Last week, the MSG Sphere’s financial heavyweight, Gautam Ranji, surrendered his title and left the arena after a rather intense rebuke from James Dolan, the notoriously unpredictable billionaire who holds the reins of both the Sphere and Madison Garden. This information emerged from the corridors of the New York Post.
Around this time, coincidentally, the MSG Sphere was grappling with a rocky first financial quarter, as per a recent earnings report that was made public on the 8th of November.
Gautam Ranji played the role of the chief financial officer for Dolan’s prestigious venue, tucked behind the Venetian, for almost a year. A venue that saw its grand opening on the 29th of September to a roaring success, led by an acclaimed residency concert headlined by Irish rock giants, U2.
However, seemingly out of the blue, Ranji submitted his resignation letter last Monday, merely four days in advance. His financial role was rapidly filled by Greg Brunner, the senior VP, controller, and main accounting officer of the Sphere, albeit on a temporary basis until a more permanent solution is found.
A late-night securities filing on Friday painted Ranji’s departure in an intriguing light, ruling out any disagreement with the company’s auditors or management team over accounting principles, financial disclosures, or internal controls.
Yet, an unnamed insider went off-script, fuelling rumours about a dramatic clash between Dolan and Ranji. Apparently, Dolan’s temper flared during a high-level meeting called to scrutinize and finalize Sphere Entertainment’s quarterly earnings. This presentation, shared on a Wednesday morning, uncovered that the Sphere had suffered a tremendous first-quarter operating loss of a whopping $98.4M. This catastrophe was swiftly pinned on “higher depreciation and amortization, direct operating expenses, and selling, general and administrative costs” by company officials.
Despite the heated atmosphere, the source revealed that Ranji maintained his composure, excused himself from the meeting and submitted his resignation to the company’s legal chief.
This is not the first high-profile departure from the Sphere. Ranji’s startling exit marks the third such occurrence. Earlier this year, in February, Dolan dismissed president Lucas Watson and business operations senior manager, Jenna Wolfenson, choosing to adopt a more direct leadership style ever since.
Dolan’s mammoth empire encompasses Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Knicks and Rangers, MSG Sports, and AMC Networks, a majority of which have also seen abrupt high-profile departures in the recent past.
In 2019, Seth Abraham, an ex-president of MSG Entertainment, shared sage advice from a fellow former MSG president, Dave Checketts, with Bloomberg News. Checketts’ pearls of wisdom allude to dealing with Dolan’s volatile nature through public disagreement, in spaces like restaurants, to keep the eruption at bay.
This insider, cited by the Post, denotes Dolan as “the consummate hammer,” with an unyielding approach toward his team, treating “everyone like a nail.”
