Knicks Player James Dolan Slams NBA Revenue Sharing, New Media Deal

New York Knicks owner James Dolan continued to criticize the NBA’s revenue-sharing policies, decrying a possible 8% cut from the league office’s new $74.6 billion media deal and a national television and streaming package that makes the league’s regional sports networks “unsustainable,” according to a letter shared with the NBA’s Board of Governors and obtained by ESPN on Monday.

Dolan has been a consistent critic of the league’s revenue-sharing policies that distribute local media rights and sponsorship deals from high-profit big markets to teams in smaller markets. In a November letter to the board of governors, Dolan resigned from his positions on the league’s influential advisory/finance and media committees, ESPN reported. He previously filed an unorthodox lawsuit against the Toronto Raptors that questioned commissioner Adam Silver’s objectivity.

In the letter shared Monday, Dolan presented new objections based on a proposal the league shared with owners regarding revenue dispersion with the newly negotiated $74.6 billion media deal.

“The NBA has adopted an NFL model, which has the effect of reducing the importance of the local market,” Dolan wrote in his letter. “Soon, your only concern for revenue will be ticket sales and next year’s jersey color. Don’t worry, because with revenue pooling, you will have no guarantee of success or failure.”

“Of course, to achieve this, the league must eliminate successful franchises and redistribute revenue to underperforming ones. This new media deal goes a long way toward achieving that goal.”

Dolan outlined his criticism of what he called the league’s plan to retain “…$6 billion (or 8 percent) of total NBA-related expenses…” without “adequate justification…or transparency about how it arrived at that sum, how those expenses will be allocated, or the extent to which the league will use that so-called revenue growth to incur new and additional costs and further increase the league’s ever-increasing level of spending…”

Dolan drew a comparison to the league retaining $15 million (0.5 percent) under the league’s current media deal for the 2024-25 season and expressed displeasure with a $358 million increase in 2025-26 under the league’s proposal, according to the letter.

Dolan also cited issues related to the proposed revenue sharing of the league’s sponsorship and local television partnerships, according to the letter. Dolan said the league’s proposal “…would also negatively impact the value of each member team’s local partnerships,” including “…providing on-camera benefits at only 23 home games, a reduction of approximately 20 percent from what has traditionally been provided.”

Additionally, Dolan wrote, “team sponsors/partners would no longer be protected” during national broadcasts, reducing the premium that member team sponsors can be charged for being the only third party promoted in a specific sponsorship category.

“…These changes significantly increase the challenges associated with attracting and renewing vital sponsorship revenue by creating a particularly hostile environment for sponsors of member teams.”

Dolan cited the 42 million households that have abandoned traditional pay TV over an eight-year period and how those losses — which include a 45% drop for the Knicks’ MSG Network — have been compounded by the league’s new streaming and television deals. Dolan wrote that the league’s new national deal makes the RSN “unsustainable.”

“Member teams depend on revenues earned through local rights and increased fan engagement through high-quality broadcasts that deliver dedicated, personalized coverage to local audiences.

“Yet the proposal threatens to eliminate (regional sports networks) altogether without a comparable replacement proposed by the league and without any articulated plan to fill the production and distribution void the league will inevitably create in its quest to further disrupt the RSN industry…”

According to Dolan: “The increased number of exclusive and non-exclusive games would mean that national partners would have the opportunity to broadcast nearly half of the regular season and all postseason games. This reduction in the number of games available to RSNs risks making the entire RSN model unsustainable.”

“The inclusion of streaming partners in the proposal (e.g., Amazon Prime Video, Peacock) allows fans in all NBA markets to bypass their RSN to watch certain games in their local market. The proposal provides no local protection for RSNs.”

In the letter, Dolan concludes: “We believe our concerns are shared by many of our league counterparts, who will all be affected in similar ways. The league will say it doesn’t matter because the value of your franchise will continue to increase; that assumes you will eventually sell…

“Once again, it is the pride of the owners that is being sacrificed. We are well on our way to becoming a one-size-fits-all, characterless organization. Just remember that we have succeeded because of owners like Jerry Buss.”