James Dolan isn’t going anyplace.
The sports activities and music mogul has signed three-year contract extensions with the businesses he and his household management: MSG Sports activities, MSG Leisure, and Sphere Leisure. All three firms disclosed the brand new offers over the previous few weeks, with Sphere submitting the extension simply earlier than the July 4 vacation.
MSG Sports activities owns the New York Knicks NBA staff (the place Dolan is sometimes vilified by its fan base over the staff’s efficiency) and the New York Rangers NHL Crew; MSG Leisure operates New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard, Radio Metropolis Music Corridor, The Beacon Theater and different leisure venues; Sphere owns and operates the Sphere in Las Vegas, and likewise owns the MSG Networks cable channels, which televise Knicks and Rangers video games.
In line with the SEC filings, Dolan will accumulate a wage of simply over $3.1 million throughout the three firms, with MSG Sports activities accounting for $1.6 million of that whole, MSG Leisure $1.5 million, and Sphere $230,000.
He may even have an annual goal bonus of $6.2 million, or 200 p.c of his wage throughout the three firms. And his deal contains participation in long run incentive plans (LTIPs) throughout MSG Sports activities and Leisure, together with $8.6 million from MSG Leisure, and $7.8 million from MSG Sports activities.
Dolan’s contract with Sphere may even both embrace practically 2.8 million efficiency vesting choices within the firm (this might require shareholders to approve a brand new employe inventory plan at its upcoming annual assembly) or an LTIP valued at $11.77 million if they don’t approve the brand new plan.
The full annual worth of the three offers is about $37.5 million, if Dolan receives the LTIP from Sphere. If he receives the efficiency choices, the worth of the package deal might go into the 9 figures, relying on the worth of Sphere’s inventory on the time.
Dolan and his household, after all, management all three firms, with greater than 70 p.c of the voting shares in every of them (the financial publicity is considerably much less, owing to the dual-class voting construction of the businesses). Dolan additionally controls and serves as chairman of AMC Networks, the place his spouse Kristin Dolan is CEO.
All the firms had been spun out of the Dolan household’s cable enterprise Cablevision, which they bought to the European telecom large Altice in 2016 for $17.7 billion.
Dolan has spent the previous couple of years restructuring the companies, partially to assist launch the Sphere, which is his ardour mission. The strikes included separating the sports activities enterprise from the venue enterprise (the worth of professional sports activities groups has skyrocketed in recent times, whereas the way forward for Madison Sq. Backyard is unsure given its present lease with New York Metropolis and a need to broaden Penn Station, which sits beneath the venue).
And inserting MSG Networks inside Sphere additionally offers a dependable stream of money to the enterprise, even because the RSN enterprise continues its gradual decline.
A musician himself (he’s the frontman for the band JD & The Straight Shot), Dolan spent $2.3 billion to assemble the preliminary Sphere in Las Vegas, with plans to construct others world wide.
Sphere’s MSG Networks division is offering a lot of the corporate’s earnings, however the venue has discovered success with acts like U2 and Lifeless & Firm, along with its first authentic movie, Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard From Earth.
Whereas dwell occasions like concert events and the upcoming UFC combat evening are the largest breadwinners, Sphere has been in a position to generate substantial recurring income from the movie and a advertising enterprise (firms are eagerly snapping up sponsorships projected onto the “Exosphere” that has turn out to be a Las Vegas vacationer attraction in its personal proper).
Sphere not too long ago tapped former Warner Bros. COO Carolyn Blackwood to run Sphere Studios, the place she’s going to develop new authentic programming for the venue, and to work with artists as they work out how one can make the most of the large screens contained in the constructing.
