The New York Rangers are now one step closer to standing on their own as an organization, and the work in progress would end on of the biggest relationships in professional sports. It has been reported today that Madison Square Garden Sports Corp has made progress towards a proposed spin-off of the Rangers and New York Knicks by filing a confidential initial Form 10 Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Today’s news is an update to something that was first talked about in February, and the timing makes a ton of sense given the Knicks success in recent years while the Rangers have been regressing.
What we already know
The proposed move separating the two franchises was being considered as an opportunity for massive amounts of revenue to be generated. With two passionate fanbases that love their team, the opportunity of having an ownership stake, no matter how small, is something that would be very appealing. Such a move allows both organizations to be evaluated on their own merits, and the Knicks turnaround in recent years is something that Dolan likely wants to capitalize on.
Once completed, the new Rangers organization would include the NHL team and the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL. The other created organization would include the Knicks, and the Westchester Knicks who are the team’s NBA G League affiliate.
How move would impact the Rangers
Once completed, the organizational structure would look drastically different than it exists today. Currently James Dolan sits atop the pyramid with a C suite of executive at MSG Sports, and then you have the individual hierarchy for each team with Chris Drury overseeing the operation for the Rangers, and Leon Rose in control for the Knicks.
This new structure would likely create a new position at the top to directly work with Drury, although there also remains a possibility that Drury absorbs this role and then a general manager is hired underneath him to focus on day-to-day hockey matters. It is important to consider that Drury didn’t have a ton of experience when he was promoted into the roles vacated when John Davidson and Jeff Gorton were fired. He’s been the Rangers’ president and general manager for a few years now, and has a very strong relationship with Dolan.
In any case, once the proposed spin-off is finalized, there will be a new focus on each organization, and along with that will come accountability to succeed and produce. Sports a results based business, and this would be even more true under the proposed structure of each team being a publicly trade organization where every big name acquisition, and title chase can be reflected in a daily stock price. There’s still a ways to go, but this latest update brings some clarity to something that was previously more exploratory and speculative.
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