“From owning the Los Angeles Kings and my leadership role with MSG, I value the profound effect team facilities and surrounding development can have on their communities. Seregh's skillset is uniquely suited to significantly impact the growth of all sports enterprises, including the potential of women's sports and college athletics.”
Joseph M. Cohen
Director, MSG SportsJoseph M. Cohen’s influence from coast to coast in the sports world spans more than 50 years from 1970 to the present. His groundbreaking touch has created and revived companies and organizations in television, cable, radio, arena operations, arena development and management, and professional sports franchises. Joe has been a pioneer and technology innovator in the sports industry, most recently as president of The Switch Sports Group, which transmits MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL games for ESPN.
He currently is chairman, Brand Velocity Sports Group, a private equity firm. Joe served on the board of Madison Square Garden Network (NYSE: MSGN) and as a member of the special committee negotiated the merger with Madison Square Garden Entertainment (NYSE: MSGE). He currently is a board member of Madison Square Garden Sports (NYSE: MSGS) and AMC Networks (NYSE: AMCX). On the heels of launching MSG Network in the 1970s, Joe co-founded USA Network with Bob Rosencrans and headed by Kay Koplovitz to take the Knicks’ and Rangers’ games national.
Joe pioneered the live transmission business of sporting events by organizing investment partnerships to expand and diversify the services of Hughes Television Network. HTN serviced from its inception such regional entities as MSGN, YES Network, SNY, NESN, MASN, Altitude Sports & Entertainment (Denver) and Sports Time Ohio, among others. His innovation of scrambling the backhaul signals allowed the leagues to create packages NFL Sunday Ticket, NBA League Pass, NHL Center Ice and MLB.TV.
In 2016, Joe was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and Sports Business Journal’s Champions Class. He was named to the Legacy Wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019.
Joe is a member of the board of directors of Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation, a member of the board of directors and board treasurer of the Maccabi World Union (Maccabiah Games), trustee emeritus of the California Institute of the Arts and director emeritus of the March of Dimes. He co-founded the March of Dimes Sports Luncheon in 1984. He co-founded the Parents Council at the NYU”S Gallatin School of Individualized Study. After gaining his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, Joe earned his MBA from Penn’s famed Wharton School
Joe and his wife, Rita, reside in Los Angeles and New York City. They have four daughters and four grandchildren. His entrepreneurial and innovative spirit has resulted in a huge impact on his industry for more than half a century and Joe’s insatiable drive burns strong to this day.