Getting into Madison Square Garden is not difficult. Buy a ticket, find your seat, watch the game, and you’re good to go. But to get access to one suite in particular isn’t so easy. You’ll have to go through a vetting process and spend up to $400,000 in order to enjoy the most exclusive experience MSG has to offer.
At the tip-off of the Knicks season on October 30, Tao Group—which owns restaurants and bars including Tao Asian Bistro, Beauty and Essex, and The Stanton Social—will open a new members-only space within the iconic arena called Suite Sixteen.
This is no ordinary luxury box.
The 28 reserved, stadium seats will be leather plush sofas, and in the lounge a tufted banquette will wrap the common area that that’s outfitted in wood and accented with chrome, and a crystal bar cart. The suite will also offer exclusive food by chef Chris Santos, and unlike other suites, there will be bottle service offered during events.
And this isn’t a place you can buy a one-day pass to get access to. You have to be a member or know someone on the inside to gain entry to the suite. There are five levels of membership starting at “Access” for people who already have season tickets and don’t need to reserve a seat inside Suite Sixteen. That membership costs $7,000 for the season, and gives you access to the food and seating in the lounge area.
At the highest level, the $400,000 Diamond Membership gets you a pair of tickets in the front row of the suite for 180 events including Knicks and Rangers games in addition to concerts by The Killers, Billy Joel, and more. It also includes dishes curated from Tao Group’s restaurants (satay of Chilean seabass from Tao, meatballs from Lavo, and tacos from Bodega Negra); a bottle of Dom Perignon waiting for you at your seats at the start of each event; nameplates on your seats and jerseys; and four passes for friends to join you in the suite’s lounge at each event.
