Despite missing out on the playoffs for the past six seasons, the New York Knicks are still one of the league's most profitable teams.
Recently, there have been whispers regarding team owner James Dolan opening up to the idea of selling the franchise. The 63-year-old CEO of The Madison Square Garden Company spoke with ESPN's Ian O'Connor and explained why this has proven to be quite a complex scenario:
“I love the Knicks and Rangers, right, but you still have a responsibility to your shareholders. They're not there because they're fans. You don't invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a stock because you're a fan. You do it because you think that the business is going to increase in value, that the stock price is going to go up. You have a responsibility as the guy who runs the place to deliver on that for them, that's being open and transparent.”
Dolan went on to point out that this goes far beyond how he personally feels about the Knicks, as at the end of the day, he still needs to run a business:
“And so in that position, I could never say that I wouldn't consider selling the Knicks. Now, my family is not in that position, and they are the majority shareholders. They hold the majority of the vote. … As a majority owner, I don't want to sell, either. As the head of the public company, you can't say you can't sell, because then you're telling your shareholders that your own personal feelings about your assets are more important than their money. And they won't invest with you if you do that.”
Unfortunately, this does nothing to clear things up. In so many words, Dolan just stated that while he personally does not want to sell, he may still end up doing so. Sorry, Knicks fans, this just brings us all back to square one.
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