Suing Madison Square Garden? Forget About Your Knicks Tickets.

But Hutcher received another letter from Randy Mastro, a lawyer for Madison Square Garden Entertainment, who told Hutcher his tickets expired and that “M.S.G. decided not to renew them and returned your deposit, as is M.S.G.’s right under New York law.”

“To be clear, this is a uniform policy being implemented across the board without exception,” Mastro wrote, adding that M.S.G. appreciated his patronage of the Knicks over the years. “In other words, you are not being singled out or treated any differently than any other lawyer or law firm currently suing M.S.G.”

Now Hutcher and the 59 other lawyers at the firm are suing Madison Square Garden Entertainment, alleging what they call a “misguided” and “erroneous” interpretation of the bar association rules and a violation of New York’s Civil Rights Law, according to the lawsuit filed on Thursday.

Hutcher wants the court to intervene in time for him to purchase his season tickets ahead of the Knicks’ regular-season home opener on Oct. 21 against the Detroit Pistons, and to allow the lawyers at his firm to attend other events at the company’s venues.

“The odds of an individual plaintiff discussing the subject of the litigation with that M.S.G. employee are astronomical,” the lawsuit says. “There are better odds of being struck by lightning or the Knicks winning the N.B.A. championship this year.”

This kind of ban isn’t new for the Garden; it’s a policy the company established in June, said Natalie Ravitz, the senior vice president of communications and marketing. Weidenfeld sent a similar letter to firms involved with litigation in the 2021 merger of Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp and Madison Square Garden Networks.

“While we understand this is disappointing to some individuals, M.S.G. has both a right and obligation to protect itself during litigation procedures,” Ravitz said in an email. “We cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adversarial environment, and an ancillary consequence of that is our need to protect against improper disclosure and discovery.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/sports/lawsuit-msg-lawyers-banned-knicks-rangers.html