No, Madison Square Garden Is Not Moving To Hell's Kitchen

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — Earlier this week, news of a project that would reshape the West Side of Manhattan was published on a little-known website and shared widely in the neighborhood. Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration planned to bulldoze DeWitt Clinton Park, the beloved Hell's Kitchen green space, to make way for a brand-new Madison Square Garden, the article claims.

The hundreds of people who have shared the story were likely unaware of one key fact: the article appears to be entirely fictional.

"It's completely false," said Matthew Gorton, a spokesperson for Empire State Development, the state corporation named in the fake story as one of the plan's key actors. "No truth to it whatsoever."

The story appeared Monday on a website called The Buffalo Chronicle, headlined "Kathy Hochul is preparing to relocate Madison Square Garden." Though its name evokes the title of a stalwart local newspaper, the Chronicle is in fact a known purveyor of fake news, having sown misinformation about the 2020 U.S. Presidential race and conspiracy theories about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The nearly 900-word article lays out a detailed description of the arena's supposed relocation from its current home atop Penn Station. Hochul intends to hire a "star architect" to design the building, it asserts, adding that the plan has the support of MSG owner James Dolan.

Hochul's office flatly rebutted the claims.

"This is obviously not true and is misinformation," spokesperson Avi Small told Patch.

More than 3,700 interactions

Still, more than 3,700 people had interacted with the story on Facebook by Thursday evening, drawing more than 2,100 comments, according to the analysis tool CrowdTangle — plus more on Twitter. On a Hell's Kitchen Facebook group, residents bemoaned the apparent loss of their neighborhood park.

"Hells Kitchen better stand up and turn down this offer!!!" one resident wrote. "We def don’t need MSG in our children’s playground!"

A closer look at the story might have tipped readers off to its unreliability. It says the state would use eminent domain to acquire DeWitt Clinton Park from the city — but eminent domain applies only to the taking of private property.

Other claims in the story verge on the fantastical. To enable commuter access to the new arena, a light-rail system would be built along West 53rd Street, the story says, citing unnamed "sources." Meanwhile, an enormous public square would supposedly be built atop the Garden's current site.

It is true that Madison Square Garden's placement atop the beleaguered rail hub has come into question in recent years, with publications like the New York Times calling for it to be reconfigured to house an expanded Penn Station. But the arena's relocation is absent from the state's latest plans to expand Penn.

The Buffalo Chronicle's publisher has been identified by other outlets as Matthew Richiazzi, a Buffalo resident who has defended his website in the face of numerous reports calling its accuracy into question.

A message requesting comment sent to a phone number listed on the Chronicle's website was not immediately returned.