By Amy Tennery and Bo Erickson<\/p>\n
NEW YORK, June 8 (Reuters) \u2013 Ticketholders waited in lines more than two blocks long as a strict, airport-style gauntlet of security awaited fans at Manhattan\u2019s Madison Square Garden, where Donald Trump was expected to become the first sitting U.S. \u200bpresident to attend the NBA Finals when the New York Knicks face the San \u200cAntonio Spurs in Game 3.<\/p>\n
Three hours before tipoff commuters and tourists navigated a maze of black metal fencing surrounding the venue, where\u00a0pedestrian traffic was restricted. The Knicks are preparing to play\u00a0their first Finals home game in 27 years, riding a stunning 13-game postseason winning streak.<\/p>\n
The home team returned to New York following a pair of road wins that put them \u200cup \u200b2-0 in the best-of-seven finals, and the five boroughs were buzzing \u2060with anticipation, with the hottest tickets \u2060in town fetching sky-high prices on resale platforms.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s planned attendance ratcheted up security plans over the weekend, and on Monday the New York Police Department said pedestrians without an \u201cauthorized reason\u201d would not be allowed inside a secure area around the arena between West 35th and 30th Streets and \u200bSixth and Eighth Avenues beginning 4-1\/2 hours before the 8:30 p.m. ET (0030 GMT) tipoff.<\/p>\n
Those entering the secure area were screened and will only be permitted to enter through a handful of access points.<\/p>\n
While \u2060a handful of fans said they welcomed the president\u2019s attendance, \u2060many more said the added security was a frustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish he wasn\u2019t here. \u200bHe\u2019s not a real fan, and he\u2019s just making things awful,\u201d said Errol Ismail, a Brooklyn resident and \u200bowner of a fitness company, who tried multiple entrances to get into the \u200cvenue. \u201cWe\u2019ve waited a lifetime for this, and he\u2019s made it about himself, like everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Secret Service\u00a0urged ticketholders to arrive two hours early to the venue long known as the \u201cWorld\u2019s Most Famous Arena,\u201d which sits atop the busiest transit hub in the United States, Penn Station.<\/p>\n
A watch party for fans that is traditionally \u2060held outside the arena for playoff games will not take place on Monday due to security concerns, the NYPD said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Republican president, who was at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Monday \u2060afternoon, was expected to attend as \u200ca guest of Knicks owner James Dolan but has a complicated relationship \u2060with the heavily Democratic-voting city he once called home.<\/p>\n
He faced cheers and \u200bboos when \u200che attended the U.S. Open tennis men\u2019s final in Flushing, Queens, last \u200byear. Many \u2060ticketholders missed the start of the match when\u00a0security checks related to his attendance caused confusion and slowed entry.<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was expected to attend as well, after telling reporters he purchased a ticket directly from Madison Square Garden for nearly $1,000.<\/p>\n
Mamdani and Trump have been critical of each other\u2019s policy positions, but their meetings have been unexpectedly friendly.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Amy Tennery and Bo Erickson in New York; Editing by \u200bBill Berkrot and Rosalba O\u2019Brien)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Amy Tennery and Bo Erickson NEW YORK, June 8 (Reuters) \u2013 Ticketholders waited in lines more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-260017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}