Arenas across the United States—including Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Forum in Los Angeles—will be converted into polling places for the November 3 general election. Every city in which the NBA has a franchise will feature an arena-sized polling place—all of which have remained closed for months to sports, concerts, and other events amid the persistent coronavirus pandemic—drafted into service as part of an agreement reached between the National Basketball Association and its players, who initiated a wildcat strike on Wednesday in protest of systemic racism.
Hours after the NBA announced the agreement, which also established a social justice coalition and a commitment to promote civic engagement through advertisements, the Board of Elections in New York City announced that it had partnered with Madison Square Garden to make the arena an Early Voting and Election Day poll site for the general election. With the capacity to serve more than 60,000 eligible voters, it immediately became the largest polling site in New York City.