Madison Square Garden’s facial recognition of lawyers engaged in litigation against the Garden, followed by their ouster, at the direction of MGS’s principal owner/executive Jim Dolan, deserves its own Recognition. It will require synthesis of our experience in law, local professional sports, entertainment and the Garden. Which, as stated, is principally owned by Jim Dolan and his father Chuck. They also own the Garden’s denizens, the New York Knickerbocker roundball team and the Rangers of the National Hockey League. Their ownership of the MSG kitchen sink resulted from selling Cablevision, a now defunct cable television company that had monopoly franchises in various NYC metro suburbs and communities nearby.
Carrie Buck
Our pronouncement on MSG, the Dolans and their most recent recognize and oust practice is that two generations of imbeciles are enough. That verdict paraphrases, but downsizes, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s infamous observation in the 1927 SCOTUS decision, Buck v. Bell, that “three generations of imbeciles are enough” while upholding the constitutionality of a Virginia law that not merely allowed but required the involuntary sterilization of an 18-year-old woman deemed “intellectually disabled . . . for the protection and health of the state.” Those three generations, referred to teenager Carrie Buck, her mother and her daughter. However, since this post is written for the health and protection of the City of New York from MSG and the Dolans, we will defer for now examining the question of whether the great Justice Holmes was an imbecile, at least in that case. Holmes also opined that the American antitrust laws had nothing to do with competition and later ruled that Major League Baseball was exempt from those laws, because it was not a business and not involved in interstate commerce.
Chuck Dolan
Now back to the Dolans and Jim who alliteratively hired Hope Hicks to spin positively the recognize and oust practice, that already has resulted in threats and investigations from several city and state officials. The current MSG attack on its opponents and detractors is just the most recent. Jim Dolan had previously issued ouster orders for customers who criticized him in word, deed or t-shirt bearing a “Ban Dolan” message. Those ousters were small change compared to the deployment of AI, which if nothing else reduced our reliance on China for 1984 tactics. Who needs Xi Jinping when we have Jim Dolan right here in the US of A and NY of C. Jim is son and successor to Chuck Dolan, who frequently employed his own imbecile plays.
Xi Jinping
During his years running Cablevision, Chuck frequently threatened or actually deprived cable subscribers of watching the Big Games. NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL playoffs and championship contests. He did this to gain leverage over sports leagues during negotiations over renewal of sports carriage contracts. During our 10.47 years heading antitrust enforcement for New York State, a constant was investigation of and/or lawsuit against Chuck Dolan’s Cablevision for all manner of predatory, anticompetitive and anti-consumer practice.
Fans have maintained their devotion to the Knicks and Rangers despite persistently terrible results from the teams, who had been paid the highest salaries. And fans continue to stream into the Garden for shows by Billy Joel and other “I am the” entertainer[s]. And because of this loyalty to the scarce commodities featured at the Garden, the Dolans have increased their $ Billions despite their abysmal performance in what is now an obsolete venue with third-rate seating, viewpoints and amenities.
We opted out of Garden attendance long ago – right after we last saw the still living DEAD perform there. And that will continue as long as the Dolans run it. Our digital quality physiognomy is on the website, easily recognized should we attempt to sneak in to hear the Piano Man or sit up high straining to see and hear whether it’s the BOSS or BLIGE performing.
They should’ve left Penn Station there & kept the old Garden — except for the cloud of blue smoke over the court.