New York Liberty relocating to Westchester, Dolan owner for now

Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press reported Tuesday night that the New York Liberty would remain in the hands of current owner James Dolan for now, but will be playing virtually all their home games at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York.

Feinberg reports that the Liberty will play “a few” games at Madison Square Garden, the team’s primary home for almost its entire history (save three seasons during Garden renovations), but almost all the rest will be at the 5,000-seat arena where the Westchester Knicks of the NBA’s G-League also play.

At first glance, this would appear to be the worst-case scenario for the franchise.

Gone is the massive advantage, both competitive and financial, of getting to play home games at The Garden, directly above the center of a massive transit hub, Penn Station. The Garden crowds, particularly come playoff time, were electric.

Now a team that regularly saw 10,000 fans can fit, at most, half of them into their primary arena. On the plus side, the new, longer commute will likely thin out their potential customers, so problem solved.

It will also bear watching whether free agent Tina Charles, though cored by the Liberty, decides she wants to stay. She’s been noticeably absent from the parade of signings since free agency began on February 1, and a league source told The Summitt she was waiting for ownership situation to resolve itself before deciding to commit.

Worse still is that Dolan has already made his intentions clear. He no longer wishes to own the Liberty, and it is hard to believe the investment and push behind the team won’t suffer as a result until the day he sells the franchise.

This is an abrupt turnabout from just a few years ago, when Dolan installed longtime friend Isiah Thomas, who’d cost Dolan and the Madison Square Garden Company millions of dollars due to sexual harassment, as team president and tried to give him an ownership stake (the latter was bravely batted down by a number of other owners, including the women in charge of the Seattle Storm). Dolan professed his devotion to the Liberty, even giving pep talks in the locker room. But apparently, that’s changed.

So to review: Dolan declared he was selling the Liberty before finding a buyer, driving down the potential sale price, and ultimately chose not to sell because no one met his asking price. Now he’s keeping the team running, but entirely of his own accord, ripping it away from its traditional home and making it far more difficult for fans of the team to watch, with attendance set to plummet by definition, eroding the fan base, making it… more difficult for him to find someone to meet his sale price.

On the plus side: Isiah Thomas still has a job.