TD Garden

TD Garden (named the FleetCenter from opening until 2005 and TD Banknorth Garden until 2009) is a multi-purpose arena in Boston. It is located directly above the MBTA's North Station, and it replaced the original Boston Garden upon opening in 1995. It is the most visited sports and entertainment arena in New England, with nearly 3.5 million people visiting the arena each year.

TD Garden is the home arena for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). It is owned by food service and hospitality conglomerate Delaware North, whose CEO Jeremy Jacobs also owns the Bruins. It is the site of the annual Beanpot college hockey tournament, and hosts the annual Hockey East Championships. The arena has hosted many major national sporting events including various rounds of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, the 2014 United States Figure Skating Championships, and the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships. In addition, TD Garden hosted the 2021 Laver Cup, an international men's tennis tournament.

Besides sporting events, the TD Garden has also served as a concert venue for numerous nationally touring acts in music and comedy. The naming rights deal for the arena is scheduled to continue through June 2045, with TD Bank and Delaware North extending the agreement in January 2023.

As early as the late 1970s, the Bruins were looking for a new arena. The Boston Garden was nearly 50 years old at the time. The Jacobs family, who had bought the Bruins in 1975, was looking to build a 17,000-seat arena in suburban Boston after negotiations fell through with the city of Boston. The team nearly moved to Salem, New Hampshire around where the Mall at Rockingham Park is today. That fell through and the Bruins continued to play at Boston Garden. The Celtics, also looking for a new arena, considered moving to Revere, Massachusetts adjacent to Boston.

In 1985, Boston Garden owner Delaware North was awarded the rights to construct a new arena by the Boston Redevelopment Authority and Mayor Raymond Flynn. However, poor economic conditions delayed the project.

On May 8, 1992, Delaware North announced that it had secured funding for a new arena in the form of $120 million worth of loans evenly split between Bank of Boston, Fleet Bank of Massachusetts and Shawmut National Corporation. That December, a bill approving construction of the new arena was killed in the Massachusetts Senate by Senate President William M. Bulger. Legislative leaders and Delaware North attempted to reach an agreement on plans for the new arena, but in February 1993 Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs announced that he was backing out of the project as a result of the legislature's demand that his company pay $3.5 million in "linkage payments". Massachusetts governor Bill Weld lent strong support to a "Chapter 15" piece of legislation that included a "Section 7" that explicitly required Delaware North to "administer, produce, promote and sponsor no less than three charitable events per year at the New Boston Garden" and pay the proceeds from such events to the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), today known as the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation. Two weeks later, after a new series of negotiations, the two sides finally came to an agreement, and on February 26 the legislature passed a bill that allowed for construction of a new sports arena.

Construction began on April 29, 1993. Although the new arena was intended to be situated slightly north of the old facility, there were only nine inches (23 cm) of space between the two buildings when construction was completed. The site for the new arena occupied 3.2 acres (13,000 m²) and eventually cost $160 million. Construction was completed in 27 months, including seven weeks of delay caused by heavy snowfall.

On the evening of September 29, 1995, a farewell event was held in the old Boston Garden hosted by WBZ-TV news personality Liz Walker and CBS national news anchor Dan Rather. Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, Bruins legends, as well as Celtics greats Larry Bird and Red Auerbach attended. The ceremony concluded with the release of thousands of balloons into the rafters to the music of the Boston Pops. The Boston Globe said that "all New England has lost a friend."