Madison Square Garden won a legal battle with a group of ticket resellers who claimed the New York venue cancelled their season passes to Knicks and the Rangers games without warning in order to control the resale market.
(Bloomberg) — Madison Square Garden won a legal battle with a group of ticket resellers who claimed the New York venue cancelled their season passes to Knicks and the Rangers games without warning in order to control the resale market.
A New York state judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit filed by the resellers last year. They’d accused the Garden of violating state law by suddenly revoking their tickets in 2021, after years of soliciting their business, to “create a monopoly, and reap a windfall” by selling tickets to Knicks and Rangers games through its own authorized reseller.
Judge Jennifer G. Schecter said in a one-page order that the decision not to renew the passes does not violate a provision of the state’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Law that bars venues from restricting the resale of tickets included in a subscription package or season ticket.
“The Court delivered MSG a clear win today, upholding our right to sell season ticket memberships to our loyal Knicks and Rangers fans rather than professional ticket scalpers,” Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. and Madison Square Garden Entertainment said in a statement. “This ensures MSG is able to fulfill its mission, which is and always has been, to put tickets directly in the hands of customers who are attending our shows and sporting events at the original price. This includes live entertainment at the prices artists intended.”
The lawyer who filed the case, Larry Hutcher, has also sued the Garden, claiming the company retaliated by revoking his Knicks season tickets and barring all 60 lawyers at his firm from events at MSG, as well as the Beacon Theater and Radio City Music Hall, which the company also operates.
“Obviously, we are disappointed with the judge’s decision,” Hutcher said. “The courts have pointed out that the statutes on which we are relying don’t afford us the scope of relief that we are seeking. As such, we are dedicated to addressing these issues in Albany, where legislative remedies can be addressed by those for whom there is an interest in confronting these issues.”
Expanded Legal Fight
Madison Square Garden has come under fire for using facial recognition to identify attorneys who have filed legal actions against its parent company and evict them from events, which has led to probes from state Attorney General Letitia James and the state liquor authority.
An appeals court last week said the venue can ban lawyers suing the company from attending concerts and theatrical performances at its venues even if they have valid tickets. That decision overturned a preliminary injunction issued in December blocking MSG from denying access to anyone presenting a valid ticket for theatrical performances and concerts on the day of the event, citing a state civil rights law which says that no one who is 21 or older and “behaves appropriately” can be denied entry.
A judge last week threw out a lawsuit by the company seeking to block the liquor authority’s probe.
The resellers said they have been loyal to MSG “through playoffs droughts, postseason failures, coaching musical chairs and constant disruptive sideshows” and that the venue relied on the “steady stream of income” that came from them during the pandemic before turning on them.
“MSG’s egregious decision to not renew Plaintiffs’ Subscriptions for the 2022-2023 Knicks and Rangers season came after years of MSG’s aggressive solicitation of Plaintiffs to purchase tickets in the lean years when the Knicks and Rangers were unwatchable,” the resellers said in their complaint.
The case is Rosenbaum v MSG Sports LLC, 653248/2022, New York State Supreme Court, New York County.
(Updates with comment from plaintiff’s attorney.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.