Spike Lee, Knicks Greats Add Starpower to MSG's Push to Nix Move

By
Colby Hamilton
WNYC News | Jun 19, 2013

Madison Square Garden and its backers continued their fight Wednesday to keep the iconic sports arena above Penn Station despite calls to move the facility to a new location.

The city’s planning commission recommended last month that the City Council only extend a special permit for the Garden to operate there for 15 years. Supporters of the limited permit hope it would the first step in moving the Garden and upgrading the transit hub below.

“For me the Garden is being blamed for what’s happening underneath,” director Spike Lee, a Knicks superfan, testified at a City Council hearing Wednesday where both sides made their cases. He was joined by Knicks greats John Starks, Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe.

The Council hasn’t yet set a date to vote on the venue’s future.

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