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Dolan rips NBA’s transparency in new BOG letter

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2 months ago

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Dolan rips NBA’s transparency in new BOG letter

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Knicks owner James Dolan yesterday sent another contentious email ahead of today’s BOG meeting — his second disturbing note in two months — questioning the “transparency” of the NBA’s budget reporting and election protocol, while also vowing in all caps to vote “NO” on two key BOG agendas.

In the letter obtained by SBJ, Dolan told the 29 other Board of Governors that the Knicks are averse to the league’s proposed 2024-25 budget and also its election of a board chair, both of which are on tap for today’s meeting in N.Y. Dolan — a repeated critic of Commissioner Adam Silver who last November quit his posts on the BOG’ advisory/finance and media committees — also asked in his letter that the league’s operating procedure be altered at the next BOG meeting later this fall, insinuating the league has been less than forthright.

The email follows a previous scathing letter sent roughly 60 days ago, when the BOG was about to ratify the league’s new $77B media rights deal with ESPN, NBCU and Amazon. That time, Dolan accused the league of arbitrarily pocketing $6B of the $77B and predicted the deal would lead to the ultimate ruination of RSNs. His real issue, sources said, was that revenue sharing would financially damage a large market team like his Knicks.

In Monday’s letter, Dolan specifically expressed his concerns about the league’s mounting operating expenses, which he said “are budgeted at approximately $2.1B, an increase of $151M (or nearly 8%) when compared to 2023-24.”

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The Knicks owner also claimed the budgeted expenses for the WNBA, G League and Basketball Africa League accounted for “an additional $225M and reflect an aggregate projected operating loss of $8M.” He also asserted that the operating expenses for this coming Emirates NBA Cup “are budgeted to exceed its incremental revenue by $26M. And like last year the League has not provided budget estimates for headcount or projected how many positions the league plans to add in 2024-25.”

Dolan also wrote that “fundamentally, all teams are entitled to (i) evaluate whether the League is operating as efficiently as possible and (ii) understand how the League’s spending is directly benefitting member Teams. Until the League increases transparency into its operating costs, we cannot in good faith support the League’s budget proposal.”

In addition, Dolan — who will likely not attend today’s meeting — objected to the pending Board Chair vote because the league has not provided any “advance information on the forthcoming election — including, for example, the names of the candidate(s) and related background materials.” His point is that producing all of those details last minute, on the day of the vote, is inopportune.

Dolan’s solutions — laid out in his email and proposed to be ratified at the next BOG — include changes to the Operations Manual that would grant teams a minimum of 30 days to prepare for a vote; a review by a governance body to “reduce the League’s involvement in Team business functions”; and additional “transparency into its spending” by allowing all 30 teams a thorough look at the league’s operating costs prior to September budget reviews.

Sources close to the league said Dolan’s approach — scathing emails — seem counterproductive. It is also clear, they said, that Dolan has an axe to grind, having been the only team to vote against the league’s new media rights deal and also even the only one to vote against Toronto (and his adversary Larry Tanenbaum, chairperson of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) receiving a WNBA expansion team.

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