Credit Ken Belson at the New York Times for digging an interesting nugget from the depths of the latest earnings report from Cablevision: the entertainment conglomerate is exploring a spinoff of Madison Square Garden and all of its entertainment holdings -- including the NBA's Knicks, the NHL's Rangers and the WNBA Liberty.Belson reported just a few hours ago that the news was buried in the last line of the company's most recent earnings statement. In their regular quarterly conference call to discuss those results held on Thursday, company executives refused to provide any further relevant details, other than to say that any efforts to sell the world's most famous arena and its associated properties -- which also include Radio City Music Hall and the Beacon Theater -- were nothing more than exploratory.
Belson's piece provides lots of interesting reading, including the revelation that while the company is using the work spinoff, what we may really be talking about is a corporate breakup that's merely a precursor to the Dolan family selling its cable television assets in order to concentrate full time on running the MSG side of the business.
