Madison Square Garden Company

The Madison Square Garden Company
Public
Traded as NYSE: MSG (Class A)
Russell 1000 Component
Industry Sports and entertainment
Founded 2010; 2015 (spin-off Madison Square Network)[1]
Founder James L. Dolan
Headquarters New York City, New York, U.S.
Key people
 James L. Dolan
(Executive Chairman & CEO)
Andrew Lustgarten
(President)
Revenue Increase $1.120 billion (2016)
Increase $316.79 million (2016)
Total assets Increase $9.384 billion (2008)
Owner Dolan family[2]
Subsidiaries
Website Official website

The Madison Square Garden Company is an American sports and entertainment holding company based in New York City. The company was established in 2010 when Cablevision spun off the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, Madison Square Garden, MSG Network and other entertainment assets as an independent, publicly traded company.

History

On May 31, 1923, Tex Rickard incorporated the New Madison Square Garden Corporation for the purpose of building and operating the third Madison Square Garden. On January 15, 1925, shortly after the Garden opened, the corporation's name was changed to the Madison Square Garden Corporation.[3] On April 7, 1960, the Madison Square Garden Corporation merged with its majority shareholder Graham-Paige.[4] On March 9, 1962, Graham-Paige changed its name to the Madison Square Garden Corporation to reflect their largest asset.[5] On August 20, 1977, Gulf and Western Industries, which owned 81% of MSG's stock, purchased complete control of the corporation and turned it into a whole owned subsidiary. At the time of G&W's acquisition, the Madison Square Garden Corporation owned the arena, Knicks, Rangers, three horse tracks (Roosevelt Raceway, Arlington Park, and Washington Park Race Track), Holiday on Ice, and real estate holdings in Long Island, Manhattan, and Chicago.[6] Gulf and Western shed its non-media and entertainment assets, became Paramount Communications (owner of Paramount Pictures) in 1989. In 1994, Viacom purchased majority ownership of Paramount Communications, but quickly sold MSG to Cablevision and ITT Corporation.[7] In 1997, ITT sold its half to Cablevision for $650 million.[8]

In February 2010, Cablevision spun off the MSG properties, including the sports franchises, into The Madison Square Garden Company.[9] On September 30, 2015, the MSG Networks division, which operates the company's media assets (including MSG Network) was spun off into a separate company, leaving MSG with its live entertainment and sports assets.[10][11]

In September 2018, Madison Square Garden began work on a spherical music venue in Las Vegas, called MSG Sphere Las Vegas, planned to open in 2021[12]. Earlier in the year, MSG announced plans to build MSG Sphere London, near the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park[13]. Both venues are designed by Populous architects and are supposed to incorporate highly advanced audio and visual technologies[14] .  

Acquisitions

Following the success of the New York Americans, the Madison Square Garden Corporation established the New York Rangers, which began play in 1926.[15] In 1946, at the behest of vice president Ned Irish, the Madison Square Garden Corporation became a charter member of the National Basketball Association with the New York Knicks.[16]

On August 17, 2016, MSG acquired a 12% stake in digital media, broadcasting, and events company Townsquare Media from GE Capital.[17]

On July 31, 2017, MSG acquired a controlling stake in professional video gaming team Counter Logic Gaming.[18]

Divisions

In addition to owning the Madison Square Garden arena in Manhattan, New York City, The Madison Square Garden Company is divided into two entities.

Madison Square Garden, L.P. used to operate the Hartford Civic Center (now the XL Center), an indoor arena in Hartford, Connecticut, and Rentschler Field (now the name of the playing surface at Pratt & Whitney Stadium), a stadium in East Hartford, under contract with the state of Connecticut until the 2007 season when it was replaced by Northland/Anschutz Entertainment Group.[20][21]

Controversies

West Side Stadium

Before the Madison Square Garden Company was formed, it's businesses were part of Cablevision. In 2005, it was proposed that a new West Side Stadium be built for the New York Jets. The stadium would have directly competed with the then-Cablevision owned Madison Square Garden. Cablevision ran TV ads rallying against the proposed stadium which ultimately resulted in the state of New York rejecting the proposal. The rejection of the proposal meant that Madison Square Garden would not have a nearby venue competing for concert revenue. [22]

Clippers Arena Proposal

In 2018, the Madison Square Garden Company was behind a lawsuit against the city of Inglewood in an attempt to stop the construction of a new basketball arena for the Los Angeles Clippers. The new arena would compete directly with The Forum which is owned by The Madison Square Garden Company. [23] Another lawsuit from a local community group was filed to block the construction of the venue in June 2018. Inglewood mayor James Butts suggested that the lawsuit was brought about by "business interests from out-of-state", suggesting that the Madison Square Garden Company were using this group to ensure that they don't have a competing arena near by. [24] James Dolan is said to be trying to avoid being deposed in the case. [25]

Officers

  • James L. Dolan - Executive Chairman and CEO
  • Andrew Lustgarten - President
  • Donna Coleman - Chief Financial Officer
  • Steve Mills - President, Basketball Operations - New York Knicks
  • Glen Sather - President, Hockey Operations - New York Rangers

References

  1. ↑ "The Madison Square Garden Company Becomes New Public Sports And Entertainment Company" (Press release). The Madison Square Garden Company. October 1, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  2. ↑ Lieberman, David (October 1, 2015). "Madison Square Garden Split Drives Dealmaking Speculation". Deadline.com. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  3. ↑ Moody's Industrial Manual, 1941
  4. ↑ "Graham-Paige Preferred Holders Vote to Absorb Madison Square Garden". The Wall Street Journal. April 8, 1960.
  5. ↑ "Name Change Set by Graham-Paige". The New York Times. March 9, 1962.
  6. ↑ "Name Change Set by Graham-Paige". The New York Times. March 9, 1962.
  7. ↑ Chass, Murray (August 28, 1994), "ITT-Cablevision Deal Reported To Buy Madison Square Garden", The New York Times, archived from the original on February 23, 2011, retrieved June 29, 2009
  8. ↑ Sandomir, Richard (March 7, 1997). "ITT Sells Cablevision Control Over Madison Square Garden". The New York Times. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  9. ↑ Riddell, Kelly (2010-02-10). "Cablevision Spins Off MSG to Focus on Cable Franchise". Bloomberg. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
  10. ↑ "Madison Square Garden Splits Off Sports and Entertainment Divisions, Wall Street Yawns". Billboard. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  11. ↑ "Madison Square Garden Details Split". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  12. ↑ "Las Vegas Breaks Ground On INSANE New Venue". Your EDM. 2018-09-30. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  13. ↑ "First visuals revealed of Populous' spherical London arena". Dezeen. 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  14. ↑ "Populous to build spherical music venues in Vegas and London". Dezeen. 2018-02-14. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  15. ↑ Fischler, Stan & Weinstock, Zachary (2016). Rangers vs. Islanders: Denis Potvin, Mark Messier, and Everything Else You Wanted to Know about New York's Greatest Hockey Rivalry. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 1-6132-1932-6.
  16. ↑ Eskenazi, Gerald (May 23, 1974). "Ned Irish Retiring July 1 After 40 Years at Garden". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ Cimilluca, Dana (2016-08-17). "Madison Square Garden Takes 12% Stake in Townsquare Media". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  18. ↑ "The Madison Square Garden Company x CLG - CLGaming.net". clgaming.net. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
  19. ↑ Vincent, Roger (June 26, 2012). "Forum owners plan to revive venue with $50-million renovation: They intend to challenge Staples Center and other big arenas in the L.A. region by turning the faded Inglewood facility into a 'world-class' concert hall". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-26.
  20. ↑ "The Connecticut Development Authority Selects Facilities Manager for Hartford Civic Center" "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-08-02. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  21. ↑ Welcome to Rentschler Field
  22. ↑ https://ny.curbed.com/2015/1/30/9997132/how-the-new-york-jets-very-nearly-got-a-west-side-stadium
  23. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8301740/inglewood-mayor-butts-azoff-msg-entertainments-sham-lawsuit
  24. ↑ https://la.curbed.com/2018/6/19/17480328/inglewood-lawsuit-clippers-arena-housing
  25. ↑ http://ampthemag.com/the-real/james-dolan-really-does-not-want-to-be-deposed-in-the-clippers-fight-with-the-forum/
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