Dolan was previously CEO of Cablevision, founded by his father, until its sale in June 2016 to European telecom conglomerate Altice.
[6] Dolan opposed his father's proposed Voom satellite service, which became a polarizing controversy among Cablevision's board of directors.
[7] Dolan fostered Cablevision's philanthropic partnership with The Lustgarten Foundation, a private supporter of pancreatic cancer research.
[9] With Dolan's backing, Cablevision used its assets to advance the curePC campaign, aimed at increasing public awareness of pancreatic cancer and is responsible for organizing the Holiday Rock & Roll Bash, the Foundation's annual fundraiser.
[10][11] Dolan played a role in organizing the recent "12-12-12" benefit concert, which raised an initial $50 million for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, with additional money still coming in.
[14] In 1994, Paramount Communications, the owner of Madison Square Garden, was acquired by Viacom, who in turn sold the MSG properties to Cablevision and ITT Corporation, which had 50% ownership each.
[19] After winning the Stanley Cup in 1994, the Rangers saw a decline in performance in the wake of Dolan's increased role in managing the team and failed to make the playoffs from the 1997–98 season until the 2004–05 NHL lockout, despite leading the league in payroll in most of those years.
This was the longest playoff drought in the franchise's history, in part due to questionable, expensive free-agent signings, such as Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, and Theo Fleury.
However, since the resolution of the NHL lockout in 2005, Dolan allowed general manager Glen Sather to rebuild the team from the ground up.
[25][26] Dolan rarely speaks with members of the media and communicates to the press through released statements or in interviews with MSG Network.
[29] Dolan lives on Long Island with his wife Kristin, whom he named the chief executive officer of AMC Networks in 2023.
[32] Dolan performs blues-inspired rock as the singer for JD & the Straight Shot;[33] their seventh studio album The Great Divide was released in March 2019.