James L. Dolan

Last updated

James L. Dolan
Born
James Lawrence Dolan

(1955-05-11) May 11, 1955 (age 69)
Massapequa, New York, US
Alma mater SUNY New Paltz
OccupationBusinessman
TitleExecutive Chairman and CEO, Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment
Executive Chairman, MSG Networks
Children6
Parent

James Lawrence Dolan [1] (born May 11, 1955) is an American businessman, and the executive chairman and chief executive officer of Madison Square Garden Sports and Madison Square Garden Entertainment, and executive chairman of MSG Networks. [2] As the companies' chairman, Dolan oversees all operations within the company and supervises day-to-day operations of its professional sports teams, the New York Knicks and New York Rangers as well as their regional sports networks, which include MSG Network and MSG Plus. Dolan was previously CEO of Cablevision, founded by his father, until its sale in June 2016 to European telecom conglomerate Altice.

Contents

Early life and education

Dolan is one of six children of Cablevision founder Charles Dolan and his wife, Helen Ann Dolan, [3] and nephew of Cleveland Guardians owner Larry Dolan. [4] He is of Irish descent. [4] After originally pursuing a career in music, Dolan eventually switched to a major in communications at SUNY New Paltz and began working for Cablevision in various capacities including sales before eventually being dispatched to Cleveland by his father to manage the launching of a sports radio station. In 1995, he was made CEO of Cablevision. [5] Throughout his early adult life, Dolan battled drug and alcohol problems and was reportedly known for having a volatile temper. In 1993, he went to drug rehabilitation at the Hazelden clinic in Center City, Minnesota. [6]

Business career

Dolan opposed his father's proposed Voom satellite service, which became a polarizing controversy among Cablevision's board of directors. While supporters argued Voom could propel Cablevision into the future emerging satellite market and a wider customer base, opponents of the plan, including James Dolan, argued it was too expensive with no expense relief for the foreseeable future. In the end, the younger Dolan prevailed and Voom was shut down. This was an instrumental event in Dolan emerging from his father's shadow, albeit reluctantly, as a viable businessman. [7]

His business career has included multiple failures, which include purchasing the failing Wiz electronics and entertainment chain, which ended up posting losses of $250 million before being liquidated, and the Clearview Cinemas chain which failed to generate any significant revenue. [7]

Philanthropy

Dolan fostered Cablevision's philanthropic partnership with The Lustgarten Foundation, a private supporter of pancreatic cancer research. Together with Charles Dolan and former Cablevision Vice Chairman and Madison Square Garden Chairman Marc Lustgarten. [8] Dolan established the Foundation in 1998. In 2008, Cablevision made a multi-year commitment to underwrite the Foundation's costs, ensuring that 100 percent of every donation goes to researching this disease. [9] With Dolan's backing, Cablevision used its assets to advance the curePC campaign, aimed at increasing public awareness of pancreatic cancer and is responsible for organizing the Holiday Rock & Roll Bash, the Foundation's annual fundraiser. [10] [11]

Dolan played a role in organizing the recent "12-12-12" benefit concert, which raised an initial $50 million for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, with additional money still coming in. [12] Other benefit concerts included "The Concert For New York City," which generated more than $35 million in aid for 9/11 victims and heroes, and "From The Big Apple to The Big Easy," which raised nearly $9 million for Hurricane Katrina relief. [13] Dolan supports MSG's ongoing commitment to the community, particularly through the Garden of Dreams Foundation, the non-profit charity that partners with MSG to help children facing obstacles throughout the New York metropolitan area. [14]

Sports management

In 1994, Paramount Communications, the owner of Madison Square Garden, was acquired by Viacom, who in turn sold the MSG properties to Cablevision and ITT Corporation, which had 50% ownership each. ITT sold its share to Cablevision three years later.

In 1999, Dolan was given an increased role in managing Cablevision's sports properties and is now the primary manager of these assets. The teams under his domain include most notably the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks, the National Hockey League's New York Rangers, the Women's National Basketball Association's New York Liberty, and the American Hockey League's Hartford Wolf Pack. Of these teams, the only one to win a championship is the Wolf Pack, who won the Calder Cup in the 1999–2000 AHL season.

As Chairman of Madison Square Garden, he supervises day-to-day operations of its professional sports teams and regional sports networks, which include MSG Network and MSG Plus. He is a governor of the Knicks and Rangers to their respective leagues. [15]

Controversies

New York Knicks

Like the Rangers, the Knicks performed abysmally in the early 2000s. Unlike the Rangers, they have yet to fully recover, which fans mostly blame on Dolan's management missteps. [16] Although the Knicks made the NBA Finals in 1999, they did not post another winning season until the 2012–13 season. Furthermore, the Knicks did not make the playoffs at any point between the 2003–04 and 2010–11 seasons, which both ended in the first round with four-game sweeps of the Knicks. In 2007, NBA Commissioner David Stern criticized Dolan's management of the Knicks, saying "they're not a model of intelligent management." [17] [18]

In 2007, Dolan was named as a defendant in a sexual harassment lawsuit submitted by a former Knicks executive, Anucha Browne-Sanders. Browne-Sanders accused Dolan of firing her out of spite after she complained about sexual harassment from Isiah Thomas. The court ruled in favor of Brown-Sanders and Dolan had to pay $3 million of the $11 million settlement. MSG was responsible for paying the remainder of the settlement. [19]

New York Rangers

After winning the Stanley Cup in 1994, the Rangers saw a decline in performance in the wake of Dolan's increased role in managing the team and failed to make the playoffs from the 1997–98 season until the 2004–05 NHL lockout, despite leading the league in payroll in most of those years. This was the longest playoff drought in the franchise's history, in part due to questionable, expensive free-agent signings, such as Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, and Theo Fleury. However, since the resolution of the NHL lockout in 2005, Dolan has allowed Sather to rebuild from the ground up, which has led to a revival of the club and the organization, leading to a trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 2012, their first since 1997, and to the Stanely Cup Finals in 2014.

Facial Recognition to Ban "Enemies" from Venues

In 2022, it was reported that Dolan had instituted a policy of using facial recognition at his venues to prevent admission to attorneys whose law firms were engaged in legal disputes with Dolan and his businesses, even when those attorneys had legitimate tickets to the show or event. This led to lawsuits and an investigation into whether Dolan's venues should be stripped of their state-issued liquor licenses. [20]

New York Liberty

On May 5, 2015, Dolan announced that Isiah Thomas would be president of the WNBA's Liberty. Considering Thomas' history being both a failed President/GM of the Knicks and Thomas being implicated in the Anucha Browne-Sanders sexual harassment incident, Dolan's judgment was questioned by many fans and members of the press. [21] [22] [23] [24]

Sexual assault lawsuit

On 16 January 2024, a sexual assault lawsuit was filed against Dolan in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by Kellye Croft, a former massage therapist who alleged Dolan pressured her into giving him "unwanted sexual intercourse" when his band JD & The Straight Shot was touring with The Eagles in 2013. [25] [26] Kellye stated that she was employed for The Eagles in 2013 during the band's History of the Eagles – Live in Concert tour, which JD & The Straight Shot opened concerts for; [27] [25] [26] Dolan was believed to have provided a large sum of money for the tour as well. [26] In her lawsuit, Croft also alleged Dolan set her up to be molested by Harvey Weinstein in January 2014. [25] [26]

Media policies

Dolan rarely speaks with members of the media and communicates to the press through released statements or in interviews with MSG Network. In 2000, Dolan instituted media training for all Garden employees who might deal with the press and instituted an ironclad rule against team personnel criticizing others in the organization via the media. [28] Under Dolan's watch MSG implemented controversial media policies limiting access to players. Some of these measures included prohibiting reporters and Knicks' beat writers from interviewing players without an MSG public relations official present, forbidding one-on-one interviews, and banning writers who write articles critical of the organization. The policies also forbid the MSG Network from being critical of the Knicks and the Rangers, regardless of their performance. Such measures were not standard practice for other NBA teams. [29]

Personal life

Dolan lives on Long Island with his wife Kristin, whom he named the chief executive officer of AMC Networks in 2023. [30] He has been married twice and has six sons. [31] He contributed to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential reelection campaign. [32]

Hobbies

Dolan performs blues-inspired rock as the singer for JD & The Straight Shot, [33] their album was released in March 2019. [34] [35]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison Square Garden</span> Multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City, U.S.

Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth Avenues from 31st to 33rd Street above Pennsylvania Station. It is the fourth venue to bear the name "Madison Square Garden"; the first two, opened in 1879 and 1890 respectively, were located on Madison Square, on East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, with the third Madison Square Garden (1925) farther uptown at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street.

West Side Stadium was a proposed football and Olympic stadium to be built on a platform over the rail yards on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Oakley</span> American basketball player-coach

Charles Oakley is an American former professional basketball player. Oakley played most of 19 seasons in the National Basketball Association with the New York Knicks. As a power forward, he consistently ranked as one of the best rebounders and defensive players in the NBA. He also played for the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, and Houston Rockets. Since 2017, he has been the coach of the Killer 3's of the BIG3.

The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by MSG Entertainment, Inc.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation.

AMC Networks Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Checketts</span> American businessman (born 1955)

David W. Checketts is an American businessman and sports executive. Checketts has served in c-suite roles or been an owner of the Utah Jazz, New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Liberty, Madison Square Garden (MSG), Legends Hospitality, and the St. Louis Blues. He also advised on Tom Gores' purchase of the Detroit Pistons and of Joe Tsai's purchase of the Brooklyn Nets.

Yankee Global Enterprises, LLC, formerly YankeeNets, LLC, is an American limited liability company (LLC) which owns the New York Yankees baseball team, along with a plurality stake in YES Network and a 20% and 10% stake in New York City FC and AC Milan soccer clubs, respectively. It was formed in 1999 and is controlled by the family of George Steinbrenner. Other investors, including Lester Crown, Jerry Speyer, and Marvin Goldklang own minority stakes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SportsChannel</span> American group of regional sports networks

SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anucha Browne Sanders</span> American basketball player and executive

Anucha Browne is an American former women's basketball player and a former executive for the New York Knicks team of the NBA. She is also known for winning a sexual harassment lawsuit that she filed against former New York Knicks general manager Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden.

MSG Sportsnet is an American regional sports network owned by MSG Entertainment; it operates as a sister channel to MSG Network. The network serves the New York City metropolitan area, whose reach expands to cover the entire state of New York, Northern New Jersey, Southwestern Connecticut and Northeastern Pennsylvania; MSG Sportsnet carries sports events from several of the New York area's professional sports franchises, as well as college sports events.

The NBA on USA is the de facto name for the USA Network's National Basketball Association (NBA) television coverage. The program ran from the 1979–80 season through the 1983–84 season.

Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. is an American entertainment holding company based in New York City. The company was established in 2020 when The Madison Square Garden Company spun off its non-sports assets as an independent, publicly traded company.

Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. is an American sports holding company based in New York City.

Charles Francis Dolan is an American billionaire businessman, best known as founder of Cablevision and HBO. Today, Dolan controls Madison Square Garden Sports, MSG Networks, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Madison Square Garden, Sphere, Radio City Music Hall, BBC America and AMC Networks. As of October 2021, his net worth was estimated at US$5.6 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Eagles – Live in Concert</span> 2013–15 concert tour by the Eagles

History of the Eagles – Live in Concert was a concert tour by the American rock band the Eagles. It was launched in conjunction with the release of the 2013 documentary History of the Eagles. The tour visited North America and Europe between 2013 and 2014 as well as Oceania in early 2015. It began in Louisville, Kentucky at the KFC Yum! Center and concluded on July 29, 2015 in Bossier City, Louisiana. The tour included Bernie Leadon, who was in the original lineup of the band, and would have also included Randy Meisner, but he was too ill to perform at the time. Don Felder was, however, excluded because of ongoing lawsuits against the group, despite settling them in 2007. It was the last tour to involve Glenn Frey before his death in 2016.

JD & The Straight Shot is the country blues and roots rock vanity project of its frontman and guitarist, Cablevision Systems Corporation CEO and Madison Square Garden Company Executive Chairman James L. Dolan.

Hank J. Ratner is an American media, sports, entertainment and telecommunications executive. He was previously a Vice Chairman of Cablevision Systems Corporation, President and CEO of The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG), Chief Operating Officer of AMC Networks and President and CEO of Independent Sports and Entertainment (ISE).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cablevision</span> Former American cable television company

Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its existence and in its final years, Cablevision exclusively served customers residing in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and a small part of Pennsylvania. However, at one time it provided service in as many as 19 states. Cablevision also offered high-speed Internet connections, digital cable, and VoIP phone service through its Optimum brand name. Cablevision also offered a WiFi-only mobile phone service dubbed Freewheel.

John H. Krumpe was an American sports executive who served as CEO of the Madison Square Garden Corporation, New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, and Javits Center and president of the New York Racing Association, New York Rangers, New York Knicks, and New York Islanders.

Richard H. Evans is an American sports and entertainment executive.

References

  1. ↑ "MSG SPINCO, INC. Reported by Dolan James Lawrence" (PDF). The Madison Square Garden Company. September 15, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 11, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  2. ↑ "James Dolan". Wall Street Journal.
  3. ↑ Finnigan, William (March 13, 2023). "The Way Things Work: The Fight Over Penn Station and Madison Square Garden". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Cablevision CEO by day and happy musician by night - Jim Dolan on his varied career and Irish roots". IrishCentral. 2014-04-10. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
  5. ↑ "James L. Dolan: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-10-12.
  6. ↑ "SI.com - Lord Jim - Feb 9, 2007". CNN. February 6, 2007. Archived from the original on May 2, 2007.
  7. 1 2 Siegel, Joel (March 18, 2005). "Oedipus at the Garden". NYMag.com. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  8. ↑ Official website
  9. ↑ Official website
  10. ↑ "Pitch Union's shame". New York Post. 7 December 2012.
  11. ↑ "Freeze Frame". Multichannel News. 18 December 2012.
  12. ↑ "12-12-12 Producers Say Concert Brought In $50 Million". The New York Times. 19 December 2012.
  13. ↑ "Katrina benefit earns 'Easy' $9 mil". Variety. 13 October 2005.
  14. ↑ Official website
  15. ↑ "James Dolan Named AMC Networks Chairman As Charles Dolan Steps Aside". The Hollywood Reporter. September 15, 2020.
  16. ↑ Levitt, Daniel (2022-12-07). "Fifty Years After Their Last NBA Title, The Knicks Are Still Adrift". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  17. ↑ "ABC Sports News". ABC News. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  18. ↑ Beck, Howard (October 31, 2007). "Unhappy Stern Chides Knicks as Season Starts". The New York Times.
  19. ↑ "Jury rules Thomas harassed ex-executive; MSG owes her $11.6M". ESPN. 2 October 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  20. ↑ Hill, Kashmir; Kilgannon, Corey (2022-12-22). "Madison Square Garden Uses Facial Recognition to Ban Its Owner's Enemies". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  21. ↑ Powell, Michael (May 5, 2015). "James Dolan Gives an Executive Another Shot, Deserved or Not". The New York Times.
  22. ↑ Vaccaro, Mike (May 5, 2015). "Only James Dolan would entrust a WNBA team to sexual harasser". New York Post.
  23. ↑ Ley, Tom (5 May 2015). "James Dolan Puts Sexual Harasser In Charge Of WNBA Team". Deadspin. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  24. ↑ "Isola: Watch out Phil Jackson, Isiah Thomas is back!". Daily News. New York. May 6, 2015.
  25. 1 2 3 Dazio, Stefanie; Mahoney, Brian (16 January 2024). "Federal lawsuit accuses NY Knicks owner James Dolan, media mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault". Associated Press. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  26. 1 2 3 4 Ushe, Naledi (16 January 2024). "Harvey Weinstein, MSG exec James Dolan sued for sexual assault by former massage therapist". USA Today. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  27. ↑ Mandler, C. (2024-01-16). "New York Knicks owner James Dolan and Harvey Weinstein accused of sexual assault in new complaint". CBS News. Retrieved 2024-01-18.
  28. ↑ "SI.com - Lord Jim - Feb 9, 2007". CNN. February 6, 2007. Archived from the original on February 19, 2007.
  29. ↑ John Koblin (November 28, 2007). "Life in Knicks Hell". The New York Observer.
  30. ↑ Toonkel, Jessica (15 February 2023). "AMC Networks Owner James Dolan Finds a New CEO: His Spouse". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  31. ↑ O'Connor, Ian (17 December 2018). "This is why James Dolan runs the Knicks and the Garden without apology". ESPN.com. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  32. ↑ "Image# 201712119089167096". www.fec.gov. Federal Elections Commission. December 11, 2017. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
  33. ↑ "Knicks owner James Dolan is playing a concert gig during the NBA Draft". For The Win. 2017-06-22. Retrieved 2017-10-12.
  34. ↑ "James Dolan Addresses Sexual Harassment on New Song 'I Should've Known'". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  35. ↑ Greene, Tammy (March 14, 2019). "Americana Band JD & The Straight Shot To Release New Album "The Great Divide" - Friday March 15th". The Greene Room Magazine. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.