The Hub is revving up for a party Friday night.
We not only have another party inside the TD Garden for Game 4, but Boston police have barricades staged around the city, as they get prepared for a potential impromptu party spilling out onto the streets if the Celtics win Banner 18 Friday night.
Luckily, we've had a few of these championship wins before — both with our team playing at home and away. So, the city knows where to anticipate the crowds and how to manage them, so people can hopefully celebrate – or sulk – safely.
Canal Street in front of TD Garden will be blocked off to vehicular traffic once again, to allow bars and restaurants to extend their capacity. And at halftime of the game, Causeway Street will close from N. Washington Street to Merrimack Street. Police said that's when they'll also start preventing people who left businesses from re-entering.
Mayor Michelle Wu has called it the Finals Hub and the Hoop Bus will be back on Canal for Game 4.
We also have the second round of the away game Garden Party that's sure to be even more electric than it was Wednesday night, when more than 15,000 fans got dressed up in green and gathered inside the Garden to watch the game on the jumbotron with Celtics dancers, games, concessions and more.
One other change is the Red Sox-Yankees game that was originally set for 7:10 p.m. has been pushed up to 6:30 p.m., so hopefully that game will be wrapped up early enough that those fans will be able to go somewhere to watch the Celtics-Mavericks game at 8:30 p.m.
If the C's win it all Friday night, Wu and police commissioner say they're well-prepared to handle the crowds as they spill out onto the streets of Boston.
"We have a full call out, all our officers actually working through the city throughout the entire day, into the evening," said Boston Police Commissioner Micheal Cox.
"I'm so grateful to our first responders, they are ready with a safety plan. Commissioner Cox and the Boston Police Department will be out in full force making sure everybody is safe for any measures needed for crowd control or anything like that," said Wu. "There will be some road closures around the TD Garden starting around halftime of the game, just to make sure that everybody can have a safe time coming out of the game as well."
While city officials weren't ready to discuss the logistics of a possible parade just yet, they say if and when the Celtics win, they'll put all the details on that out as soon as they can.
