Yahoo Finance Full NHL season helps lift MSG 2Q profit 29 pct
MSG 2Q profit gets boots from a full NHL season; year-ago lockout had weighed on results
NEW YORK (AP) -- Madison Square Garden Co. said Friday that its net income rose 29 percent in the fiscal second quarter compared with a year ago, when a lockout delayed the start of the NHL season.
Because of the 2012 NHL lockout, the New York Rangers didn't play regular season games in the October-December quarter that year, and MSG didn't have hockey games to broadcast. In the last three months of 2013, the team played 41 games, including 20 at New York's Madison Square Garden arena.
MSG's sports revenue more than doubled in the latest quarter, and the hockey games also lifted its media revenue.
MSG's other holdings include the New York Knicks and New York Liberty basketball teams as well as sports and performance venues including its namesake arena, Radio City Music Hall and the Forum in Inglewood, Calif.
MSG also reported more revenue from the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, the Beacon Theatre in New York and its theater at Madison Square Garden.
Net income grew to $60.5 million, or 77 cents per share, from $46.9 million, or 60 cents per share. The company's revenue jumped 31 percent, to $509.4 million from $387.9 million
FactSet says analysts expected net income of 67 cents per share and $497.3 million in revenue.
Shares of MSG lost $1.51, or 2.6 percent, to $57.05 in midday trading Friday.
