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DAZN will become the exclusive digital home of the MSG and YES networks this fall, in a breakthrough announcement Wednesday that is a likely precursor to deals with seven more NBA teams in the coming days and weeks. While paying undisclosed rights fees and sharing advertising revenue, DAZN will stream all non-national game broadcasts for MSG’s Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Devils and Sabres and YES Network’s Yankees and Nets -- effectively a takeover of the entire Gotham Sports direct to consumer app. In addition, multiple NBA sources told SBJ that DAZN is close to acquiring full exclusive local broadcast rights next season for the T’Wolves, Cavaliers, Pacers, Spurs and Grizzlies, as well as DTC-only arrangements with the Magic and possibly the Hornets.
A new era has arrived for Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. — and it begins with the Rangers. MSG executive chairman and CEO James Dolan is handing over the day-to-day ownership responsibilities for the Blueshirts to his son Quentin, The Post has learned. This begins the process of passing the torch to his children, which Dolan has said he’s always hoped to execute. Indeed, for the first time since assuming control of both the Knicks and the Rangers 27 years ago, Jim Dolan is scaling back his involvement with one of his teams.
A source said Quentin Dolan’s promotion with the Rangers does not change anything for the Knicks. All is status quo for MSG’s NBA championship team, with Jim Dolan remaining in his executive chairman role.
But did it change how he views his other professional sports franchise, the New York Rangers, and what it will take for them to end their 32-year-and-counting Stanley Cup drought? “That’s a big thing,” Dolan said last week, when the subject of winning a title with the Rangers was broached during a radio appearance on WFAN. “I have many of the same people who are helping me with the Knicks are focusing on the Rangers, too — particularly my son Quentin, who does all the conditioning and wellness for both teams.”
Madison Square Garden Sports — the James Dolan-run company that also owns the NHL’s New York Rangers — notched a record high of $390.12 a share on Thursday, the day after the Knicks clinched a 105-95 Game 1 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Shares in MSGS soared 1.4% Monday to hit a fresh intraday high of $391.79, ahead of Game 3. The stock has rallied 103% over the last year, giving the sports conglomerate a $9.3 billion market cap.
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The cheapest resale tickets for the next game in that building would soon be available for the preposterous, plausible price of more than $3,000 apiece. Of course, New York has many teams in many sports that stir many unruly passions. Fans of Rangers hockey are avowed lunatics, but have a smaller footprint in a city where a public park’s netless hoop is something of an unofficial municipal logo. Baseball and football allegiances are split — Mets and Yankees, Jets and Giants — preventing even the most charmed playoff run from becoming a wholly unifying moment.
Mr. Trump has said in recent weeks that he remains a Knicks fan and has been following the team’s progress. “I really like Jim Dolan a lot, I’m really happy for him and the team,” Mr. Trump said of James Dolan, the owner of the Knicks, the New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden, on WABC-AM, known as TalkRadio 77. “I think it’s great.”
MSG Sports, which owns both the Knicks and the National Hockey League’s New York Rangers, jumped 3.7% in premarket trading Tuesday. Shares have climbed 37% this year and 86% over the last 12 months after stagnating for the previous eight years.
Madison Square Garden Sports has moved to split the New York Knicks and New York Rangers into two separate, publicly traded companies — a move analysts say could finally unlock billions in trapped franchise value tied up under James Dolan’s sprawling sports empire. MSG Sports said it confidentially filed an initial Form 10 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday as it advances a proposed tax-free spin-off that would separate the Knicks business from the Rangers business. The Knicks entity would include the NBA franchise and the Westchester Knicks G League affiliate, while the Rangers company would house the NHL club and the Hartford Wolf Pack.
The New York Knicks have punched their ticket to the Eastern Conference finals for the second season in a row after last playing in the ECF in 2000, producing a windfall for Madison Square Garden Sports, which owns the club and the NHL’s Rangers. The Knicks have already played five playoff home games, which generated nearly $50 million in gross revenue before the NBA took its cut from ticket receipts. The team is likely in line for at least five more home games, as the heavy favorite versus whoever emerges in the other East series between the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers, which the Cavaliers lead 3-2. That would goose revenue to $140 million, assuming two home games in the NBA Finals.
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“We are exploring the opportunity to further create value for our shareholders by separating our two professional sports franchises into distinct companies,” MSG Sports CEO James Dolan said in a statement. “Both the Knicks and Rangers are premier teams in their respective leagues, with storied histories and large and passionate fan bases. We believe this proposed transaction would provide each company with enhanced strategic flexibility, its own defined business focus, and clear characteristics for investors.”
New York Knicks owner James Dolan said in a rare radio interview Monday that he’ll consider anything short of an NBA championship this season a disappointment. “Yeah, we want to get to the finals and we should win the finals,” said Dolan, 70, who also owns the New York Rangers. “This is sports, this is business and anything can happen, but getting to the finals, we absolutely got to do. Winning the finals, we should win.”
Still, most Rangers and Knicks who had to make the walk with their former teams don’t miss it. “It’s a kind of challenging two minutes,” said Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who came to New York from the Los Angeles Kings as a free agent over the summer. “Legs get burning. I needed to catch my breath after that.” “It’s definitely a hike,” added Knicks wing Josh Hart, who went up the ramp while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trail Blazers.
Mike Vorkunov: MSG Networks makes its debt restructuring deal official, via a SEC filing. It will reduce its annual media rights fee by 28% to Knicks and 18% to Rangers, and eliminate annual increase. MSGN also reduced rights fees to "certain other" teams. MSGN also broadcasts Sabres, Devils, Islanders, Gotham FC