James Dolan | |
|---|---|
 Dolan in 2025 | |
| Born | James Lawrence Dolan (1955-05-11)May 11, 1955 (age 70) Massapequa, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | SUNY New Paltz |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Title | Executive Chairman and CEO,Madison Square Garden Sports,Sphere Entertainment, andMadison Square Garden Entertainment Executive Chairman,MSG Networks |
| Children | 6 |
| Father | Charles Dolan |
| Relatives | Larry J. Dolan (uncle) Paul J. Dolan (cousin) Matt Dolan (cousin) |
James Lawrence Dolan[1] (born May 11, 1955) is an American businessman, and theexecutive chairman andchief executive officer ofMadison Square Garden Sports andMadison Square Garden Entertainment, and executive chairman ofMSG Networks.[2] As the companies' chairman, Dolan oversees all operations within the company and supervises day-to-day operations of its professional sports teams, theNew York Knicks andNew York Rangers, as well as their regional sports networks, which includeMSG Network andMSG Plus. Dolan was previously CEO ofCablevision, founded by his father, until its sale in June 2016 to European telecom conglomerateAltice.
Dolan is one of six children of Cablevision founderCharles Dolan and his wife, Helen Ann Dolan,[3] and nephew ofCleveland Guardians ownerLarry J. Dolan.[4] He is ofIrish descent.[4] After originally pursuing a career in music, Dolan eventually switched to a major in communications atSUNY New Paltz and began working for Cablevision in various capacities including sales before eventually being dispatched toCleveland by his father to manage the launching of a sports radio station. In 1995, he was made CEO of Cablevision.[5] Throughout his early adult life, Dolan battled drug and alcohol problems and was reportedly known for having a volatile temper. In 1993, he went todrug rehabilitation at the Hazelden clinic inCenter City, Minnesota.[6]
Dolan opposed his father's proposedVoom satellite service, which became a polarizing controversy among Cablevision's board of directors. While supporters argued Voom could propel Cablevision into the future emerging satellite market and a wider customer base, opponents of the plan, including James Dolan, argued it was too expensive with no expense relief for the foreseeable future. In the end, the younger Dolan prevailed and Voom was shut down. This was an instrumental event in Dolan emerging from his father's shadow, albeit reluctantly, as a viable businessman.[7]
His business career has included multiple failures, which include purchasing the failingWiz electronics and entertainment chain, which ended up posting losses of $250 million before being liquidated, and the Clearview Cinemas chain which failed to generate any significant revenue.[7]
Dolan fostered Cablevision's philanthropic partnership with The Lustgarten Foundation, a private supporter of pancreatic cancer research. Together with Charles Dolan and former Cablevision Vice Chairman and Madison Square Garden Chairman Marc Lustgarten.[8] Dolan established the Foundation in 1998. In 2008, Cablevision made a multi-year commitment to underwrite the Foundation's costs, ensuring that 100 percent of every donation goes to researching this disease.[9] With Dolan's backing, Cablevision used its assets to advance the curePC campaign, aimed at increasing public awareness of pancreatic cancer and is responsible for organizing the Holiday Rock & Roll Bash, the Foundation's annual fundraiser.[10][11]
Dolan played a role in organizing the "12-12-12" benefit concert, which raised an initial $50 million for the victims ofHurricane Sandy.[12] Other benefit concerts included "The Concert For New York City," which generated more than $35 million in aid for 9/11 victims and heroes, and "From The Big Apple to The Big Easy," which raised nearly $9 million forHurricane Katrina relief.[13] Dolan supports MSG's ongoing commitment to the community, particularly through the Garden of Dreams Foundation, the non-profit charity that partners with MSG to help children facing obstacles throughout the New York metropolitan area.[14]
In 1994,Paramount Communications, the owner ofMadison Square Garden, was acquired byViacom, who in turn sold the MSG properties to Cablevision andITT Corporation, which had 50% ownership each. ITT sold its share to Cablevision three years later.
In 1999, Dolan was given an increased role in managing Cablevision's sports properties and is now the primary manager of these assets. The teams under his domain include most notably theNational Basketball Association'sNew York Knicks, theNational Hockey League'sNew York Rangers, and theAmerican Hockey League'sHartford Wolf Pack. Dolan also formerly owned theWomen's National Basketball Association'sNew York Liberty, which he sold toJoseph Tsai andClara Wu Tsai in 2019.
As Chairman of Madison Square Garden, he supervises day-to-day operations of its professional sports teams and regional sports networks, which includeMSG Network andMSG Plus. He is a governor of theKnicks andRangers to their respective leagues.[15]
Like the Rangers, the Knicks performed abysmally in the early 2000s. Unlike the Rangers, they have yet to fully recover, which fans mostly blame on Dolan's management missteps.[16] Although the Knicks made theNBA Finals in 1999, they did not post another winning season until the2012–13 season. Furthermore, the Knicks did not make the playoffs at any point between the2003–04 and2010–11 seasons, which both ended in the first round with four-game sweeps of the Knicks. In 2007, NBA CommissionerDavid Stern criticized Dolan's management of the Knicks, saying "they're not a model of intelligent management."[17][18]
In 2007, Dolan was named as a defendant in asexual harassment lawsuit submitted by a former Knicks executive,Anucha Browne-Sanders. Browne-Sanders accused Dolan of firing her out of spite after she complained about sexual harassment from Isiah Thomas. The court ruled in favor of Brown-Sanders and Dolan had to pay $3 million of the $11 million settlement. MSG was responsible for paying the remainder of the settlement.[19]
After winning theStanley Cup in1994, the Rangers saw a decline in performance in the wake of Dolan's increased role in managing the team and failed to make the playoffs from the 1997–98 season until the2004–05 NHL lockout, despite leading the league in payroll in most of those years. This was the longest playoff drought in the franchise's history, in part due to questionable, expensive free-agent signings, such asEric Lindros,Pavel Bure, andTheo Fleury. However, since the resolution of the NHL lockout in 2005, Dolan allowed general managerGlen Sather to rebuild the team from the ground up. That rebuild led to a revival of the club and the organization. The improvement was obvious when the team made it to the Eastern Conference finals in 2012, for the first since 1997. The team finally made it back to theStanley Cup Finals in 2014, 20 years after they last won the cup.[citation needed]
In 2022, it was reported that Dolan had instituted a policy of using facial recognition at his venues to prevent admission to attorneys whose law firms were engaged in legal disputes with Dolan and his businesses, even when those attorneys had legitimate tickets to the show or event. This led to lawsuits and an investigation into whether Dolan's venues should be stripped of their state-issued liquor licenses.[20]
On May 5, 2015, Dolan announced thatIsiah Thomas would be president of the WNBA's Liberty. Considering Thomas' history being both a failed President/GM of the Knicks and Thomas being implicated in theAnucha Browne-Sanders sexual harassment incident, Dolan's judgment was questioned by many fans and members of the press.[21][22][23][24] After Dolan sold the Liberty toJoseph Tsai andClara Wu Tsai, the new owners promptly relieved Thomas of his duties with the Liberty on February 21, 2019.[25]
Dolan rarely speaks with members of the media and communicates to the press through released statements or in interviews with MSG Network. In 2000, Dolan instituted media training for all Garden employees who might deal with the press and instituted an ironclad rule against team personnel criticizing others in the organization via the media.[6] Under Dolan's watch, MSG implemented controversial media policies limiting access to players. Some of these measures included prohibiting reporters and Knicks' beat writers from interviewing players without an MSG public relations official present, forbidding one-on-one interviews, and banning writers who write articles critical of the organization. The policies also forbid the MSG Network from being critical of the Knicks and the Rangers, regardless of their performance. Such measures were not standard practice for other NBA teams.[26]
Dolan lives on Long Island with his wife Kristin, whom he named the chief executive officer ofAMC Networks in 2023.[27] He has been married twice and has six sons.[28] He contributed toDonald Trump's 2020presidential reelection campaign.[29]
His son, Charlie, is the bassist of the band,Tauk.[30]
Dolan performs as the singer for JD & the Straight Shot, acountry blues androots rock vanity project[31][32][33] he formed in 2001.[34][35] Notable members of the band includeMarc Copely,Shawn Pelton,[36] andCarolyn Dawn Johnson; the band's seventh studio albumThe Great Divide was released in March 2019.[37][38]
Because of his corporate status and his friendship and business relationship with entertainment executiveIrving Azoff,[39] Dolan has been able to leverage JD & the Straight Shot onto shows by theEagles,the Allman Brothers Band,ZZ Top,Jewel,Keith Urban,the Chicks,Joe Walsh andRobert Randolph.[40][41][34] Attendance by Madison Square Garden staff employees "is expected and noted" when the group plays at New York clubs.[6]
The New York Times music criticJon Pareles described the band as a group of "well-known sidemen backing a karaoke grade singer", and said Dolan's "musical talents are unlikely to endanger his day job".[31] After the group's performance opening for ZZ Top, one reviewer wrote that Dolan's "enthusiasm for playing mediocre American rock did little to make their forgettable performance entertaining".[32] After a 2017 show in New York City, another reviewer observed that Dolan "sings like he's trying not to cough, and it's possible he can't play the guitar. Worse, his songs belie his status as a cosplaying bluesman; most of his lyrics simply summarize current events or books that he's read as if he were presenting a 10th grade English class project."[42][35]
On January 16, 2024, asexual assault lawsuit was filed against Dolan in theU.S. District Court for the Central District of California by Kellye Croft. Croft stated that she was employed by theEagles as a massage therapist during the band'sHistory of the Eagles – Live in Concert tour, for which JD & the Straight Shot opened shows, in 2013;[43][44][45] Dolan was believed to have provided a large sum of money for the tour as well.[45] Croft alleged Dolan pressured her into giving him "unwanted sexual intercourse" during the tour.[44][45][46] In her lawsuit, Croft also alleged Dolan set her up to be molested byHarvey Weinstein in January 2014.[44][45] On September 17, 2024, the suit was dismissed by a U.S. district judge.[47]
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