Will Adelphia Purchase Spark CVC To Sell The Knicks?

If I were a New York Knicks fan, which I’m not, I would be paying close attention to what is going on with Cablevision’s bid to acquire Adelphia and its five million cable customers. I say this because if Cablevision is successful, it just may spark the company to sell the Knicks and Madison Square Garden, thus freeing thousands of Knicks fans who have long felt Cablevision's James Dolan is an idiot who cannot competently run the franchise. Well, it is being reported in today’s WSJ that Cablevision has upped its offer for Adelphia from $16.5 Billion to $17.1 Billion. A healthy slug of this offer would be conveyed in cash, meaning Cablevision would have to issue a lot of debt to finance the deal.

So that brings me to the Knicks. If Cablevision were to acquire Adelphia, the company would lose some of its New York-centric focus since Adelphia’s systems are spread out throughout the country. As such, there would not be as much need to own New York properties such as MSG. Further, the Knicks and MSG could probably fetch a big number on the open market and such a windfall could help Cablevision finance its Adelphia acquisition. I say probably because it is not the best time to be selling MSG with the Rangers stuck in a lockout and the Knicks being jailed in salary cap hell. It is clear to me that post acquisition, MSG has much less strategic value for Cablevision and it begs the question of why the company would want to keep the team. The only answer I can provide is Jimmy Dolan is an egomaniac who has an unquenchable thirst for the spotlight. Without the Knicks and MSG, he is just a typical corporate executive and I am not sure that excites him much. So Jimmy’s ego remains the greatest impediment standing in the way of a sale, but the times are a changing and the financial implications of a deal for Adelphia could upend the landscape. So for all you Knicks fans that been in exile under the Dolan regime, this may be your shot at a pardon. The odds may not be great, but at least there is now a reason to pick up the WSJ once in a while.