Sat, Apr 23, 2005 page19

• The Garden takes hits as pro teams in New York slump

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  Madison Square Garden is facing Empty Arena Syndrome again: The Knicks and the Rangers are both out of the playoffs for the third time in five years. Only the Knicks could have made the playoffs this season, while the Rangers, out of the postseason now for eight years and running, were iced by the hockey lockout.

  While the Rangers have been perennial failures, the Knicks have not brought in substantial playoff revenues since losing in the 2000 Eastern Conference finals.

  In 2001, the Knicks played three home playoff games en route to a first-round exit; last year, they were bounced after only two Garden games. Beyond lost ticket and concession sales, the Knicks' and the Rangers' absences in the playoffs mean less business for the MSG Network, which can raise its advertising rates in the postseason.

  While Empty Arena Syndrome regularly afflicts the Garden (and is a recurring malady at Philips Arena in Atlanta, which has never seen a Hawks or a Thrashers playoff game), Staples Center is experiencing it for the first time, with the Lakers, the Clippers and the NHL's Kings all out of the playoffs.

  "It's a new experience," said Brenda Tinnen, senior vice president of event and guest services at Staples. Some empty dates will be filled with Arena Football League games that might have had to be rescheduled; others will be filled with film shoots, concerts and a boxing card. "Every year Staples has been open, the Lakers have been in the postseason," Tinnen noted. She called the loss of playoff revenue substantial.

  A Garden spokesman would not comment on its financial losses.

  Cablevision's quarterly and annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission do not provide a vivid glimpse of the Knicks' and the Rangers' finances, partly because the Madison Square Garden division also includes the arena, the WNBA's Liberty, Radio City Music Hall, the MSG Network and Fox Sports New York.

  But one financial marker during the second quarter of each year -- from April to June, during the playoffs -- shows some consistency: the Garden division's revenues, as high as US$193.9 million in 2000, when the Knicks played eight home playoff games, fell to US$133.2 million in 2003, when there were no playoff games.

  During last year's second quarter, when the division's revenue jumped to US$165.8 million, the Garden benefited from US$6 million in higher Knicks revenues, US$4.2 million in higher MSG Network revenues and a US$10.3 million bonus from the Charlotte Bobcats expansion fee. The Garden also recorded a windfall when the Mets paid US$54 million to get out of their Fox Sports New York contract after 2005; the Garden then gave itself a US$41.8 million credit to reverse a liability tied to the TV deal.

  Other pieces of the financial puzzle, gleaned from the filings, show that:

  -- The financial impact of losing the Rangers to the lockout is IS$42.7 million.

  -- Through the first three months of 2004, the Knicks posted higher revenue of US$2.2 million and the Rangers generated an extra US$1.5 million; then only the Knicks made the playoffs.

  -- In 2002, when the Knicks and the Rangers missed the playoffs, the Garden attributed a US$6.4 million decrease in revenue from the year before to the "absence of ticket sales from Knicks playoff games." There was no mention of the Rangers' failure.

  -- The drop in revenue in the second quarter of 2003 was laid in part to "lower average Knicks paid attendance" and fewer Garden and Radio City events, but there was no mention of the Rangers, as if they were not culpable for the event shortfall.

  -- In 2001, one of the culprits for a dip in Garden sales was "lower Knicks playoff revenues" because of their first-round elimination. The Rangers, that had not earned a playoff cent since early in Bill Clinton's second term.
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