The MTA has a message for anyone heading to Madison Square Garden this season: park the car, grab the train, and keep an ear out for Jose Alvarado. The transit agency posted Monday that Knicks fans making their way to the arena should take the guard's advice and ride the rails, promising that Alvarado's own voice will greet riders somewhere in the system on their way to the game.
“If you're headed to see the @nyknicks at @thegarden, take @AlvaradoJose15's advice: take the train to the game! Listen for Jose Alvarado's announcements in the system on your next commute,” the MTA
wrote in the post, accompanied by a basketball emoji. The agency did not specify exactly where in the system riders might hear Alvarado's voice or how long the recordings will run.
Getting to the Garden Without a Car
Madison Square Garden sits on Seventh Avenue between West 31st and 33rd Streets, home to both the Knicks and the New York Rangers, according to the MTA's own stadium travel guide. The arena is accessible by subway, Long Island Rail Road and bus, giving fans from across the five boroughs and beyond several ways to skip the drive. Every LIRR branch connects into Penn Station, where signs point travelers straight to the arena entrance.
Bus riders have options too: the M5, M7, M11, M20, M34-SBS, M34A-SBS, M55 and Q32 all stop near the Garden, per the MTA. For fans weighing parking hassles against a quick ride on the A, C or E train, the transit authority's pitch is straightforward — leave the car at home and let the train do the work.
The Knicks-Colored Entrance Sticking Around
Fans arriving via the 34th Street–Penn Station A, C and E stop may already be familiar with one piece of Knicks branding that isn't going anywhere. Governor Kathy Hochul announced in June that the MTA would keep the southeast entrance at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue painted in Knicks orange and blue through the 2026-27 season, according to Time Out New York. The colorful entryway had already become something of a landmark for fans making the walk to the arena.
Alvarado's recorded announcements are the latest example of the MTA tying its everyday service to local sports culture. Back in 2021, the agency ran a monthlong campaign featuring more than 25 prominent New Yorkers recording messages that played across roughly 400 subway stations, thousands of subway cars and nearly 4,500 buses, according to the MTA. Those recordings mixed courtesy reminders with public-health messaging about masks and social distancing.
A Pattern of Celebrity Voices in the System
The Alvarado announcements also echo a 2022 partnership in which the MTA brought in SNY Mets broadcasters Keith Hernandez, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling to record audio played on subway trains. Those recordings offered wayfinding help, subway rules and safety tips while thanking riders for using the system, the agency said in its own release, and ran through the Mets' final home game that October.
Alvarado's push to get fans onto transit isn't entirely new, either. In June, payments platform Kalshi announced a partnership with the guard to provide free transportation for Knicks fans traveling from New Jersey to the Garden during the NBA Finals, according to Kalshi News. That initiative planned to run buses from pickup points across New Jersey straight to the arena free of charge if the series reached Game 6, with Kalshi and Alvarado also giving away two tickets each to Games 3 and 4.
That same month brought a reminder of how messy the commute can get when a big game collides with limited rail service. During a planned service disruption around a June Knicks game, the last regular NJ Transit trains from New Jersey to Penn Station were set to leave Newark Penn Station at 5:23 p.m. and Newark Broad Street at 5:08 p.m., according to NJ.com. It's the kind of scheduling crunch that makes the MTA's current advice — just take the train — a little more complicated for fans coming from across the river.
