YankeeNets Chair CEO Harvey Schiller said that the
Yankees are "demanding an equity stake" in MSG as the price
of renewal for the team's exclusive cable TV contract,
according to John Dempsey of DAILY VARIETY. But Cablevision
Chair Charles Dolan is "balking at the prospect of
restructuring MSG by handing over as much as 33% of the
equity in the network to [Yankees Owner George] Steinbrenner
just to get the Yankees to sign another long-term renewal."
Cablevision owns 60% of MSG, and Fox Sports owns the other
40%, so "both parties would have to relinquish a sizable
portion of their respective stakes to accommodate
Steinbrenner's strategy." Meanwhile, one TV-sports exec said
that MSG's lawsuit against the team seeking the right to
match any rights fee offer, (see THE DAILY, 7/17), as well
as the Yankees' "threat" to set up its own RSN, are "more
symbolic than real." The exec: "Neither Steinbrenner nor
Dolan wants to go through the bloodbath that would take
place if the Yankees set up a third network [in the N.Y.
area]" (DAILY VARIETY, 7/18). In N.Y., Richard Sandomir
writes that Cablevision "would probably pay" from $75-100M a
year to keep the Yankees on MSG. Former MSG President Bob
Gutkowkski: "The Yankees don't want to sell their rights ...
I think the Yankees will win. And losing the Yankees will
be a huge body blow to Cablevision. MSG may have to be
folded into Fox Sports New York" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/18).
NEWSDAY's Steve Zipay writes that Dolan "must be kicking
himself. Had he completed a deal to buy a share of the
Yankees two years ago ... the company would not be in the
position it finds itself" (NEWSDAY, 7/18).
