It’s been a season to remember in Beantown, as the Boston Celtics finished the NBA regular season with the franchise’s most wins since 2007-08 while also securing the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
While Joe Mazzulla’s squad has been a storyline of their own in 2023-24, the city of Boston as a whole comes across well in the latest batch of NBA arena safety rankings, with TD Garden ranking as the fourth most safe facility in the 30-team association.
Much of that off-court success stems from Boston’s relatively low violent crime rate (53rd nationally, between Denver and Aurora in Colorado) and the team’s ranking among the 30 fanbases of the NBA.
BetMassachusetts.com, your top source for Massachusetts sports betting, created a ranking system to find the safest NBA arenas for spectators. We created a ranking system that factors in the crime rating, total crime index, fanbase ranking and crime grade. All metrics are based on the exact city and zip code of each team’s arena.
Note: Neighborhoodscout.com was used to find the violent crime and total crime index; Reddit.com’s subreddit r/nba was used to find the fan behavior ranking; CrimeGrade.org was used to find the crime grades. The higher the score, the safer the stadium.
Top 15 Safest NBA Arenas
Rank | Team | Total Score |
1 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 93 |
T2 | Phoenix Suns | 91 |
T2 | LA Clippers | 91 |
4 | Boston Celtics | 87 |
5 | Chicago Bulls | 83 |
6 | New York Knicks | 81 |
7 | Sacramento Kings | 76 |
8 | LA Lakers | 71 |
9 | Dallas Mavericks | 70 |
10 | Miami Heat | 67 |
T11 | Utah Jazz | 66 |
T11 | Brooklyn Nets | 66 |
T13 | Detroit Pistons | 61 |
T13 | San Antonio Spurs | 61 |
15 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 60 |
*The fan behavior ranking served as the differentiator for the Clippers/Lakers scores at Crypto.com Arena.
Where TD Garden Ranks In the NBA
Across the NBA, the only teams that scored higher when it came to arena and citywide safety were the Oklahoma City Thunder (93), Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Clippers (91 each), with those three finishing just ahead of the Celtics’ score of 87. (The Lakers' overall score was lower than the Clippers, whom they share Crypto.com Arena, due to fan behavior).
Overall, the C’s finished above fellow NBA mainstays like the Chicago Bulls (83), New York Knicks (81) and Sacramento Kings (76), while the Lakers (71), Dallas Mavericks (70) and Miami Heat (67) rounded out the leaguewide top 10.
In a year where Boston holds the best NBA title odds of any franchise (courtesy of Bet365 Massachusetts), with odds of +115, it’s worth remembering just how unique the Celtics’ citywide safety is in a world where such pleasantries aren’t always guaranteed.
USA Today photo by Winslow Townson.
