The Theater at MSG

From Hoopedia

The WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, which seats between 2,000 and 5,600, is the current home of the NBA Draft and has been since June 27, 2001. The venue is also used for concerts and can be used for meetings, stage shows, and graduation ceremonies, and was also the traditional home of the NFL Draft until 2005, when it moved to the Jacob Javits Convention Center after MSG management opposed a new stadium for the New York Jets. It also occasionally hosts major boxing matches on nights when the main arena is unavailable. No seat is more than 177 feet (54 m) from the 30-foot-by-64-foot stage. There is an 8,000-square-foot lobby at the theater. When the current Garden opened in 1968, the Theater was known as the Felt Forum, in honor of then president Irving Felt. In the early 1990s, it was renamed the Paramount, after Paramount Communications (which had previously been known as Gulf & Western), which then owned the Garden (and, at the time, Paramount Pictures.) The theater received its next name of The Theater at Madison Square Garden in the mid-90s, after Viacom bought Paramount, and sold the MSG properties to a group consisting of ITT and Cablevision, which each owned 50% of the Garden. In 1997, ITT sold their share to Cablevision, giving the cable company full control of the venue. On May 17, 2007, the theater received its current name due to a naming rights deal with Washington Mutual.