New York Knicks' Deep Playoff Run Leads To Record Per-Game Revenue

Forbes

11 hours ago

This spring, the New York Knicks had their best playoff run in the past 25 years. The season didn't end as they would have liked, with the Knicks losing to the Indiana Pacers in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals. Still, the fan support brought back memories of the heyday of the mid- to-late 1990s, and the franchise benefited financially.
In fact, the Knicks generated about $12.8 million in revenue per home game during the playoffs, the highest average in team history, according to Jamaal Lesane, chief operating officer of Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., owner of the Knicks and New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. He added that the Knicks set in-arena single-game merchandise sales records during the Conference Finals, too. Lesane spoke with analysts on Tuesday during MSG Sports Corp.'s fourth quarter earnings call.
Victoria Mink, MSG Sports Corp.'s chief financial officer, said that the company had an average of about $5.8 million in direct operating expenses per game during the Knicks' postseason home games, as well as additional marketing and administrative costs. She also said the company expects 'to see the positive impact of the playoffs this season across our entire business in fiscal 2026,' which runs from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.
Lesane estimated that nearly half of the 775,000 new followers to Knicks' and Rangers' social media accounts this past season were added during the NBA playoffs and noted the postseason run should help the Knicks generate more revenue via premium hospitality sales and marketing partnerships.
MSG Sports Corp. is raising ticket prices for Knicks games next season, while keeping prices for Rangers games the same as last season, While the Knicks had nine playoff home games this year, the most since they advanced to the NBA Finals in 1999, the Rangers missed the playoffs. As of Tuesday, about 90% of season ticket holders for the Knicks and Rangers had renewed their seats for this coming season.
MSG Exec Says Franchises Are 'Scarce, Valuable Assets'
During the call, LightShed Partners analyst Brandon Ross asked if MSG Sports Corp. planned on selling a minority stake in the Knicks or Rangers. Ross referred to Mark Walter agreeing to acquire a majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that values the franchise at $10 billion and the owners of the Chicago Bears agreeing to acquire a 2% stake in the franchise in a deal that values the Bears at $8.8 billion.
Lesane replied that there have been other recent transactions and early-stage talks 'that demonstrate that these (professional franchises) are scare, valuable assets.' He added that 'in the case of MSG Sports, we don't think that that value is appropriately reflected in our current stock price.' MSG Sports Corp.'s stock closed at $195.40 on Tuesday, down 3.5% from the day before and down 13.4% since the beginning of the year.
MSG Sports Corp. has a market capitalization of $4.69 billion, while Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., which owns Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and other venues, has a market cap of $1.9 billion. Forbes values the Knicks at $7.5 billion and the Rangers at $3.5 billion.
'We would never rule out the possibility of a minority stake sale,' Lesane said. 'But as I said, we also have nothing to report at this time.'
Media Rights, Salary Caps Are Increasing In 2025-26 Seasons
For the latest fiscal year, which coincided with the 2024-25 regular season and playoffs, MSG Sports Corp. generated just over $1 billion of revenue, a 1% increase from a year earlier, and $14.8 million of operating income, down from $146 million the previous year.
Starting this coming season, the Knicks will benefit from the NBA's 11-year, $76 billion contract with ABC/ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime Video, representing a 160% increase from its previous deal. The NBA's 30 franchises get an equal share of that revenue and must pay out 50% of the revenue to players. At the same time, MSG Sports announced earlier this year that the Knicks and Rangers agreed to a 28% and 18% decrease, respectively, in local media rights revenue as part of MSG Networks' debt restructuring plan. As part of the deal, the teams' media rights contracts now expire at the end of the 2028-29 season. They were previously set to run through the 2034-35 season.
Mink estimated MSG Sports Corp. will see a $24 million decrease in local media rights fees this season compared with last season, but she noted that the company expects to have an overall increase in media rights revenue due to the new national NBA media deal. She added that the NBA salary cap is increasing from $140.6 million to $154.6 million for the upcoming season, while the NHL salary cap is increasing from $88 million to $95.5 million.
MSG Sports Corp. did not provide financial guidance for the next fiscal year, but Lesane said that 'we believe we are well-positioned to drive another year of growth.'