MSG Goes Shopping?

Madison Square Garden Co. Chairman James Dolan is reportedly shopping the sale of regional sports networks MSG and MSG+. 

AP Photo / Mark Lennihan – Dolan Press Conference Knicks
James Dolan, executive chairman of Madison Square Garden, listens to a question at a news conference where he introduced Phil Jackson as the new president of the New York Knicks. Irving Azoff has been credited with bringing the former Los Angeles Lakers coach to East Coast.

The latter, together known as MSG Networks (MSGN), was split from the Dolan family-controlled Madison Square Garden Co. in 2015 and many believed James Dolan would eventually sell MSG Networks and use the proceeds to take Madison Square Garden Co. private.

The April 4 New York Post report that Dolan was shopping the RSNs rose the stocks of all things MSG apparently because investors believe the report means Dolan is about to attempt making take MSG off the market.

The RSNs cover games by the New York Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Devils and Liberty, and the Buffalo Sabres.

Verizon has been floated as a potential buyer of MSGN as has been AT&T, but RSNs, which add to the cost of television bundles, has become less appealing to the consumer.