The Garden is Back, Baby...Sort of.

When Bostonist heard that Banknorth, which recently bought the permanent naming rights of the Fleet Center from Delaware North, was holding a press conference today to announce the new name of the sports arena, Bostonist had a hunch that it was going to be good. Why create all this hoopla over naming it the "Banknorth Center" right? So when it was announced today that it will be called the "Banknorth Garden," Bostonist got a little happy to see that a piece of the city's history was coming back to Causeway Street. Sure, the old Boston Garden had it all: the real parquet flooring, Larry Bird's legendary whiping of the soles of his sneakers before each free throw, and those god awful "restricted viewing" seats, where you would watch the game on a tiny TV, while the fans a few rows in front of you had a clear view of the game. Unfortunately, the original garden was torn down in 1997 and rebuilt 6 inches away on a new foundation was the squanky Shawmut Center (and then the Fleet Center after another bank merger). Sure, it still had the original parquet flooring brought over from the Garden, but it was not the Garden, which was home to 16 Celtics' championships and 5 Bruins' Stanley Cups. While nothing will ever replace the Boston Garden, Banknorth did the right thing by at least respecting the old haunt that Bostonians came to love (and hate...no air conditioning in those post-season games were brutal for players and fans alike.) The name change officially takes over on July 1.