June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Madison Square Garden will be renovated with lessons learned from the construction of new ballparks for Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and Mets, arena Vice Chairman Hank Ratner said.

“We’re taking into account every piece of information we can,” Ratner told reporters during a tour of model suites at the 41-year-old Madison Square Garden, without being specific about the baseball venues’ strengths and weaknesses.

The facelift for Cablevision Systems Corp.-owned home to hockey’s Rangers and basketball’s Knicks will cost more than the $500 million estimated when the project was announced in April 2008, Ratner said. He didn’t provide a revised estimate of the cost. The renovation will be paid for entirely by the arena.

Renovation of the lower bowl is expected to be complete before the 2011-12 basketball and hockey seasons, and the upper bowl a year later. Most of the work will be done during the summer months, leaving it fully operational during the seasons of the National Basketball Association’s Knicks and National Hockey League’s Rangers.

Upon completion, there will be 50 percent more bathrooms; concourse widths that are doubled and tripled; larger seats; interactive kiosks; improved upper-bowl sight lines; new food options; and a party deck and two bridges that run the length of the arena with overhead views of the events.

The 58 lower-level corporate suites will be 40 percent larger than those currently at the arena. A “super suite” that is the size of 10 suites will be built, enabling it to be broken down into small rooms if necessary.

The building is being renovated by Turner Construction Co., the company that built the $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium, which opened in the Bronx in April. The New York Mets’ Citi Field, which cost $600 million, also debuted in Queens this season.

Yankees Ticket Prices

The Yankees were forced to slash season-ticket prices after opening their new venue this year with empty seats, something Madison Square Garden owners want to avoid. Prices for some premium seats were cut by up to 50 percent, and the Yankees offered refunds and free tickets to others who had purchased seats for as much as $2,500 per game.

That decision came more than three weeks after Yankees Managing General Partner Hal Steinbrenner said a small number of seats were overpriced because of economic conditions, and after the first homestand in the ballpark created headlines about blocks of empty seats in the choicest locations.

At Citi Field, the Mets have had to deal with complaints from some fans of obstructed-view or limited-view seats in the upper decks of the outfield.

The current Madison Square Garden debuted on Oct. 30, 1967, with the opening of a bowling center, while Bob Hope and Bing Crosby opened the arena on Feb. 11, 1968, with a salute to the United Service Organizations. It’s the fourth building called Madison Square Garden on the third different site in Manhattan.

Madison Square Garden owns Radio City Music Hall and the Beacon Theater, both of which were recently renovated.

“We know how do this,” Ratner said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net; Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 2, 2009 17:22 EDT