James Dolan is riding the gravy train.
The billionaire inherited his fortune, which includes the New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden and MSG Network, from his father, Charles Dolan, one of the world’s wealthiest people. James Dolan controls the NBA’s highest-valued franchise in the league’s largest media market because he was born into both.
Dolan reportedly wanted more at the rest of the NBA’s expense. Except, the 69-year-old was this week’s lone dissenting vote against both the league’s proposed budget this season and its newly re-elected chairman of the board of governors, Toronto’s Larry Tanenbaum, sources told Yahoo Sports.
In 2023, when the Knicks paid $20.9 million into the league’s revenue-sharing plan, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Forbes valued the organization at $6.6 billion. The Knicks collected $504 million in revenue and $169 million in operating income last year, the publication said. MSG Network, which broadcasts the Knicks, earned a record $887 million in revenue last year, profiting $89.9 million, according to Sportico.
Dolan has reportedly sent three contentious memos to the board of governors in the last year — the first to resign from their financial and media advisory committees, a second to voice his displeasure with the NBA’s new media rights deal (and the league office’s share of it) and a third to reiterate those objections.
He wrote in July, “Pride of ownership is what is sacrificed. We are well on our way to becoming a one size fits all, characterless organization. Just remember we did this on the backs of owners like Jerry Buss.”
Pride of ownership, he said. Rich coming from a team owner who has castigated fans and former players alike. Or one who has been a subject of multiple sexual misconduct lawsuits. And it is notable that Lakers governor Jeanie Buss, Jerry’s daughter, has long been a supporter of the league’s revenue-sharing plan.
“Any business operator wants to keep their revenue,” she told Sports Business Journal. “That’s the nature of the business, but we also understand the bigger picture and we want a league with teams that are economically viable so that every team has the opportunity to compete. It makes for a healthier league.”
Dolan appears mainly upset that the league’s new media package, which will pay his Knicks more than $1 billion over its life, lowers his profit from local broadcasts. Per Sports Business Journal, the Knicks earn roughly $3 million a game on MSG Network and will lose a handful of games per year to national TV.
Again: The NBA’s $75 billion media deal will pay the Knicks more than $100 million a year through 2036.
Dolan also claimed in his July memo that the league office’s share of media rights would increase from $15 million for the 2024-25 season to $358 million in 2025-26. The initial figure is incorrect, according to Sports Business Journal. The league office’s actual number for the 2024-25 season is reportedly $113 million, not $15 million, and the $358 million reflects a threefold increase in the media rights package.
Regardless, it is not as though folks at the league office are lining their pockets with Dolan’s cash. Those funds, approved by the board of governors, are reinvested to grow the game globally — for more money.
The Knicks have profited more than $1 billion over the past seven seasons and could sell tomorrow for more than $6 billion. “Losing” a handful of local broadcasts per year means one less yacht in the shipyard, if that, since those earnings are not lost but incorporated into a more evenly split national rights deal.
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And that is what it appears Dolan is really mad about. He should make more, because his team happens to play in New York. In theory, this should give his Knicks an advantage, so long as he reinvested those earnings into his roster. Think Major League Baseball, where the New York Yankees’ payroll is 4-5 times that of smaller markets. In reality, Dolan has not paid the NBA’s luxury tax in a decade and collected an annual payout from teams that did. The Knicks reportedly received $11.9 million last season as a result.
No word on whether Dolan declined any of his luxury tax income.
The difference between actively not paying for a competitive team and passively existing in a big city should not be lost on anyone. Revenue sharing is a simple concept. Large-market teams, left to their own devices, would profit immensely from larger local audiences as small-market teams suffered — or even folded — from smaller ones. If the NBA did not collapse, it would become so competitively imbalanced that collective viewership would decline, and the league’s next media rights package would follow suit.
Plain and simple: Revenue sharing is designed to create parity around the league, therefore increasing interest across all 30 teams, not for just a handful. It is for the health of the sport — for you, the fan.
Not for James Dolan.
“The NBA has made the move to an NFL model — deemphasizing and depowering the local market,” Dolan wrote in a July memo to commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA’s 29 other governors, per ESPN. “Soon, your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and what color next year’s jersey will be. Don’t worry, because due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure.
“Of course, to get there, the league must take down the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful,” added Dolan. “This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal.”
All of that is weird. Why would moving to an NFL model be so bad? It is only the most successful sports league in the world. And Dolan has been guaranteed financial success, not failure, despite fielding one of the league’s least successful teams. For all their advantages, the Knicks have not a won a championship in more than 50 years, and they have failed to make the playoffs in 16 of Dolan’s 25 seasons at the helm.
And why would the NBA orient its business around a model that Dolan conceded is not working? He reportedly noted in that same July memo a 45% decline in MSG’s viewership, largely due to cord-cutting. The league is shopping some local broadcasts to a digital partner, according to Sports Business Journal, though Dolan reportedly insisted teams are “without a comparable replacement offered by the league.”
Only recently have the Knicks revitalized the franchise, making back-to-back playoff appearances for the first time since 2013, so they will pay the luxury tax for the first time since 2014. Maybe this is why Dolan is expressing concern about slightly lower nine-figure profits, even if the league is better for it. He might have to sacrifice a mansion he never visits so less fortunate franchises can afford to remain relevant.
In the end, Dolan’s opposition was met with silence. Though he wrote in July, “We trust that our concerns are shared by many of our counterparts across the league,” his dissenting votes stood alone. The rest of the NBA continues apace, operating in its best interest, and James Dolan will get back on his gravy train.
