Tag: TD Garden

On this day: Celtics nearly move to North Shore; Alvin Julian hired

On this day in 1982, the Boston Celtics nearly moved to the North Shore; 36 years earlier, they hired Holy Cross’ Alvin Julian as head coach.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the team hired their second coach, Alvin “Doggie” Fred Julian, in 1948. Julian joined the team after coaching Holy Cross and future Celtic legend Bob Cousy at the collegiate level.

His tenure with the Celtics was a brief one. Recording a 47-81 record with the team over two seasons, the collegiate champion coach was soon let go by Boston, at the end of his second season as head coach for the franchise. Julian is one of only three coaches hired directly from the NCAA ranks in the history of the storied franchise to date.

The others are Rick Pitino (previously with Kentucky) and Brad Stevens (previously with Butler).

TD Garden to host basketball-themed inauguration party for Healey, Driscoll team

Former hoopers Governor-elect Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor-elect Kim Driscoll will hold an inauguration celebration at Boston’s TD Garden.

Massachusetts Governor-elect Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor-elect Kim Driscoll will become the first all-women state executive team in US history when the two are inaugurated on January 5. The duo will celebrate with a basketball-inspired afterparty at Boston’s TD Garden, according to a recent press release.

The theme of the night will be “Moving the Ball Forward,” an homage to the role basketball plays for both Healey and Driscoll. Driscoll, the out-going mayor of Salem, MA, played and then later coached for the Salem State Vikings

Governor-elect Healey, meanwhile, served as the captain for her Harvard basketball team and played professionally in Europe for a short while. She talked about her ongoing connection to the sport and the Boston Celtics on a recent visit to the Celtics Lab Podcast.

Should the Boston Celtics consider building their own arena?

The Celtics have a home in TD Garden — but it is a rented home.

Should the Boston Celtics consider building their own arena? It might seem like sacrilege to those who have been a fan of the team long enough to remember the old Boston Garden, which stood just feet away from where TD Garden stands.

But, completed in 1995, it is one of the oldest arenas in the league. That in itself isn’t reason enough given the holding company, Delaware North, that runs it, just renovated the arena. But the holding company that runs TD Garden also owns it, not the Celtics. And therein lies the reason Boston might want to consider building its own arena.

On top of the convenience of being able to decide when to schedule their games versus balancing the needs of other pro sports teams and events, owning the arena also confers a financial advantage: They would be the one charging fees to others while taking in a greater share of the door revenue.

While perhaps not as deep-pocketed as some franchises, Boston’s ownership group is by no means poor. Some members have put themselves in the hunt to buy expensive European soccer clubs.

Instead, they might consider shoring up their crown jewel of sports investment with the same competitive advantages enjoyed by some of the other NBA cornerstone clubs. Of course, the Celtics know their business — but from the outside looking in, it seems like a no-brainer.

Check out the Celtics Lab podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

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Stevens, Fournier, Nesmith talk excitement, impact of playing for near-full Garden crowds

The trio shared their thoughts on how it will feel to play for the first packed house in the Garden in a very long time.

The Boston Celtics are set to have a packed house in their next tilt with the Brooklyn Nets, with a near-capacity crowd cheering on TD Garden’s home NBA team for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state government having lifted restrictions on arena capacity the day before.

The increased crowd presence clearly gave a lift to the Celtics in Game 3 to help hand them their first win of three games played in the best-of-seven series so far, and that with just 5,000 fans compared to the roughly 17,000 who will be present for Game 4 on Sunday night.

Speaking to the media after practice on Saturday, Head Coach Brad Stevens emphasized the potential impact of the boosted fan presence; “There’s a reason why people play for homecourt all year,” he explained.

TD Garden capacity to be increased for Game 3 vs. Nets, near full for Game 4

The fan support will be a welcome boost.

The Boston Celtics announced via press release that the team’s home arena TD Garden will increase seating capacity for fans beginning with Game 3 of the team’s first-round playoff series with the Brooklyn Nets, scheduled to take place on Friday, May 28.

Though no specifics were included in the release regarding the number of fans or percentages, at present the state limits the arena to 25% of its 18,600 approximate capacity, which will be lifted to have no restrictions whatsoever on May 29 per the order of Governor Charlie Baker. That would put Game 4 of the series — planned for Sunday, May 30 — in range of being able to operate at near-full capacity levels.

Down at least one key player in All-Star wing Jaylen Brown, the increased home crowd boost is sure to be welcomed by the players.

Concurrently, ticket sales for fans will be expanded and available at the arena box office, and through the team’s app and website.

For more information on ticket sales, email sales@celtics.com or call 866-4CELTIX.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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TD Garden to allow limited capacity beginning March 22nd

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced Thursday that the state will soon open up large venues, like TD Garden, beginning March 22nd.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced Thursday at an event that the state will soon open up large venues that accommodate more than 5,000 people, like TD Garden, Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium, beginning March 22nd, for fans to attend games and events. Gillette Stadium remained closed throughout the New England Patriots’ entire season and TD Garden has yet to have fans at any Boston Celtics games so far this season.

Gov. Baker announced at the event on Thursday that the large venues, like TD Garden, will reopen to 12% capacity, which reported by Jared Weiss of The Athletic, comes out to 2,352 fans at the Garden.

The Celtics will play their first home game of the season with fans on Monday, March 29th against the New Orleans Pelicans.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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WATCH: Boston Celtics TD Garden team scrimmage highlights

The Celtics got in some practice at TD Garden for the first time since the pandemic hit.

The Boston Celtics played basketball in TD Garden on Thursday, playing intra-team scrimmages together in their home arena — a statement that would be utterly un-newsworthy ahead of the start of most NBA seasons.

But this is, as we all know, no normal season ahead of the Celtics, who had not hoisted a single shot since before the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic shut down the team and the league for nearly four months. While the Celtics managed to make a deep run in the Disney restart held at the Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, as Dorothy makes a point of noting in “The Wizard of Oz,” there’s no place like home.

Sporting two new rookies and two new veterans on their roster, the team descended on the Garden, and those who were able got in some games playing against each other.

If you haven’t yet seen the video uploaded by our friends at CLNS Media, we’ve embedded it above for your viewing pleasure — there’s only three more days until the team’s preseason tilts begin.

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Boston Mayor Marty Walsh open to games at TD Garden without fans

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is open to allowing Boston Celtics games at TD Garden without fans.

Marty Walsh, the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, is reportedly open to allowing games at TD Garden and Fenway Park this summer with one big, fat asterisk involved:

No fans will be allowed to attend.

This is likely a moot point for the Boston Celtics as the NBA is leaning heavily towards a single-site location for all 30 teams to convene and finish the season, or possibly two sites along a similar line of thinking — namely reducing risk by eliminating travel.

But the possibility for home games is at least on the table for Boston even if it doesn’t elect to take advantage of the possibility, reports the Boston Globe’s Michael Silverman.

Local venues could be used by teams without audiences “as long as the players and the teams and the support staff and all the people that are associated with it are safe and feel comfortable,” related Walsh via Silverman.

“Obviously, their health is important to me as well. Many of them are constituents of mine, and even if they’re not constituents of mine, I obviously want people to be healthy and safe. That’s going to be the biggest challenge that they’re going to have to figure out and meet if they’re going to move forward here.”

It sounds like the city government is taking a cautious approach prioritizing public safety as a critical element of any such move to restart sports locally.

As leagues in various sports begin to experiment with audience-less games around the world, a greater body of evidence on what to do (and what not to do) will grow.

But until we have a flagship model to draw on for team sports in a pandemic, we’ll be learning as we go, and caution under such a context is undoubtedly wise.

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TD Garden joins ‘Light It Blue’ campaign supporting COVID-19 workers

TD Garden — the Boston Celtics’ home court — joined facilities across the country in honoring medical and medical support workers braving COVID-19 to keep us safe.

Around the NBA and other U.S. professional sports arenas, the usual team colors in facilities lighting has been temporarily shifted to blue in support of the countless medical and medical-adjacent workers keeping the country safe in the coronavirus pandemic.

TD Garden joined that campaign Thursday evening, the usual green replaced with a soft blue hue in support of the risks and sacrifices being made by these brave souls on behalf of their communities.

Retweeted by Garden tenants the Boston Celtics (the team rents, rather than owns, their home arena), the message sent from TD Garden’s account read:

“To all the health care professionals & essential workers caring for us on the front lines – THANK YOU!  #TDGarden shines blue to show our support and gratitude. #LightItBlue #StayHomeBos”

Some fans in the Tweet’s mentions used the message as an opportunity to draw attention to the lack of definite support from Garden owner Jeremy Jacobs.

The Garden’s owner has only offered contingent support to some of his employees who work at events held at the facility that hosts Celtics games.

Boston has put together a package for game-day night employees of the Garden who work their events regardless of the fact they are not Celtics employees.

Jacobs and his umbrella corporation owning both the Garden and the Boston Bruins — Delaware North — has only pledged a $1.5 million fund contingent on games being permanently canceled.

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TD Garden ushers get more bad news after being laid off

TD Garden ushers have learned they will be laid off for the foreseeable future, further hurting their economic prospects in a pandemic.

Things just got worse for a lot of TD Garden employees.

The Boston Globe’s Michael Silverman reports Delaware North — the parent company which owns the Garden and the Boston Bruins — and the hockey franchise relayed the bad news to part-time ushers on Tuesday.

While the Celtics have made a commitment to pay their game-night employees through the rest of the regular season last week, Delaware North owner Jeremy Jacobs has only offered a $1.5 million fund that will pay out only if remaining Bruins games are permanently canceled.

With that outcome still many weeks or even months off, many such employees find themselves in financial limbo, notified by Jacobs’ company that they “may be eligible” for unemployment benefits.

“It leaves me nowhere — I can’t go to the unemployment office, I have a pension, I have other income, but there are other people that this is what they do — they work every Bruins game, every Celtics game, every concert, every everything that shows up,” said one anonymous usher interviewed by the Globe.

“Most of the guys I work with all have a day job — I work with people from the post office, I work with firemen, and most have day jobs, and this is a part-time job, supplementary income, I don’t see what we’re going to get for unemployment. It’s kind of an empty letter.”

Whether Jacobs will take additional steps to take care of his employees in such a critical moment remains to be seen.

As does whether the Celtics decide to step in and further assist Garden staff, given the currently-distant prospect of help from Delaware North and Jacobs.

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