Dana Rubinstein and Corey Kilgannon
July 21, 2026
After years of being cast by Knicks fans as a villainous owner, James L. Dolan finally won a measure of redemption when his team won the N.B.A. championship last month.
Now Mr. Dolan has quietly won another protracted war, this one against the New York State Liquor Authority.
Three years ago, Mr. Dolan courted public condemnation by deploying facial recognition to bar scores of people he deemed enemies from Madison Square Garden. At that time, the liquor authority also took exception, saying that the Garden’s exclusionary biometric surveillance violated state beverage laws that require establishments to admit the general public.
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“No one wants to cross an organization that’s winning, and in particular one that just won the national championship,” said Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president who has tangled with the Garden. He added that he was “disappointed” that the liquor authority was not “more aggressive in interpreting its authority to ban facial recognition technology.”
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