. The Department of City Planning recommended a 10-year permit, but it required the Garden to make improvements to the surrounding neighborhood, pay for new entrances, and work with the MTA on its planned renovations. So why did you scrap those extra requirements in this five-year extension?

I believe that five years strikes the right balance because we want to set a clock that will get everyone to the table that isn't too far out, so we don't lose the momentum. But it also provides us some time to really come up with a good solution here.

So I really feel strongly that five years is the right amount of time and we have all the stakeholders ready, willing and able to work together on this. Now is our moment to do it.

Have you heard from the Garden on this? Are they playing ball?

They're not happy with the five years, but I truly believe that the Garden and the folks there…want to help us get a new Penn Station.

I've always said that I think the best train station that we could get would require the Garden to move. Is that gonna happen in the next couple years? I don't know. Probably not. But there are plans that we can move forward with right now that could create a grand station, but they are gonna require MSG’s cooperation. I think MSG is ready to come to the table and help with this.

So, as we mentioned this just passed through committee. It still needs to get a stamp of approval from the full City Council and the mayor. Have you been talking to the mayor about it? Do you know where he stands on the five-year extension?

The mayor's office…recommended 10 years, but I believe that they're okay with five years, and I believe that they want to get something done here. This is part of our legacy as policymakers. We want to be able to look back and say that we helped fix this huge problem that is the current Penn Station, and we've helped improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of commuters a day.

Now, advocates have called on the City Council to pass a resolution that would call on the state to give up the tax exemption that MSG gets. The Independent Budget Office tallied that up and says that the Garden has saved more than a billion dollars over the life of that exemption. Why don't you issue the resolution withdrawing?

I fully support withdrawing the tax exemption that Madison Square Garden has. They do not pay property taxes. That is a property tax exemption issued by the state. I fully support revoking it…and I'd be happy to introduce anything that would call on the state to do it. But at the end of the day, we need the state to do it and I'm hopeful that that will happen in the next legislative session in Albany.