MSG must "fill the arena and the Theater, create new
business and raise ticket prices enough to generate the
money required to repay $850 million in debt," approximately
$200M remaining from ITT/Cablevision's '94 purchase of the
Garden and the remainder from Cablevision's recent $650M
buyout of ITT, according to Richard Sandomir in a front-page
feature in the N.Y. TIMES' SportsSunday section. Sandomir
noted that "every cent" of $170M in cash flow in '95 and '96
"went to pay debt. So will most of the $100 million
expected this year." Sandomir added, "there is not a great
margin for error, or failure. The main arena and the
Theater next door are busy. Every Knicks and Rangers home
game shown on the MSG Network grosses at least $600,000."
Last year, MSG produced approximately 60% of the Garden's
$469M in revenues, followed by 15% from the Knicks, 15% from
other use of the building and 10% from the Rangers and other
events. Revenues for '97 are "expected" to rise to almost
$500M. Under Checketts, Sandomir wrote, "ticket prices have
skyrocketed almost as if he were purposely testing middle-
class fans' patience." Checketts: "It's not a good message,
not one that I'm proud of. But I know one thing: with this
building, in the middle of Manhattan, with our restrictions
on doing business, with our competition, our great expenses,
our pricing has to be aggressive" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/11).
