A watch party planned for Monday outside Madison Square Garden has been canceled, as fans braced for heightened security at the first home game of the Knicks’ extraordinary N.B.A. championship run, with both President Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani expected to attend.
A rowdy viewing party held there on Friday during Game 2 resulted in more than a dozen arrests. Other recent watch parties have been similarly raucous, exposing an apparent tension between Mr. Mamdani and his police commissioner, Jessica S. Tisch, who has warned that a glut of high-profile sporting events have placed exceptional demands on the Police Department.
In addition to the elation that has accompanied the Knicks’ 13-game win streak, FIFA World Cup soccer games are set to start next week just across the Hudson River at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Thousands of fans from around the world are expected to make New York City their home base during the World Cup matches that culminate at MetLife on July 19.
For the game on Monday, the Knicks have told ticketholders to arrive two hours early, without bags, as the world’s most famous arena prepares to greet a mayor and a president with polar politics and keep them, and a full house of fans, safe.
A son of Queens, Mr. Trump made his name, and fortune, in New York City. But he has avoided the city since being elected president for the second time, preferring instead to head to his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., when he is in the region.
A message posted on the N.B.A. website on Sunday revealed that the Monday night watch party outside the Garden had been canceled. The same site suggested that celebrations at other New York City locations, including Wollman Rink and Brooklyn Bowl, would continue as planned.
The Police Department said the city’s permitting office rejected a request for the watch party outside the arena. The decision was made in coordination with the Secret Service because of Mr. Trump’s visit, the department said, adding that it had expected watch parties at the Garden to continue for Game 4.
Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in New York, said in a statement that the two agencies had made the decision because of “the security requirements associated with an event of this scale and the need to maintain a secure environment for protective operations.”
A spokesman for City Hall also cited the additional security demands of a presidential visit as a reason for not allowing the watch party, but added that parties in other locations, including Central Park and the Brooklyn Bowl, would proceed on Monday.
On Friday, when the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs by one point in a nail-biter, a party held outside the Garden devolved into chaos.
Seventeen people were arrested, and nine others were issued summonses for disorderly conduct. A police union leader said that one reveler, who was charged with punching a 23-year-old female officer, also bit a second officer.
“A victory celebration shouldn’t end with blood pouring down an officer’s face,” Patrick Hendry, president of the union, the Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement.
A vocal fan of the city’s sports culture, Mayor Mamdani has allowed two watch parties to go forward outside the arena and even posted a video of himself celebrating there ahead of the tipoff last week. In a statement after the Friday night fracas, Mr. Mamdani called the assault unacceptable, noting, however, that “we want fans to celebrate this moment together.”
On Sunday, Ms. Tisch refused to answer any questions at all about the Knicks, as she marched in the Queens Pride Parade with Police Department officers.
She has said that more than 1,000 officers were deployed Friday in and outside the Garden, where fans could be seen climbing lampposts and food carts.
Starting in July, New York’s police officers will be asked to work 12-hour shifts to help manage the throngs of World Cup soccer fans, celebrations to mark the country’s 250th anniversary and seasonal parades and festivities.
“Any one of those events on its own will be a major operation in New York City,” Ms. Tisch told the City Council during a recent hearing. “Taken together they place extraordinary demands on the New York City Police Department.”
“Perhaps we won’t be able to facilitate everything,” she added, “but there will be a lot of celebrating in New York City.”
Ashley Ahn contributed reporting.
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