James Dolan set off a wave of excitement among New York Knicks fans recently when he did not rule out the possibility of selling the team, and it sounds like the billionaire may be giving a potential sale more thought than he is willing to admit.
During his latest podcast, Bill Simmons of The Ringer said multiple sources that he trusts told him during All-Star Weekend that Dolan is openly fielding offers to sell the Knicks.
“James Dolan is courting offers for the Knicks,” Simmons said. “He really cares about buildings and the in-game/in-concert experience, and he wants to put even more money into that. Like The Forum in LA, which is an amazing place to see a concert, what they’ve done with Madison Square Garden. He really cares about the buildings.”
Dolan’s company owns Madison Square Garden, and he is the chairman and CEO of the Madison Square Garden Company and executive chairman of MSG Networks. A deal involving the Knicks could be quite complicated — if not farfetched — if he just wants to sell the team itself. According to Simmons, that’s exactly what Dolan is aiming to do.
“The Knicks are just a pain in the a–. People s— on him for it. He feels like if he can just sell the Knicks for some crazy price, he can put that money back into some of the music and game experience stuff that he cares about,” Simmons added. “The Knicks are available, from what I’ve heard.”
Simmons said Dolan is seeking $5 billion for the Knicks without including MSG. That price seems asinine just for the team and not the venue, and Dolan is probably aiming high without actually expecting to get that much.
When speculation began growing back in December that the Knicks are for sale, Dolan threw cold water on the talk and said he is not ruling it out simply because you can’t rule out a sale when you have shareholders and investors. That said, we’ve seen how sensitive he gets over criticism of his struggling NBA franchise. It would not be all that difficult to believe that he wants to move on from the basketball side of things.
