Boston gearing up for crowds ahead of first NBA Finals in city since 2010

BOSTON — Boston is gearing up for the first NBA Finals game in the city since 2010.

Games 3 and 4 at TD Garden on Wednesday and Friday nights are expected to draw big crowds from all over the world.

It’s the 22nd time the Finals will be coming to Boston, and this time, it’s a faceoff between two historic teams.

Businesses in the area believe the excitement will be getting more intense as the week progresses.

“This is as high as it gets. It’s next level, top tier. It’s going to be wild,” said Joe Catalano, manager at Halftime Pizza. “Absolute chaos, but in a good way.”

Boston 25 News Security Analyst Dan Linskey, who was the superintendent-in-chief of the Boston Police Department in 2010, anticipates it’ll be an all hands on deck situation for law enforcement.

“We’ve got a lot of experience doing these large-scale events, and we’ve learned from these prior large-scale events where we’ve had challenges,” said Linskey.

Linskey said the infrastructure around the Garden has changed dramatically since 2010, with an array of new businesses and apartment buildings.

He said that translates into more people in the area during game times.

“We’ve got $5 billion-worth of infrastructure. It’s now a neighborhood, opposed to a destination,” said Linskey. “We’ve got to police that neighborhood while at the same time protect the rights of people to celebrate in an effective manner.”

Linskey predicts one factor may make things a little less rowdy in the city, compared to other championship games.

“Most of the colleges and universities have dumped out,” added Linskey. “So we’re 240,000 less college students who can come out and party when our team wins.”

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