The Suite Life at MSG

By TPerl

Last night, I experienced for the first time what few real sports fans ever get to do - I watched Game 4 of the Rangers-Sabres series from one of MSG's "luxury suites".

Since I was a luxury box virgin, and I'm sure many others still are, I thought I'd give you a little glimpse into what it's like.

First off, there's FREE food and booze - just wine and beer, but who's complaining. There's a mini-fridge stocked to capacity with cans of Bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite, Heineken keg cans, and Becks - I would have preferred bottles, but I guess it's a safety risk.



The suite area opens about an hour prior to game time, and apparently there's always a pair of Ranger alumni standing there waiting to sign autographs and chat it up. Last night, two members of the 94 Cup team were there - Adam Graves and Glenn Anderson - pretty fucking cool. I couldn't really think of much to say to either of them, other than to thank Graves for giving the fans a great 1994. Also, I thought they'd look bigger in person.


The boxes are up high, encircling the entire arena, but they have a surprising good view of the ice. There's actually two tiers of boxes where we were, and ours was the lower tier, which put us even closer to the action. Plus, I think our corner location gave us a great view of every part of the ice - there weren't many places where our view of the puck was obscured.



The layout was similar to a small hotel room. When you first enter, there's single bathroom - and by the way, having a bathroom right there with no wait is fantastic. You'll never miss any of the action waiting in line, and considering the amount of free beer in the room, frequent bathroom trips were a necessity.

Then you enter the main lounge area, with a counter and stools facing the action, and behind that a bar with two TVs (we had the Mets on one and the Yanks on the other), two leather chairs and the hot food buffet. There are many food options to choose for the suite, but ours had chicken fingers, ravioli, cheeseburgers, waffle fries, pigs-in-blankets, shrimp cocktails, and what I think was ceasar salad (which nobody ate). Needless to say, I stuffed myself silly on these unhealthy delights.


Even Glenn Anderson couldn't help but stop by our suite to glad-hand the big shots (well, big-shot imposters anyway) and sign a few more autographs. I guess Gravy was too busy.

And finally (with all apologies to Bones), there actually was a hockey game going on as well - the Rangers won 2-1, with Henrik doing everything but stand on his head between the pipes, which shouldn't take away from the fact that he got the benefit of a missed call at the end.

Anyway, unless I win the lottery, I'll probably never sit in a luxury box again. But if you have a connection somewhere, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has been frustrated by the ridiculousness these days of spending over $100 on a ticket, hot dog, and a beer just for themselves, nevermind with a date or worse, a spouse and kids.