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The Knicks may have their best playoff shot in a decade, but one superfan — and corporate attorney — won’t be getting a piece of the action.
Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. can continue its much-criticized policy of using facial recognition to bar people from entering the venue, under a ruling from a panel of five appeals court judges published on Tuesday.
The ruling means lifelong Knicks fan Larry Hutcher, who was banned from Madison Square Garden after his law firm sued the company last fall, won’t be allowed back into the arena any time soon. Hutcher was the lead attorney on a case against MSG brought by two dozen ticket resellers who alleged it had violated New York’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Law.
The panel of judges overturned a lower court’s partial restraining order, finding that while MSG’s ban may violate state civil rights statutes, it doesn’t “irreparably harm” people prohibited from the arena as long as they’re compensated for their loss.
Though the appeals court overturned the earlier injunction, Hutcher took the ruling as a partial victory, saying the court rejected Madison Square Garden’s argument that the state’s civil rights laws didn’t apply at all. The matter will now return to the lower court for deliberation in the coming months.
“It’s a crime to bar us, it’s a misdemeanor. So what happened is we lost the battle of the injunction, but we won the war,” Hutcher said. He plans to head to an MSG venue and bring criminal misdemeanor charges if he’s turned away.
A spokesperson for MSG Entertainment declined to comment on the record but said the company was pleased with the ruling.
Madison Square Garden and related venues including Radio City Music Hall have used facial recognition technology since 2018. But concern about the policy reignited last fall when a string of corporate lawyers whose firms had sued MSG were blocked from entering the company’s venues after they were identified by facial scanners on the premises.
Regulators have scrambled to address the situation.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has warned MSG owner James Dolan that the policy could violate human rights protections. Some state lawmakers are trying to end MSG’s decadeslong property tax exemption and the State Liquor Authority has threatened to revoke its liquor license.
None of those efforts will provide any relief for Hutcher, a Knicks season ticketholder for 47 years, who spent $18,000 for the 2022-2023 season, according to his October lawsuit.
Through, “zero championships, long playoff droughts, postseason failures, and coaching musical chairs,” Hutcher dutifully renewed his season tickets, according to the lawsuit. Despite that loyalty, “he was still summarily discarded by MSG.”
Hutcher’s lawsuit also highlighted an odd piece in the state’s civil rights law that bars venues from discriminating against attendees of theatrical performances and concerts, but makes no mention of sporting events — a loophole Hutcher said he’s determined to lobby Albany lawmakers to close. During the interim period when the lower court sided in his favor, Hutcher was permitted to see concerts at the Garden, but not Knicks games.
Hutcher said despite his lockout from the Garden, he’ll still be rooting for the Knicks to make it to the finals, even if he won’t be cheering them on from the stands.
“I’ve been a lifelong Knicks fan,” Hutcher said. “That’s not changing because they have a bozo of an owner.”
This story has been updated to reflect MSG’s position on the ruling.
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