Madison Square Garden gets eviction notice

The shot clock is winding down on the World's Most Famous Arena and Madison Square Garden has to move from its current spot above Penn Station to a new location within 10 years.

Despite public pleas from former New York Knicks stars Earl Monroe and Walt Frazier and celebrities like superfan Spike Lee, the City Council voted 47-1 in favor of the 10-year limit to the lease after MSG had requested to operate continually —although there is a puncher's chance it could be extended.

Council members and civic leaders want to move the New York City home to the Knicks and Rangers so Penn Station can be overhauled in a three-year, $1 billion renovation.

The current Garden opened in 1968 and has hosted many legendary concerts and boxing matches to go with its glorious hockey and basketball past but has recently had to duke it out with the slick new Barclays Center across the East River and heavy-fisted NYC  bureaucrats.

“Madison Square Garden will have to move, and I think this permit sends the message that that work needs to begin now,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. “We need to make sure Penn Station becomes what we need it to be, a really 21st century grand entrance into the greatest city in the world, not ... what Sen. [Daniel] Moynihan or others historically described as a bunch of rat tunnels that lead people in and out of the city every day.”

Since the City Planning Department already approved the permit, the Council vote makes it final. It does not need a signoff from Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The Madison Square Garden Company predicted the arena has a “bright” future. “Madison Square Garden has operated at its current site for generations, and has been proud to bring New Yorkers some of the greatest and most iconic moments in sports and entertainment,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “We now look forward to the reopening of the arena in fall 2013, following the completion of our historic, three-year, nearly billion-dollar transformation, which will ensure our future is as bright as our celebrated past.”

Seventh Avenue and 33rd Street will never be the same. Neither will Spike.

Spike Lee, former-Knicks add starpower to keep Madison Square Garden from moving

Spike Lee left his bright orange and blue Knicks attire at home — switching into a less flamboyant two-piece suit Wednesday — while joining forces with an All-Star team of former New York Knicks greats in a bid to keep the World's Most Famous Arena from being moved to a new location.

Lee joined Madison Square Garden and its backers as they continued their fight yesterday to keep the iconic sports arena above Penn Station despite calls to move the facility to a new locale.

The city’s planning commission recommended last month that the City Council only extend a special permit for the Garden to operate there for 15 years. Supporters of the limited permit hope it would the first step in moving the Garden and upgrading the transit hub below.

“For me the Garden is being blamed for what’s happening underneath,” said Lee, the Knicks superfan, who testified at a City Council hearing where both sides made their cases. He was joined by Knicks greats John Starks, Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe.

Transit advocates have been pushing to evict the Garden to expand and improve Penn Station — an effort endorsed last month by the City Planning Commission, which voted to grant just a 15-year permit to the Garden.

Lee may have found his Reggie Miller in this dispute regarding his beloved Garden— City Council speaker and NYC mayoral-hopeful Christine Quinn.

Quinn had stayed out of the controversy for months but weighed in for the first time Wednesday, just as a Council committee prepared to consider the matter. She said she backs a 10-year permit so the city can fix “a dismal Penn Station that is dangerous (and) overcrowded.”

“Finding a new location for the Garden is likely the only way to address the ongoing capacity and safety issues at Penn Station,” she wrote in a letter to Garden President Hank Ratner.

Quinn’s opposition came despite the star-studded full-court press from Garden supporters.

The Council hasn’t yet set a date to vote on the venue’s future.