Knicks owner James Dolan sent a letter to the NBA’s Board of Governors blasting the league’s new $74.6 billion media rights deal and renewing his criticisms of the league’s revenue sharing policies, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The new media rights deal has expanded to include three national partners instead of two and is expected to significantly increase the number of nationally televised games, reducing the number of available games for regional sports networks and cutting into the revenue generated by those local broadcasts.
“The increased number of exclusive and non-exclusive games means that national partners would have the ability to air nearly half of the regular season and all postseason games,” Dolan wrote in his letter, per Wojnarowski. “This reduction in available games for RSNs risks rendering the entire RSN model unviable. The inclusion of streaming partners in the proposal (e.g., Amazon Prime Video, Peacock) allows fans in all NBA markets to bypass their RSN to watch certain games in their local market. The proposal offers no local protections for RSNs.”
As Wojnarowski details, the NBA has also reportedly proposed that the league office receive an 8% cut of the revenue from that media deal, as opposed to 0.5% under the previous agreement. That would work out to about $6 billion over 11 seasons, beginning in 2025/26. Dolan said there has been no “sufficient justification” for that exponential increase.
“(There is no) transparency into how (the NBA) arrived at the sum, how these fees will be allocated or to what extent the league will utilize this purported revenue growth to incur new and incremental costs and further expand the league’s ever growing expense level,” Dolan wrote.
Dolan has long had an adversarial relationship with the league office and commissioner Adam Silver. He stepped down from his positions on the NBA’s influential advisory/finance and media committees last year, with reporting at the time indicating that the Knicks owner had been “increasingly critical” of Silver and the NBA on a number of issues.
The Knicks questioned Silver’s impartiality when they filed suit against the Raptors last year, arguing that the court system ought to rule on a dispute between the two teams due to Silver’s allegedly tight relationship with Raptors governor Larry Tanenbaum.
Dolan, who has also been a critic of the NBA’s revenue sharing system over the years, argued in his letter to the Board of Governors that the new TV deal will hurt local team sponsors and partners, since the visibility those sponsors receive in locally televised games won’t be afforded to them in national broadcasts. He added that “pride of ownership” is being sacrificed and that the league is becoming a “one size fits all, characterless organization” by taking away agency from its individual teams.
“The NBA has made the move to an NFL model — de-emphasizing and de-powering the local market,” Dolan wrote. “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. This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal.”
The NBA’s Board of Governors is reportedly set to meet on Tuesday in Las Vegas. Dolan, who has declined to attend those meetings since stepping down from the league’s committees last year, wrote in his letter that he believes the Knicks’ concerns are “shared by many of our counterparts across the league.”
Out if touch much…
Regular TV is a thing of the past…
Regional vs international always loses when money comes into the equation…
This just reeks of a rich man complaining that he’s had his profit margins lowered from an already far too high for one person level…
You clearly did not read what he is saying. You already saw this with football. He has a legit point. NY has the ability to generate a lot of local sponsors. Those are not just money. They are the ones that make the games fun to attend. Bobble head nights and t shirt nights for instance are sponsored by a local group that helps connect the fan to the product and generates a younger crowds excitement. Streaming services make watching possible. RSN make loving your team and showing your colors possible. With every step we take to get away from local coverage then less ppl are gonna care who can actually attend that game. They will be helping the Knicks fans around the world but taking away from the guy in Queens that wants to just watch the game on his couch. Without the internet. Which is ruling us all now.
That’s a fair point, and if he’d couched his arguments that way, it would have made sense. But he didn’t. He spent the entire time blasting the NBA for a necessary and inevitable decision instead of couching it as “this is hurting our local fans”. “Pride of ownership” might as well mean “I only care about me, me, me.”
There are also ways around that problem even under an RSN model, which he’s ignoring to spread his rhetoric.
Also, Dolan implying that the Knicks are a successful franchise under his leadership is a stretch, lol. Only recently could they be considered that, and that’s more a result of him focusing on the business side and not the team-building process.
*without a RSN model, or under a streaming model. Mashed the two together by accident.
Eon – Dolan owns the RSN, so his complaints are actually very on point. The NBA is screwing his and other regional sports programmers and offering these companies nothing in return. It’s not smart business in the long run for the NBA to screw the RSN’s.
And yes, it also screws the local fans.
In this case, success is being measured by revenue and not win-loss records/championships. Even when the Knicks were terrible, MSG would still sell out every game. And the value of the Knicks is always at the very top of the league because of the population of NYC & the global popularity of its sports franchises.
Those people on their couch with money are very rare…
The fan interaction with local sponsors is a good point…
However thats on Dolan to sort out as an NBA team owner, not a RSN provider… Those promotions aren’t tied to an RSN but the team…
How is “bobble head night” related to local tv deals? I have watched the Knicks on LP and never ince saw a mention of their bobble head night sponsor during the broadcast. Also, how does local TV channels influence game attendance?? This makes zero sense.
Greed and stupidity are a heady combination. Glad the Cleveland Dolans are just cheapskates, not complete morons.
Cleveland Dolans must have finally gotten through to their NY cousins, hire good sports people and let them run the sports aspect and you run the business side. They are still all greedy SOBs who care little about the fans, just their own bottom line. This whole RSN debate is all about money for them, it just so happens they are on the side of the local fan who wants to watch his team as often as possible with local announcers and analysis. If the NBA were to appease them somehow to drop the RSN fight for more money they would do it in a heartbeat.
He’s right, though.
He’s correct. But he’s also the prime example of “just because you’re correct, it doesn’t mean you’re right.” What Dolan is missing is that RSNs and the business model that they represent don’t benefit the consumer much, if at all. If the NBA wants to keep growing their base, they have to adapt. That’s just the way of economics in general.
Exactly…
The benefit of RSNs that Dolan cares about is his ability to put more money in his pocket…
It’s not about consumers who get a much better deal out of this…
For once Dolan is….right?
Can’t believe I’m saying that
Multi pronged issue here.
The RSNs are necessary for those that want to watch the game for free in their local area. Sure, advertising brings in the dollars for the RSN, but it won’t anymore if fewer games are available. For him personally, he has MSG Network which is directly impacted, thus impacting his profit.
Profit sharing takes away the capitalism for owners. Some do better than others for a variety of reasons, whether it be location, cost of living, or just ownership. It’s regulated now, and who would want to pay extra for a team in NY when they could get almost the same profit in Orlando? The flip side is that if profit sharing didn’t exist, what would the league look like? The quality would be down because certain teams can’t compete in spending?
The caps are supposed to keep things fair, but profit sharing and digging into ones ability to personally profit more so seems intrusive. Toss in that taxes are more impactful in certain states, such as NY in his case, and he feels like everyone has a hand out to collect from him.
I’m not a Dolan fan at all, but he has a point.
Yeah, totally agree. I hate Dolan but I think he’s right here.
Unfortunately this means I can watch more games locally (which is actually great!). Xfinity and MSG have been at odds for years, which ended in MSG being dropped from my cable provider, and I haven’t been able to listen to Clyde call a game for a long time or a Rangers game. Streaming MSG is just too expensive and additional cost. Feel like Dolan is just greedy
Dolan just wants more money…
The fan gets far easier access…
I’m personally glad NBA is going this direction. Cable broadcasts are a waste of time and money from the perspective of fans. I cut the cord a decade ago. I also hated the days where I couldn’t even watch live games because they were blacked out to placate RSNs. Not sure where the assumption comes from that all local fans use RSNs and all streaming views are out of region.
The local sponsor argument is interesting but also irrelevant. NBAs job is not to serve soonsors, it’s to serve viewers and paying fans. Sponsorship money can come from anywhere, it doesn’t have to be local.
Completely agree…
There is an argument that local sponsorship connects teams with their local communities…
But thats a team issue, not an NBA issue… It’s up to the teams to figure that out… Which means more work for Dolan and others who earn more whilst asleep than the rest of the population whilst they work…
Sitting in a huge market, this guy wants to enjoy the advantages he can leverage of being in such a huge market.
I’m surprised he didn’t paint this issue as capitalism vs socialism directly. NBA and other leagues have been moving more and more towards this revenue sharing model where they want the tide of economics to raise all teams in the league with the idea that it will aid everyone if everyone is profiting. It raises the floor for all teams, but limits the ceiling for certain teams in the amount of revenue they can enjoy.
I’m sure Dolan does have some rich friends he can shed tears with about this issue. We can only hope he doesn’t get too upset that he does something rash and stupid.
he spittin
What’s stopping the RSN’s from making deals with the streaming networks ? As someone who cut the cord a long time ago , I’d appreciate being able to see more of the games at home .
Well, James. Since you seem to have an issue with anything the NBA board decides to do, and going back to your many comments on how you “hate” being a sports team owner, maybe you should just finally sell the team so we can move on and forget you even existed.
I mean Dolan isn’t wrong per say, but I wonder how much of this is “I’m just looking out for the local fans” and how much of this is “I own MSG networks which broadcasts Knicks games and I lose money direct into my pocket”. Put it this way, if Dolan didn’t own the local TV coverage for his own teams would he really care? My guess would be no.
100% about MSG…
Im glad the league is shifting to more nationally televised games, but I get where Dolans coming from. Also a jump from 0.5% to is 8% is crazy
Honestly, if I were Dolan (probably can’t do this But)
I’d cut a deal with regional sports networks on exclusive rights and access and tell the nba shove it.
No blackouts
Micd up player of the game or coach for the night
First interview rights pre game and post game
And have a regional sports network monthly fee like 10 bucks a month to exclusive content plus all games live. Or whatever a decent price point is.
The big market televisers can do their thing and regional sports network can do their thing.
Pushing out fans making it harder to watch games isn’t the smart route.
It took 25 years, but I finally agree with Dolan. It took a complete clown show at the top of this league, but that’s where things are. Of course his views are shared by many of his counterparts, like every one of them owning a team in a major basketball market and having a 3 digit IQ. I doubt that an alliance between the real fans of basketball and the Dolan’s of the world is not what the former had in mind, but it may be at a point where the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The only caveat is that Dolan and his fellow major market owners, at least collectively, let this happen. They went along with the expansion that not only watered down the league’s product, but shifted control of the ownership group, and thus the league, to the current controlling group, which, combined with their puppet Commissioner, is the worst group of leaders in any professional sport. They don’t even pretend to care about the product.
What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Dolan should go back to what he’s good at and focus allegedly raping and sexually harassing women. Stay in your lane, Jimbo.
Since the RSN implications have already been discussed at length here I’ll focus on the ludicrous 15,900% increase on the NBA’s portion. I know, I know – it sounds like I’m chastising the NBA in defense of the billionaire owners, but what in the hell could be the justification for that?? Yes, there’s boatloads of new money coming in for the league, but these are the same people that bar players from ever seeing a salary increase remotely reminiscent of that kind of money. In conclusion, Silver and the owners can go suck it.
Oh no!! He is gonna go bankrupt :(
Womp womp bro really making me feel bad for you and your billions
The knicks were bongwater for decades when Dolan was being loud. Fans hoped that Dolan was gone in a swirl of tepid blues music. Welcome back Knicks headache.