Cablevision said Wednesday that it "has arranged the
financing needed to purchase the half of Madison Square
Garden owned by the ITT Corporation," according to Richard
Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES. Charles Dolan, CEO of
Cablevision, said in a statement that the company "has the
intent, right and ability to purchase" ITT's share, and
Dolan said the company has "several options available ...
that such a purchase will present no issues for us." It is
"believed that Cablevision would borrow the money, not take
on a partner" and Sandomir notes "it is likely that
Cablevision's financing would come from a bank loan taken
out by its Rainbow Programming subsidiary, secured by the
Garden's cash flow, which swelled to $92 million last year"
(N.Y. TIMES, 2/20). The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Collier &
Battaglio note that GE's NBC "could either become a partner
with Cablevisoin in the Garden or help finance the company's
acquisition of the deal." Another possible bidder for MSG
is The Marquee Group, a marketing, management and TV
production company headed by former MSG President Bob
Gutkowski (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 2/20).
WATCH THIS: Analyzing Cablevision's decision to hold
onto SportsChannel, NEWSDAY's Craig Gordon notes Dolan
"already has ideas" on how to split up New York's sports TV
programming if his company takes over the other half of MSG.
Dolan "argues that he could spread out" games between MSG
and SportsChannel "in a way that would make more sense than
the current competing lineups." If the two networks merged,
both channels would be available for all seven teams.
Dolan: "The games are arbitrarily divided between the two
networks now. That's the way they've been grown up, but it
doesn't mean it's the best way" (NEWSDAY, 2/20).
