Knicks owner James Dolan rips NBA’s revenue sharing, new media deal in scathing letter

James Dolan is not a fan of the NBA’s new media deal or their revenue sharing structure. (Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images)

When the world hears about New York Knicks owner James Dolan, it’s typically because he’s had security remove someone from Madison Square Garden because they were wearing a shirt with “sell the team” or “Dolan sucks” emblazoned on the front. But not this time.

Dolan has written a scathing letter to the NBA board of governors, which was obtained by ESPN after it was sent to the board on Monday. In it, Dolan heavily criticizes the NBA’s revenue sharing structure and new $74.6 billion media deal.

He feels that the media deal deemphasizes regional sports networks (RSNs) to the point of near-elimination, which as the owner of an RSN (MSG Networks), he is very concerned about. Dolan also feels that revenue sharing, which takes a slice of the media and sponsorship profits from the league’s highest-earning teams and redistributes them among the smaller market teams, promotes only mediocrity.

“The NBA has made the move to an NFL model — deemphasizing and depowering the local market,” Dolan wrote in the letter via 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. This new media deal goes a long way to accomplishing that goal.”

Dolan specifically called out the NBA’s decision to keep 8% of the total NBA-related fees for itself in the new deal, which comes out to $6 billion. That’s a massive jump compared to the upcoming 2024-2025 season, the last in the current media rights deal, in which the NBA is keeping just 0.5%, or $15 million.

And he was especially emphatic about RSNs, claiming that the proposal offers “no local protections for RSNs” as it allows up to half of a team’s games (and all playoff games) to be aired by national networks, giving RSNs fewer games to air on their own platforms.

Dolan is no stranger to being the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/knicks-owner-james-dolan-rips-nbas-revenue-sharing-new-media-deal-in-scathing-letter-134436245.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-16 13:44:36

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