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Why is MSG Sports splitting the Knicks and the Rangers? MSGS has long been pegged as having a “Dolan discount” for the stock trading at a steep discount to its enterprise value. MSGS’ current EV is $9.6 billion, a 29% discount to the $13.5 billion combined total from Sportico’s most recent valuations of the Knicks at $9.85 billion and the Rangers at $3.65 billion. The reality is that sports teams have historically traded at a discount to what they might fetch in a private transaction. The Boston Celtics and Cleveland Indians—now Guardians—both traded at steep discounts before they went private.
Why is MSG Sports splitting the Knicks and Rangers now? A transaction 3,000 miles away last year helped heat up spinoff talks when Mark Walter agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers at a $10 billion valuation, months after the sale of the Boston Celtics for $6.1 billion. Before the rise of the Golden State Warriors, the Knicks and Lakers were the NBA’s financial titans in a league of their own. “The spin enhances the possibility of raising capital, and [it] makes minority stake sales easier, as there are two distinct teams’ business models, which makes for a clearer investment vehicle,” Seaport Research Partners analyst David Joyce wrote in an April research note. Sportico recently spoke with multiple investors who think Dolan could move beyond just an LP stake deal and sell one of the teams outright. Someone familiar with the spinoff details pushed back on the premise of a control sale of either team.
A judge sided with Madison Square Garden in its lengthy legal battle with Charles Oakley on Friday, saying that the former New York Knicks All-Star had not proven he was assaulted when he was removed from a game he attended in 2017. Oakley was handcuffed and arrested after an altercation with security while sitting near owner James Dolan during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Oakley initially brought a number of claims against MSG that were dismissed in February 2020. After appeal, Oakley’s assault-and-battery claim remained.
But Judge Richard J. Sullivan of the Southern District of New York ruled that Oakley “has produced no evidence to support his claim that he was assaulted by MSG security guards.” MSG had pointed to video evidence and previous testimony that Oakley was not assaulted. “For more than nine years, Mr. Oakley’s lawyers have pursued claims they knew were false. Those claims have now been dismissed by the Court in their entirety — for the third time,” MSG said in a statement. “We are pursuing legal action against Douglas Wigdor, and his unscrupulous law firm, to hold them accountable for years of frivolous litigation and their blatant abuse of the judicial system.”
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Oakley was a beloved Knicks forward in the 1990s, and he remains one of the few former players who has remained absent from MSG during the team’s recent playoff runs, culminating with this year’s NBA championship. His removal from the game was a jarring scene, but Sullivan ruled that Oakley hadn’t proven it was done with excessive force. “Ample evidence — including videos from multiple angles and the unanimous testimony of every witness (even, to some extent, Oakley himself) — shows that Oakley had a reasonable opportunity to depart the Garden, that he instead resorted to physical violence, and that he was never pushed to the ground,” Sullivan wrote. The judge added that “no rational jury could conclude that Oakley reasonably feared himself at risk of wrongful physical contact — let alone that MSG intended to stir such an apprehension.”
Mike Vorkunov: MSG Sports says they plan to finish spinning Knicks and Rangers into separate publicly traded companies by end of October. MSG Knickerbockers Corp. will include the Knicks and Westchester Knicks. MSG Rangers Corp. will include the Rangers, Hartford Wolf Pack and MSG Training Center. James Dolan will be executive chairman and CEO of both.
MSGS stock is up again today after the company published record financial results, fueled by the Knicks’ first NBA championship in 53 years. Revenue was $1.15 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30—11% higher than the previous year’s record tally.
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Fourth-quarter revenue rose $75 million, or 37%, driven primarily by higher playoff revenue, versus the Knicks’ Eastern Conference appearance in 2025; the Rangers missed the playoffs both seasons. Playoff-related revenue accounted for $67 million of the gain, with the same number of home game, as the Knicks swept their second- and third-round playoff series. But NBA Finals pricing and the frenzy around the title run pushed results much higher.
The New York Post was first to report on the divorce’s impact on the Tsais’ assets. The Tsais acquired a 49% ownership stake in the Nets and the Barclays Center rights in 2018. A year later they consolidated ownership at a $3.3 billion valuation, at the time the highest price ever paid for control of a U.S. sports franchise. The family bought the Liberty that same year, from James Dolan, for between $10 and $14 million, Sportico previously reported. Both assets have appreciated significantly. The Nets and arena assets are now worth $6.22 billion, per Sportico’s numbers. The Liberty are now worth $600 million.
Jalen Brunson isn’t sure yet if his New York Knicks will visit the Trump White House after winning the NBA championship and thought it was “really cool” that Taylor Swift was cheering on the team courtside at Madison Square Garden during Game 4 of the NBA Finals. As for Swift’s star-studded wedding at MSG and the rumors that the Knicks’ starting five were invited? He found out the same way the rest of the world did (online) but feels his team’s play may have influenced her choice of wedding venue.
As for whether the Knicks will visit the Trump White House, as their owner James Dolan indicated, Brunson can’t say for now. “That’s something that we actually haven’t discussed as a team. And so obviously, people are making assumptions and saying everything, but together we haven’t discussed it yet. And so we’ll cross our bridge when we get to it.” When Brunson was informed that if they do visit, they’d be the first NBA team to visit the Trump White House, he replied, “Interesting… Interesting.”