A CPA Who Returned Home to MSG

BY KATHLEEN HOFFELDER, NJCPA SENIOR CONTENT EDITOR

It’s no wonder that Hoboken resident John Gibney’s love for the world’s most famous arena took him exactly where many sports enthusiasts would like to go: Madison Square Garden (MSG), home of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers. The former student manager for Fordham University’s men’s basketball team hasn’t strayed too far from the sports action. From an internship at MSG to returning to his dream job as a senior accountant for Venue Operations at MSG Entertainment Corp (MSGE), John — who is a CPA and CFE — has truly come full circle.

“I help manage expenses for live events and sports properties, such as boxing, college basketball, the MSG arena, The Theater at MSG, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Chicago Theatre. Everyone knows about Billy Joel’s record-breaking residency that’s winding down. A lot of people don’t realize MSGE also operates these other iconic venues which host some of the stars like Diana Ross or Barry Manilow. The Rockettes are in full swing right now,” he says. “There’s a cross benefit for having certain acts in certain venues. I work with the finance staff who make estimates for these events. I monitor the actuals and accruals and see where there can be some variances and work together to investigate them further.”

The Early Years

A native of Fair Haven, John grew up with the knowledge that being a CPA was a wise career path. Furthering his education at a New York-based college with a great reputation like Fordham gave him several advantages. John, who was always good with numbers, had a few internships at notable companies such as Cantor Fitzgerald and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) before also interning at MSG on the finance side. “I always loved emerging from Penn Station and seeing the huge marquee outside. My father and I came here every March for the Big East Tournament. I wanted to do something in sports entertainment.

I reverse engineered that. I realized nobody wants to do the nitty gritty accounting side of it so I figured that could be a niche,” he explains. “When you are a sophomore, junior or senior, that’s the time you can try something new and network.”

After graduating from Fordham, John started his accounting career in a traditional manner as an experienced assurance associate in PwC’s Private Company Services Group in Florham Park after having previously served as an intern in New York. “Most of my clients encompassed a wide variety of industries. I worked on small teams; I was probably doing more as a first-year than some folks working in public accounting as a second-year.”

Amid the COVID pandemic, he made the leap to corporate accounting at the fast-paced L’Oreal USA, where he stayed for two years as a finance analyst doing financial planning and analysis and supporting the engineering team. “I was making sure invoices were getting paid and monitoring budgets and trends for all the capital spending,” adds John. “It was during the pandemic and dealing with global sales. Things were changing on a dime.”

He always wanted to go back to the sports industry, however, and eventually found the opportunity in Venue Operations this past January. “I like working on the entertainment side of MSG since it’s entrepreneurial in that new shows and residencies are always being added. The Arena itself hosts approximately 320 events per year,” he explains. “I’ve always been black and white about the numbers and like having a set of answers for everything.”

More Sports

Today, John is still active in the sports world himself, having played many sports, including basketball, while growing up. He is also a newly certified Junior College basketball official.

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