Fan Rights Attacked by Knicks Owner

Dolan has Gone Too Far Now...Time to Respond!

What are Sports Fans allowed to do? What are they NOT allowed to do? It’s a controversial question with different answers from different stakeholders in the process. Fans would likely give themselves a lot of things they are allowed to do:

Criticize players? Yes.

Criticize Management? Yes

Criticize Owners? Yes

Whoa…hold up there now. James Dolan, owner of the NY Knicks does NOT want you to criticize him. AND he’s putting his money where his hurt feelings are!!! The controversy is exploding into ‘SpyGate’ in the Knicks world however sports writers are suppressing the story. Not a surprise to regular readers of Raptors Truth…however what is going on in New York with the Knicks makes the Toronto Raptors look absolutely motherly to their fans. An NBA owner setting up camera’s in HIS arena and deploying facial recognition to identify fans and harass fans that make negative comments on Social Media against the Owner? Seriously? Yeah…welcome to the world of James Dolan!

This popular Youtuber has put together a great summary of the situation to date so I’ll link it here. Worth the 9 mins with a tight presentation of the topic:

Much of the information is based off a great Substack writer who deserves credit and has written several articles on the subject however they are paywalled so choose your information source as you like.

How Long Can the Knicks Hide from the News?

I’ll summarize what’s happened here so far just so we’re all on the same page:

1. James Dolan, Knicks owner, has installed facial recognition on entrances to the Knicks arena. He has implemented 6 ‘Security’ Codes for anyone who gets ‘entered’ into that system:

   1. Code 5: Eject

   2. Code 4: Confront Fan and Discussion

   3. Code 3: Security Confronts Fan

   4. Code 2: Security Aware

   5. Code 1: VIP

   6. Code 0: Do Not Admit

2. Brett Klein was stopped by MSG security who informed him anytime he enters they WILL stop him and inform him they know he is in the building. That is the ‘Confront’ part of Code 3: Security Confronts Fan. They remind the Fan of the Code of conduct at games. Why? Because he commented on social media ‘Sell the Team’. Nothing more.

3. A fan that told James Dolan to his face to sell the team is right now registered as Code 0. He is not allowed to enter the building to watch the team live.

4. Celebrities are often given Code 1 VIP status and treated special when they enter the building.

5. Spike Lee was considered a Code 3 and got confronted with a video of that confrontation leaking online. Spike complained on national media and was changed to a Code 2 to stop the confrontations but continue monitoring him.

6. Actor Michael Rapaport is considered a Code 5 now. His ‘crime’? When Charles Oakley got ejected in 2017 Rapaport spoke out publically against it. The dispute escalated and Dolan and Rapaport are now sworn enemies.

7. A woman taking care of a group of 9 year old students going to Radio City Music Hall was kicked out during the performance. Her ‘Crime’? She works for a law firm that is suing James Dolan. She is not actively handling the case against Dolan and does not even work in New York. The 9 year old kids were left unattended for 90 minutes due to security kicking her out.

James Dolan publically said fans are allowed to criticize the team and they will still be allowed to come to live games. He says fans that confront him personally will not be allowed. That however is extremely misleading. Brett Kein commented ‘sell the team’ on social media and is now being harassed by MSG security everytime he goes to a live game.

That’s the situation. You can agree with James Dolan and say it’s his team, his building, he doesn’t like you for whatever reason and you’re out. That’s perfectly acceptable in today’s system of capitalism. No laws are being broken.

However I feel that fans deserve better treatment by sports leagues. Fans can NOT ruin another person’s enjoyment of the game physically at the stadium…including the owner. Fans MUST however be allowed to comment openly and freely on Sports team’s performance…and that includes the owner who ultimately approves all team decisions. The ‘Buck’ literally stops with the owner. If fans are getting harassed by Sports teams for ‘negative’ opinions then their free speech is being limited. That is a terribly slippery slope for sports leagues to go down.

Fans of ALL teams need to stick together on this issue. If we let the ‘Dolan’s’ of this world tell us how we can speak about sports then it will only get worse. More sports teams will do the same. Large corporations of critical products could start denying sales to customers that criticize them. Want a new phone? Sorry, you posted something negative about us so no new Apple phone for you! This brand of ‘punishment’ could lead to government action similar to what is happening now in China. Negative comments online right now lead to restrictions that stop people from using trains, flying in planes and leaving the country. It’s already happening in China and Dolan wants to implement how it starts in America. Next is Canada. This really is a much more serious issue than many fans realize. So far it’s only a few fans in one city. But the NBA is very carefully monitoring the situation…and fan response. If this is accepted it will certainly become widespread because teams prefer to see good comments and would love the opportunity to limit bad comments publically. Denying you access to physical games would cost them next to nothing in stadiums that are routinely sold out.

The question now is what do fans do about it? I am absolutely AGAINST Virtue Signalling so this story can not simply end here with a story. If we see a problem and do nothing but talk about it then nothing will ever get fixed. I won’t be doing that.

From this point forward I will not be reporting on the NY Knicks.

I will not mention the team. I will not mention the players. Anytime the Raptors play the NY Knicks I will write a reminder story about the way the owner James Dolan is treating Knicks fans and urge basketball fans to help fix this problem. I will urge the NBA to take action against teams that punish or harass fans for expressing themselves appropriately in a free and democratic society.

What can YOU do about Dolan and how he is treating Knicks fans…before the same treatment comes to your team and possibly you??? Well You can stop watching ANY game that involves the NY Knicks. That is likely the best impact a fan can have. In time, with enough fan support, the NBA will be forced to protect fan rights and stop owners like Dolan from treating fans badly. For you it is only missing a few games a year. Get some more family time instead…you can thank me later. You can also spread the word. Tell your fellow fans this isn’t right. Share Youtube stories, Share this article, Share the original work from House of Strauss. But don’t share it without a call to action. Don’t be a passenger on this bus. It’s too important. We all need to be able to speak freely.

Thank you advance for doing your part in solving this one. Together we can do much, much more than you or I believe possible!