James Dolan Urged To Change Madison Square Garden's Plans For Game 5

Game 5 of the NBA Finals will be on Saturday in San Antonio. But New York Knicks fans are hoping that team owner James Dolan will open up Madison Square Garden for a watch party. That'll be tough unless he can convince the group currently slated to perform to leave.

As it stands, the Australian pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer is slated to perform at Madison Square Garden this Saturday night. The concert isn't exactly sold out with plenty of inexpensive tickets still available for the event.

Some Knicks fans that learned this are starting to call for Dolan to give 5 Seconds of Summer the boot and have them perform some other time so they can have a watch party in the arena instead.

"James Dolan needs to release this statement today: 'We are moving the 5 Seconds of Summer concert Saturday to accommodate a Game 5 Knicks watch party inside MSG.' Get it done. 5 Seconds of Summer nowhere near sold out. MSG will be pandemonium for the Knicks. Make the call," Jake Brown demanded on X.

Possible?

As much as Knicks fans agreed with the idea, many quickly dismissed the idea, pointing out that there are just too many hoops Dolan would have to jump through to cancel a concert in favor of a simple watch party:

"Ridiculous to expect that. They got contracts," one user pointed out.

"Why would they move a concert for a watch party……I understand if it was a home game but please be so for real," wrote another.

"This is such a silly comment. Subject to change terms only apply to if a game is happening there. They aren't moving a concert for a watch party. Be serious. Go support local establishments that are doing watch parties instead," a third wrote.

Dolan and his MSG Sports group were more than happy to move a concert away when it was smack in the middle of two Finals games being held at MSG. But flat-out canceling or rescheduling a concert on 72 hours notice is too much.

If Dolan wanted there to be a watch party at MSG on Saturday, he would have moved the concert when the Knicks first clinched the Finals several weeks ago.

That said, 5 Seconds of Summer could do a solid for fans by broadcasting the game on the stage while they're performing. It would probably guarantee a sell-out.

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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 3:51 PM.