Today in Boston Celtics history, the team's home arena, TD Garden, opened its doors in 1995 as a modern replacement for the outdated and undersized original Garden, which stood just nine inches to the south of the new structure during its construction. The new venue officially commenced operations the day after a celebratory closing event took place at the original Boston Garden. Relocation rumbles began as far back as the 1970s when the Boston Bruins nearly moved to New Hampshire, and the Celtics considered relocating to Revere, Massachusetts.
Rights for a new arena were granted in 1985, but concrete plans did not materialize for most of a decade, with funding for construction secured in 1993, and construction beginning in April of that year.
Total construction time was 27 weeks, with heavy snowfall adding seven weeks to the overall period needed to finish. Walt Disney's World On Ice, Patti LaBelle, James Taylor, and a number of other performers were in attendance for the festivities.
The Celtics played their first game in the new building – now known as TD Garden – a little over a month later on November 3rd.
Birthdays
It is also the birthday of former Boston big man Rubén Wolkowyski, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1973. Wolkowyski played stints with a number of teams in his home country and the (then) Seattle SuperSonics (now, Oklahoma City Thunder) before joining Boston as an unrestricted free agent in 2002.
He played just seven games for the team before being waived in February of 2003, averaging 0.7 points and 0.1 rebounds per contest as a Celtic.
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Today in Boston Celtics history: New Boston Garden opens; Ruben Wolkowyski born
