{"id":488623,"date":"2026-02-18T20:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488623\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T20:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T20:39:09","slug":"knicks-rangers-values-could-unlock-with-an-msg-sports-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488623\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks, Rangers’ Values Could Unlock With an MSG Sports Split"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSince MSG Sports<\/a> spun off from its parent company in 2020, the stock has steadily risen from the $161 open price on its first day on the market to more than $330 today. But the publicly traded holding company, which owns the New York Knicks<\/a> and Rangers, has designs on how to unlock even more value.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Wednesday, the Dolan family-owned MSG Sports announced that its board of directors unanimously approved a plan to explore potentially splitting the Knicks and Rangers into separate businesses. The goal, according to the company, would be to give investors a cleaner look at the balance sheets and upside of each team, while giving them more wiggle room with their finances.<\/p>\n

\n\tNo timeline was given for the transaction, nor is there any guarantee a deal will be completed. Any move would be subject to league approvals, sign off from MSG Sports\u2019 board and the receipt of a tax opinion from counsel.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe news gave MSG Sports shares a jolt when the market opened on Wednesday morning, with prices climbing roughly 13%. Still, even as the company\u2019s market capitalization now tops $8 billion, it pales in comparison to the private market value of the franchises. According to Sportico\u2019s most recent valuations in the NBA and the NHL, the Knicks ($9.85 billion<\/a>) and Rangers ($3.65 billion<\/a>) are collectively worth $13.5 billion.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThey\u2019re not the only publicly traded teams that Wall Street has generally been sour on. Manchester United, which ranked No. 2 on Sportico\u2019s most recent list of the world\u2019s most valuable soccer teams<\/a> at $6.09 billion, has a market capitalization of just over $3 billion. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves don\u2019t have quite as wide of a gap, but their public valuation falls roughly $1 billion short of their private mark of $3.71 billion.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think there\u2019s a general misunderstanding of sports as an asset class,\u201d said Chris Marangi, the CIO of Value at Gabelli Funds, which operates a sports ETF fund where MSG Sports is the largest holding. \u201c[Teams] don\u2019t trade on PE or even priced to free cash flow. They are much like gold, stores of value, scarce assets that have to be understood in that context.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThat historical lack of enthusiasm on Wall Street can flip when a private sale comes into the picture<\/a>. In 1998, Richard Jacobs launched an IPO for the Cleveland Indians, now called the Guardians, at $15 a share. But the stock dropped below $10 until he announced he was selling the team. That drove prices over $20, and Larry Dolan, the uncle of MSG Sports chairman James Dolan<\/a>, agreed to buy the team for $323 million in 2000, locking in a nice profit for shareholders.<\/p>\n

\n\tA similar situation unfolded when the Glazer family brought in investment bank Raine Group to explore \u201cstrategic alternatives\u201d for Manchester United, leading the club\u2019s then-share price of $13 to more than double at the prospect of a potential sale. Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe eventually bought a 25% stake in 2024 that implied a valuation of $6 billion, even if Manchester United\u2019s market capitalization continues to lag.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn theory, the simplified asset structure could open the door to a minority stake sale, control transaction or take-private deal for either franchise, especially for investors who have divergent views about the future of each league. The market for sports investments has been red hot, with the average NBA and NHL team values rising 113% and 108%, respectively, over the past three years. The basketball world alone saw the two biggest control sales in professional sports history in 2025, with hedge fund billionaire William Chisholm acquiring the Boston Celtics for $6.1 billion<\/a> and Guggenheim Partners co-founder Mark Walter buying the Los Angeles Lakers for $10 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMSG Sports declined to comment as to whether the potential move would be a precursor to any kind of sale or take-private transaction.<\/p>\n

\n\tEither way, the Dolan family has a demonstrated knack for finding value, particularly through spin-offs. Since 2010, the Dolans have separated the Madison Square Garden Company and AMC Networks from Cablevision, split apart MSG\u2019s sports and entertainment assets, and reshuffled the corporate hierarchy of MSG Networks and Sphere Entertainment. Now, the Knicks and Rangers may be next.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think there used to be this notion 20 years ago of the Dolan discount,\u201d Marangi said. \u201cI think given the actions of the family over that period, that has decidedly shifted to a Dolan premium.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since MSG Sports spun off from its parent company in 2020, the stock has steadily risen from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,62680,247008,247009,590,1666,3617,85],"class_list":["post-488623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-data-viz","tag-james-dolan","tag-msg-sports","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}