James Dolan: ‘I don’t really like owning teams’

James Dolan: ‘I don’t really like owning teams’

Even though New York Knicks and New York Rangers owner James Dolan has repeatedly said that he is not willing to sell, the longtime owner also doesn’t enjoy owning either franchise.

“I don’t really like owning teams,” James Dolan told New York Times reporter Katherin Rosman in a feature published Wednesday.

Dolan has owned both franchises since 1999, even though the Knicks have consistently struggled more than the Rangers.

Over his tenure, the Knicks have made the playoffs only eight times–including five first-round exits–with just two 50-win campaigns across 24 seasons; the Rangers, meanwhile, have made the playoffs 14 times with three 50-win seasons and six with 100-plus points over that same span.

Dolan, 68, has repeatedly shown signs of being thin-skinned throughout his tenure, too.

Rosman alludes that Madison Square Garden’s code of conduct suggests fans can only criticize the fan and not Dolan himself because “insulting a group is different from insulting one person,” using digital bouncers to spot and track fans and “troll attorneys” (Dolan’s words for lawyers who are suing him and/or his businesses) who violate these abhorrent policies.

Rosman cites that Dolan called the economics of owning a professional sports franchise “kind of sleepy,” even though he is the … owner of not one, but two professional sports teams when he’s been public about not wanting to sell.

Maybe we (myself included) put more stock into how much we think sports owners actually care about their respective franchises, even though every situation is different. Not everyone is Mat Ishbia or Jerry Jones, and vice versa.

Dolan’s even taken a step back from the Knicks from overseeing every microscopic detail the team does roster-wise since current Knicks general manager Leon Rose was hired in March of 2020; Rose has actually helped bring the Knicks back into the Eastern Conference chase, even though they’re still a move or two away from being legitimate title contenders.

That said, while owning one–let alone two–professional sports franchises is obviously a great way to make money, nobody is forcing Dolan to own a team if he doesn’t enjoy doing it. Plus, the Knicks and Rangers are two of the most valuable franchises in their respective leagues and could almost certainly cost upwards of $6-7 billion combined.

There would likely be a lot of people who would be interested in investing in either franchise, anyway. We won’t know until it happens, but perhaps selling benefits both sides for both franchises, especially if the moves are made sooner rather than later.

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