BOSTON — The TD Garden underwent a much-needed facelift that was completed in 2020, one that now has the home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins ranked as one of the best sports venues in the country.
It helps that the teams that grace the hardwood or ice at the Garden are pretty good, too. The Celtics had the TD Garden crowd rocking on Tuesday night, when they pulled out an improbable comeback win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Few things beat a raucous Garden party in Boston.
But the play of the Celtics and the Bruins are not the reason that Front Office Sports, which covers the business side of sports, has the TD Garden ranked in its list of the 10 best venues in sports. Front Office Sports released their top spots to catch a game on Wednesday, ranking the venues with the best fan experience in the country.
In Boston, it starts even before you walk into the TD Garden, with the massive entryway giving fans a feel that they’re walking into a special place. (Before the renovations, it felt like you were walking into a train station that happened to also host sporting events.) And with its revamped fan and team spaces, a gigantic 4K videoboard, and a number of innovative social spaces and menu options for fans inside, the TD Garden is among the best of the best in the sports world.
Front Office Sports compiled its list in collaboration with Sports Innovation Lab, with venues across the country responding to questions about their technologies, mobile app features, food options/dietary inclusivity, transportation offerings, mixed-use functionality. Overall venue design was also taken into account.
“Front Office Sports’ Best Venue Winners award removes subjectivity from ranking the best places to catch a game,” Josh Walker, CEO and Co-Founder of Sports Innovation Lab, said in Wednesday’s release. “This definitive list is derived from our proprietary methodology that scores and ranks venues based on factors identified by some of the leading experts in the industry. As teams look to evolve their in-game experience to drive attendance, they can look to the venues on this list for ways to cater to the future fan.”
The Top 10 was not announced in any particular order, but here are the other nine venues that made the cut.
- Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Home of the Sixers, Flyers, Villanova men’s basketball and the Wings of the NLL
- State Farm Arena, Atlanta, Georgia: Home of the Hawks
- Churchill Downs Racetrack, Louisville, Kentucky: Home of the Kentucky Derby
- Citi Field, New York, New York: Home of the Mets
- Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas: Home of the Rangers
- Moody Center, Austin, Texas: Home of the University of Texas men’s and women’s basketball
- Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey: Home of the Devils and Seton Hall men’s basketball
- Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, Texas: Home of the Spurs,
- Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, Florida: Home of the Dolphins and University of Miami football