Madison Square Garden Entertainment is under legal scrutiny for barring lawyers from New York Knicks and Rangers games.

MSG Entertainment, which operates the NBA and NHL teams’ home arena, among other venues and restaurants, has a policy denying access to lawyers who work for firms in active litigation against the company — sometimes using facial recognition technology to do so.

• New York State Attorney General Letitia James wrote a letter to the company on Tuesday saying the policy may violate New York civil rights laws.
• “Anyone with a ticket to an event should not be concerned that they may be wrongfully denied entry based on their appearance, and we’re urging MSG Entertainment to reverse this policy,” James said.
• Lawyers earned a partial reprieve, allowing them entry with a valid ticket, but that doesn’t apply to sporting events — preventing lawyers of around 90 firms from attending Knicks and Rangers games.

On a separate matter, MSG Entertainment is also facing ire from shareholders concerned over its practice of rapidly deleting emails and records of fired employees.

Facing the Facts

MSG Entertainment responded to James’ letter through a spokesperson, saying the policy is not unlawful. 

“We are merely excluding a small percentage of lawyers only during active litigation,” they said. 

“Most importantly, to even suggest anyone is being excluded based on the protected classes identified in state and federal civil rights laws is ludicrous. Our policy has never applied to attorneys representing plaintiffs who allege sexual harassment or employment discrimination.”

Comcast exceeded expectations in its latest earnings report with the help of live sports programming.

The telecommunications conglomerate generated $30.55 billion in revenue in Q4 2022, beating analysts’ estimates of $30.32 billion. 

Comcasts’ NBCUniversal segment, which includes NBC Sports and streaming service Peacock, reported $6 billion in media revenue — a 3% uptick year-over-year. The revenue included profits from the World Cup, Olympics, and Super Bowl.

• NBCUniversal reported that $263 million of its media revenue came from Telemundo’s and Peacock’s broadcasts of the World Cup.
• Peacock added 5 million paying subscribers in Q4, bringing its total number of subscribers to more than 20 million.
• Total losses for Peacock reached $2.5 billion in FY2022, and Comcast expects the service to lose roughly $3 billion in 2023.

Despite these setbacks, Peacock, which launched in 2020, continues to build its portfolio of offerings.

In 2021, Peacock added WWE with a five-year, $1 billion deal after the wrestling promotion shuttered its digital TV platform WWE Network. Last year, the service secured a two-year deal with MLB reportedly worth $30 million per year to broadcast 18 regular-season games. 

Peacock booked $1 billion in upfront ad revenue in 2022, up from $500 million the year prior.

Up in the Sky

Comcast is reportedly considering a sale of Sky Deutschland that could value the media company at $998 million.

Comcast acquired Sky DE in 2018 when it purchased British broadcaster Sky for $39 billion.

MSP Sports Capital could expand its soccer portfolio with an investment in Everton.

Everton owner Farhad Moshiri clarified earlier this week that the club wasn’t for sale, but that a minority investment to help fund its new stadium — expected to cost around $936 million — was close.

Bloomberg reported that MSP has held preliminary discussions with the club, which currently ranks second-to-last in the Premier League standings and is at risk of being one of the three teams relegated to the second tier at the end of the season.

• Moshiri, who took control of the team in 2016, previously said he’s been talking to investors to bring in more talent and “bridge a gap on the stadium.” 
• Everton hasn’t won any major trophies since 1995 and sacked manager Frank Lampard this week.

“We are close to having a deal done,” Moshiri said in a video on the team’s website this week, though it wasn’t clear with whom. “It’s not selling the club at all. It’s just bringing more expertise in terms of global sponsorship, in terms of commercial development.”

MSPortfolio

MSP Sports Capital, which was founded by Phoenix Suns co-owner Jahm Najafi and former sports agent Jeff Moorad, has stakes in several other soccer teams, including Portugal’s Estoril Praia, Spain’s AD Alcorcon, Belgium’s SK Beveren, and Germany’s FC Augsburg.

In 2020, MSP purchased a minority stake in Formula 1’s McLaren Racing team and acquired a controlling stake in X Games from ESPN in October.