No matter who wins this lawsuit, fans will likely lose.
Two dozen Knicks and Rangers season ticket holders — self described “resellers” who glom up tickets and then sell them on StubHub and secondary markets at inflated prices — accuse Madison Square Garden of cutting them off to increase its own profits, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
The plaintiffs, mostly tri-state area residents and one Israeli, say MSG for years willingly sold them ducats, but now that the Rangers are “a perennial playoff contender” and the Knicks “relevant” again, the Garden wants its tickets back.
The Sept. 7 filing has fueled an epic battle between the plaintiffs’ attorneys and MSG. On Friday, the Post reported that nearly 60 lawyers at the commercial law and government relations firm of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron have been banned from Rangers and Knicks games because their clients are suing MSG, new court papers allege.
In the September case, the scorned scalpers contend “MSG’s end game is to reclaim the tickets, create a monopoly, and reap a windfall by selling the tickets exclusively through its own ‘authorized’ out-of-state reseller,” the Sept. 7 filing says. Currently, face-value tickets can only be purchased directly from Ticketmaster or the Garden’s box office.
“After many years of relying on [the local resellers] to purchase Knicks and Rangers season tickets at exorbitant prices when the teams respective performance and records were abysmal, MSG has in utter bad faith elected to not renew” their season tickets, the suit says.
The 21-page complaint paints the scalpers in a noble light.
“For years plaintiffs have been loyal to MSG through playoff droughts, postseason
failures, coaching musical chairs, and constant disruptive sideshows. During that same time period, it was MSG who actively solicited plaintiffs’ business, including through the COVID-19 pandemic,” the suits says.
An MSG spokesman countered, “We want our season ticket memberships to be made up of our loyal Knicks and Rangers fans, not professional ticket brokers. This lawsuit is without merit, and we maintain the right to not offer season tickets.”
In the latest salvo, the legal eagles allege MSG declared the historic arena was “banning” the firm’s “attorneys from entering venues owned and operated” by MSG, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Thursday.
It came as a surprise to most of the firm’s team who aren’t involved in the legal brawl with MSG, and who now find themselves “pariahs,” the Thursday filing claims. The suit is asking for an emergency order from a judge to reinstate firm co-founder and managing partner Larry Hutcher’s season tickets and overturn the ban against the firm.
Either way, there is no free lunch for Rangers or Knicks fans.
A center-ice seat for the Rangers-Tampa Bay Lightning opening-night game on Oct. 11 ran $1,100 if you purchased through MSG-partner Ticketmaster, but upwards of $2,000 on the secondary market. A ticket near the floor at the Knicks’ opening game Oct. 21 vs. the Detroit Pistons will cost you $1,991 if you buy on the secondary market, and $490 through Ticketmaster, according to recent listings.
The Garden’s actions restrict the “existing free market” and will drive up ticket prices, the scalpers claim.
“There is no doubt that the average ticket buyer would be benefited by our success in the lawsuit because it will establish a real market place for the tickets,” said Hutcher, the attorney for the ticket brokers who is now in crosshairs of the latest litigation.
At least one sports junkie wasn’t buying either side’s spiel in the original dispute.
“It’s a lose-lose situation for the fans,” said diehard Knicks follower Michael Alcazar, 55. “It’s hard for me to feel sorry for the [resellers]. In the end, I’m still paying a high mark-up for the tickets and the Garden prices are exorbitant too,” the Queens-bred criminal justice professor said.
The suit seeks unspecified damages.
