Stray Bullet: Knicks Owner James Dolan Writes Scalding Letter Ripping NBA’s $74.6 Billion Media Deal, Revenue Sharing
Last week, the NBA signed a new $74.6 billion media deal with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video for the 2025-26 season.
This week, New York Knicks owner James Dolan criticized the deal in a letter to the NBA’s Board of Governors.
In the letter, obtained by ESPN, Dolan stated, “The NBA has adopted an NFL model, reducing the importance and power of the local market. Soon, your only revenue concern will be the sale of tickets and the color of next year’s jersey. Due to revenue pooling, you are guaranteed to be neither a success nor a failure.
“To achieve this, the league must weaken the successful franchises and redistribute to the less successful. This new media deal significantly contributes to that goal.”
Dolan also criticized the NBA for its proposed revenue sharing in sponsorship and local television packages, claiming it “would negatively impact the value of each member team’s local sponsorships” by reducing the “camera-visible benefits” to as few as 23 home games, a roughly 20 percent reduction from what was historically provided.
“These changes drastically increase the challenges associated with attracting and renewing vital sponsorship revenue by creating a particularly unfriendly environment for member team sponsors,” Dolan wrote.
Much like Major League Baseball and the NFL, where games are broadcast on numerous networks, Dolan believes the NBA’s new media plan will make regional sports networks like the Knicks’ MSG Network “unviable.”
“Member teams rely on revenue from local rights fees and increased fan engagement through high-quality broadcasts that provide dedicated and tailored coverage for local audiences,” he wrote.
“However, the proposal threatens to completely eliminate Regional Sports Networks without a comparable replacement from the league and no plans to address the production and distribution vacuum that the league will inevitably create in its quest to disrupt the RSN industry.”
In conclusion, Dolan wrote, “We are well on our way to becoming a one-size-fits-all, characterless organization. Just remember we did this on the backs of owners like Jerry Buss.”