{"id":462240,"date":"2026-02-18T17:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/462240\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T17:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T17:15:19","slug":"james-dolan-reveals-plan-for-msg-to-possibly-split-up-knicks-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/462240\/","title":{"rendered":"James Dolan reveals plan for MSG to possibly split up Knicks, Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is a chance that <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/new-york-knicks\/knicks-james-dolan-reveals-collaborative-reason-for-tom-thibodeaus-firing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Madison Square Garden Sports CEO James Dolan<\/a> might be making moves to split up the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/new-york-rangers\/nhl-rumors-rangers-messy-culture-threatening-blow-up-season\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Knicks and Rangers<\/a>, the city&#8217;s NBA and NHL teams, into two separately publicly traded companies.<\/p>\n<p>Reports have surfaced that MSG&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7054843\/2026\/02\/18\/madison-square-garden-sports-knicks-rangers-spinning-off\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">board of directors approved a plan<\/a> to \u201cexplore spinning off its hockey and basketball clubs\u201d (via The New York Times).<\/p>\n<p>If it goes through, the Knicks and their G League team, the Westchester Knicks, would become a separate company from the Rangers and their minor league team, the Hartford Wolf Pack, would similarly split off into a different company.<\/p>\n<p>Still, nothing is \u201cguaranteed to happen,\u201d and there is \u201cno timeline in mind to complete the move.\u201d So, fans will have to keep an eye on the situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are exploring the opportunity to further create value for our shareholders by separating our two professional sports franchises into distinct companies,\u201d Dolan said in a statement, via The New York Times. \u201cBoth the Knicks and Rangers are premier teams in their respective leagues, with storied histories and large and passionate fan bases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe this proposed transaction would provide each company with enhanced strategic flexibility, its own defined business focus, and clear characteristics for investors,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>Will James Dolan and Madison Square Garden split the Knicks and Rangers?<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3410619\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Knicks-owner-James-Dolan.jpg\" alt=\"New York Knicks executive chairman James Dolan sits court side sits courtside during the third quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at Madison Square Garden.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"573\"  \/>Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>While Madison Square Garden&#8217;s board approved the plan, there are other factors at play. The NBA and NHL both have to approve the move. The New York Times also notes that there are \u201cother considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for the why, some are speculating that such a move would make it \u201ceasier\u201d for Dolan to sell one of the franchises. The Dolan family became minority owners of the franchises in 1994. Shortly after, they became majority owners.<\/p>\n<p>Dolan has been adamant that he&#8217;s not interested in selling the teams. However, he and MSG executives have stated their interest in selling minority stakes.<\/p>\n<p>Another possible reason for the move, as The New York Times notes, is that it could serve as a \u201cprecursor\u201d to making the Knicks and Rangers privately traded teams. They are both publicly traded at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a chance that Madison Square Garden Sports CEO James Dolan might be making moves to split&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[1928,5,1186,5788,3328,1671,35,5190,5193,4,36,273],"class_list":{"0":"post-462240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-james-dolan","11":"tag-madison-square-garden","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-new-york-rangers","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkrangers","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-rangers","19":"tag-sports-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116092766497711716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}