James Dolan’s Knicks Just Won The NBA Title. Here’s How He Made His Fortune.
Key takeaways
- But now, after one magical spring, that turbulent past might be water under the bridge.
- The 71-year-old Cablevision heir also has plenty of reason to celebrate off the court.
- The hot streak has the family’s fortune up to $7 billion, according to Forbes estimates, divided among Dolan and his five siblings’ families.
The Madison Square Garden chairman is famous for his feuds, but he has nothing to complain about on or off the court these days, with his basketball team now worth nearly $10 billion.For most of James Dolan’s tenure in charge of the New York Knicks since he became Madison Square Garden’s chairman in 1999, he has been an easy punching bag for Knicks fans—and much of the damage was self-inflicted. But now, after one magical spring, that turbulent past might be water under the bridge. The Knicks are NBA champions for the first time in 53 years, a moment many fans never thought would be possible with Dolan in charge.
The 71-year-old Cablevision heir also has plenty of reason to celebrate off the court. Forbes recently valued the Knicks at $9.75 billion—No. 3 in the NBA—and Dolan’s NHL team, the Rangers, at $4 billion, the second-best mark in hockey. While that combined total of $13.75 billion easily outpaces the $9.26 billion market cap of the publicly traded MSG, the stock is up 103% over the past year. Meanwhile, Dolan’s other company, Sphere Entertainment, which owns the Sphere just off the Las Vegas Strip and the MSG regional sports TV and radio networks, has seen its share price soar 291%.
The hot streak has the family’s fortune up to $7 billion, according to Forbes estimates, divided among Dolan and his five siblings’ families. (The total does not include the family of Dolan’s late uncle Larry Dolan, a successful lawyer in Ohio who bought the Major League Baseball team now known as the Cleveland Guardians in 2000 and passed control to his son Paul.)