OT: Silicon Valley fund seeks major stake in New York Knicks, Rangers

[sawchuk1971]

https://nypost.com/2019/11/03/silver-lake-seeks-piece-of-lowly-knicks-rangers/

Silver Lake Partners — a firm that’s better known for its investments in Tesla and Alibaba — is angling to buy a big stake in both teams before they’re spun off into a publicly traded company, sources close to the situation said.

Silver Lake owns close to 10 percent in the teams’ owner, Madison Square Garden — making it the largest outside investor in the entertainment conglomerate controlled by billionaire James Dolan.

Now, Silver Lake wants more, but only when it comes to the sports teams — not MSG’s other assets, like Radio City Music Hall and the Tao nightclub empire, these sources said.

Dolan will continue to control the Knicks and Rangers for the foreseeable future, even as MSG spins off about two-thirds of the value of the teams to current MSG shareholders. Nevertheless, MSG has said it is open to selling some of the one-third stake it plans to retain so it can invest the proceeds in its remaining businesses, including the futuristic, orb-like entertainment globes Dolan is building in Las Vegas and London.

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[David Dennison]

How many teams are minority or majority owned by a publicly traded company? Can't be many, I wonder if the leagues might not be too keen on that.

 

[Ernie]

Update:

The New York Post reported on Sunday (11.3) that Silver Lake Partners was “angling to buy a big stake in both [the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers] before they’re spun off [MSG] into [their own] publicly traded company.” The Silicon Valley based private equity firm is already MSG’s largest shareholder (+/- 10%) outside of executive chairman James Dolan.

But that won't be possible now (they'll have to acquire additional shares on the open market like everyone else), after The Madison Square Garden Company approved of a plan on Thursday to separate their sports assets - in their entirety - from the balance of their portfolio in Q1 '20 (a previous proposal had MSG retaining a 1/3 stake in the entertainment assets). Existing MSG shareholders will retain their “current economic interests” in both companies.

MSG Approves Plan to Spin-Off Sports Businesses In Their Entirety

 

[TOGuy14]

How many teams are minority or majority owned by a publicly traded company? Can't be many, I wonder if the leagues might not be too keen on that.

Rogers and Bell own a controlling stake in MLSE which runs the Leafs / Raptors / Marlies / TFC / Argos(?)

 

[LadyStanley]

Flyers are owned by Comcast/NBC.

 

[Voight]

As if Dolan will sell a large stake? Pipe dream.

It would be best for the teams if he no longer had control but good luck.

Seattle Mariners are owned by Nintendo. @David Dennison

 

[Tawnos]

As if Dolan will sell a large stake? Pipe dream.

It would be best for the teams if he no longer had control but good luck.

Seattle Mariners are owned by Nintendo. @David Dennison

Dolan would be in the discussion for best NHL owner while also being in the discussion for worst NBA owner. As a Rangers fan who doesn't care about basketball at all, I don't want Dolan to sell the Rangers.

 

[Voight]

Dolan would be in the discussion for best NHL owner while also being in the discussion for worst NBA owner. As a Rangers fan who doesn't care about basketball at all, I don't want Dolan to sell the Rangers.

He's only in that discussion because he micro manages the Knicks and doesn't have time to do the same for the Rangers. That and I don't think he really cares for hockey that much. Doesn't have the time to worry or give a crap about the Rangers, which makes fans like you very lucky.

He's still arguably the worst owner in North American sports. But at least he doesn't go after Ranger greats.

 

[Tawnos]

He's only in that discussion because he micro manages the Knicks and doesn't have time to do the same for the Rangers. That and I don't think he really cares for hockey that much. Doesn't have the time to worry or give a crap about the Rangers, which makes fans like you very lucky.

He's still arguably the worst owner in North American sports. But at least he doesn't go after Ranger greats.

He does love hockey and the Rangers. You're right though, that he might simply not have the time to micro-manage both teams, but I've also seen it said that he realizes he doesn't know enough.

But what more could you want from a hockey owner? Willing to invest as much money as is necessary to run a high-end organization and then leaves it to the hockey people to run things. Whatever the reason for it, he's up there.

 

[Centrum Hockey]

As if Dolan will sell a large stake? Pipe dream.

It would be best for the teams if he no longer had control but good luck.

Seattle Mariners are owned by Nintendo. @David Dennison

They sold most of their Stake to minority owners John Stanton is their Representative in the league meetings
Nintendo selling Mariners to minority owners

 

[Voight]

He does love hockey and the Rangers. You're right though, that he might simply not have the time to micro-manage both teams, but I've also seen it said that he realizes he doesn't know enough.

But what more could you want from a hockey owner? Willing to invest as much money as is necessary to run a high-end organization and then leaves it to the hockey people to run things. Whatever the reason for it, he's up there.

He doesn't know anything about basketball either, yet still interferes. Should come to same realization he did with hockey.

He's probably one of the best NHL owners simply because as you said, he leaves it to the hockey people. But his complete ineptitude when it comes to running the Knicks gets him on the list of the worst sports owners.

Maybe one day he'll realize that leaving the team operations to the experts will result in the team improving, much like it did for the Rangers.

They sold most of their Stake to minority owners John Stanton is their Representative in the league meetings
Nintendo selling Mariners to minority owners

Thanks for the update. Think it still applies tho.

Braves are owned by Liberty Media. Thats another one, although FWIW John Malone is the largest shareholder.

 

[aqib]

Rogers and Bell own a controlling stake in MLSE which runs the Leafs / Raptors / Marlies / TFC / Argos(?)

Yes Argos are in there as well. Bell and Tannenbaum owned them before theyn moved them into the MLSE umbrella. They also own Raptors 905 (The G-League team) and the Toronto Rock lacrosse team.

Rogers owns the Blue Jays