Unlike the Big Bang rewrite of Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden is an iterative success story. MSG has been iteratively upgraded over the years, resulting in an ever more intimate and popular venue.
Suites have been added, and removed. The original 200 seating level was merged with the 100 level, the 300 and 400 levels were merged. Floors were raised to move fans closer. MSG has tweaked food options and added overlooks without needing to start over from scratch!
Developers still want to build a new arena down the street and knock Madison Square Garden down, but not because they want to build a better Madison Square Garden. Instead, the calls for a new arena are secondary to freeing up the land for new condos, office towers, and an improved Penn Station.
The developers may end up building a new Madison Square Garden. If they do, their pitch will be about freeing the land to build something new; not “The Same, But Better”.
Hat tip to my friend Zach for pointing out that MSG is an example of iteration. Details for this post came from the Madison Square Garden article on Wikipedia