James Dolan won’t completely rule out the possibility of selling the New York Knicks.
Dolan, who is the chairman of Madison Square Garden and also owns the New York Rangers, says “people have sent feelers out” of around $5 billion for the franchise.
James Dolan on why he can't rule out selling the Knicks & Rangers, why he fired Phil Jackson, why he went to war w/ WFAN, why he mishandled the Anucha Browne Sanders case, why he ended his friendship w/ Harvey Weinstein. https://t.co/cnEQMsCz9y
— Ian O'Connor (@Ian_OConnor) December 17, 2018
Dolan, however, adds that he has no desire to go through with a sale.
Per ESPN:
On the notion he seems more willing than his family to consider selling his teams: “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. 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.”
On the belief among some high-ranking league executives that he has fielded offers upward of $5 billion for the Knicks: “No one has come through with a bona fide offer. You hear numbers all the time. … I think people have sent feelers out, but never any that were pursued. Yeah, [the feelers are] around that number [$5 billion], but those things, it’s like a stock price. It’s only important if you’re going to buy or sell.”
