New York Knicks fans can now buy a piece of their beloved team without owning a slice of the Rangers \u2014 and Blueshirts fans can do the same.<\/p>\n
The two Madison Square Garden franchises officially split into separate publicly traded companies <\/a>on Tuesday, giving investors a chance to put their money behind either team.<\/p>\n The Knicks\u2019 parent company now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker MSGK, while the Rangers have their own stock under the symbol MSGR.<\/p>\n James Dolan, who is retaining control of both, collected a $10 million cash bonus for his efforts in pulling off the breakup.<\/p>\n The one-time award, approved Friday and paid Monday, recognized his \u201csignificant efforts and leadership\u201d in completing the spinoff, according to a securities filing.<\/a><\/p>\n Knicks star Jalen Brunson plays for a franchise whose parent company now trades separately from the Rangers on Wall Street. Jason Szenes for NY Post<\/p>\n The payout was approved by a three-member compensation committee whose members have no Dolan family ties, according to the document.<\/p>\n The split is aimed at closing a stubborn valuation gap that has at times left the combined company trading at a roughly 50% discount to estimates of what the two franchises are worth on the private market, according to investment bank BTIG.<\/a><\/p>\n Forbes has valued<\/a> the Knicks at a whopping $12.6 billion and the Rangers at $4 billion \u2014 a combined $16.6 billion, although those estimates don\u2019t necessarily reflect what investors are willing to pay for shares in the teams.<\/p>\n The Rangers generated $337.3 million in revenue during the fiscal year ended June 30 but posted an $18.9 million adjusted operating loss, according to securities filings.<\/a><\/p>\n JT Miller and the Rangers are part of the newly independent MSG Rangers Corp., which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under MSGR. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n By comparison, the remaining Knicks-side business had an implied $816.6 million in revenue and $77.7 million in adjusted operating income, based on subtracting the Rangers\u2019 results from the former parent company\u2019s consolidated figures.<\/a><\/p>\n Those calculations include the Westchester Knicks and corporate items in addition to the NBA franchise, which earlier this year captured its first world championship<\/a> in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n Shareholders in the former combined company received one Rangers share for every two shares they owned.<\/p>\n Knicks shares closed Tuesday at $305.42 \u2014 down $78.97, or 20.5% \u2014 as the stock began trading without the Rangers attached.<\/p>\n James Dolan retains control of both the Knicks and Rangers despite the breakup of their publicly traded parent company. Getty Images<\/p>\n The hockey team\u2019s newly independent shares finished at $177.61 \u2014 a decline of $12.39, or 6.5%.<\/p>\n Post-split, Dolan remains executive chairman and chief executive of both publicly traded companies, keeping him firmly in charge of the two franchises.<\/p>\n Shares of the newly independent Rangers company closed Tuesday at $177.61 under the ticker MSGR.<\/p>\n The Dolan family controls about 63.4% of the voting power at the newly independent Rangers company, according to securities filings, giving it the ability to elect up to 75% of the board.<\/p>\n That grip is cemented by a dual-class stock structure that gives the family\u2019s Class B shares 10 votes apiece, compared with just one vote for the Class A shares available to ordinary investors.<\/p>\n The arrangement could allow the Dolans to block a sale even if outside shareholders favored one.<\/p>\n Knicks shares began regular trading under the ticker MSGK on Tuesday, closing at $305.42.<\/p>\n The corporate breakup won\u2019t change where either team plays.<\/p>\n Both the Knicks and Rangers will continue to call Madison Square Garden home, with the arena operated by MSG Entertainment, a separate publicly traded company.<\/p>\n The teams remain tied to the arena operator through long-term licensing<\/a> and service agreements, with their Garden leases running through June 2055 \u2014 keeping both franchises financially intertwined with another Dolan-controlled business.<\/a><\/p>\n Asked for comment, an MSG spokesperson referred The Post to the SEC filings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Knicks fans can now buy a piece of their beloved team without owning a slice of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4087,5,1186,5788,555,1671,35,4,43],"class_list":["post-697297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-business","tag-hockey","tag-james-dolan","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117516883912618428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697297","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=697297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}