A man was prohibited from attending a New York City concert after learning he was on a ban list from an incident at Madison Square Garden in 2021.

According to The Verge, Frank Miller could not attend a concert at Radio City Music Hall for his parents’ wedding anniversary.

Miller is also banned from all other properties owned by Madison Square Garden (MSG).

However, Miller said he hasn’t been to the venue in nearly two decades.

“They hand me a piece of paper letting me know that I’ve been added to a ban list,” Miller said, according to The Verge.

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“There’s a trespass notice if I ever show up on any MSG property ever again,” he added.

The outlet reports that Miller thinks the venue identified him by using a controversial facial recognition system.

The Verge reports:

He was baffled at first. Then it dawned on him: this was probably about a T-shirt he designed years ago. MSG Entertainment won’t say what happened with Miller or how he was picked out of the crowd, but he suspects he was identified via controversial facial recognition systems that the company deploys at its venues.

In 2017, 1990s New York Knicks star Charles Oakley was forcibly removed from his seat near Knicks owner and Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan. The high-profile incident later spiraled into an ongoing legal battle. For Miller, Oakley was an “integral” part of the ’90s Knicks, he says. With his background in graphic design, he made a shirt in the style of the old team logo that read, “Ban Dolan” — a reference to the infamous scuffle.

A few years later, in 2021, a friend of Miller’s wore a Ban Dolan shirt to a Knicks game and was kicked out and banned from future events. That incident spawned ESPN segments and news articles and validated what many fans saw as a pettiness on Dolan and MSG’s part for going after individual fans who criticized team ownership.

But this week, Miller wasn’t wearing a Ban Dolan shirt; he wasn’t even at a Knicks game. His friend who was kicked out for the shirt tagged him in social media posts as the designer when it happened, but Miller, who lives in Seattle, hadn’t attended an event in New York in years.

Miller says that after he scanned his digital ticket, but before he went through security, a person working at Radio City stopped the line, pulled him aside, and asked him for his ID to verify who he was. They then walked him to another entrance of the building, where five or more staff members stood with him as he was told he was not allowed to return.

He’s not sure how exactly MSG connected him to the shirt or a 2021 incident during an event he wasn’t at. Miller told The Verge that until the concert, he had never actually purchased tickets to MSG events — they were either gifts from other people, or he got them through work.

Per Gizmodo:

The fact that Miller made the shirt was apparently enough to get him put on the venue’s ban list should he ever show up, which he finally did about four years after his friend got the boot. In a statement to The Verge, an MSG representative claimed that Miller had “made threats against an MSG executive on social media and produced and sold merchandise that was offensive in nature,” and that his behavior was “disrespectful and disruptive and in violation of our code of conduct.”

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Miller is just the latest in a long line of people who have seemingly drawn the personal ire of Dolan and, as a result, been banned from the venues he owns. In 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James opened an inquiry into Dolan’s alleged blacklist of enemies, which at the time reportedly included “thousands of lawyers” from as many as 90 firms who were involved in litigation against Dolan and MSG. There are also fans who have been critical of Dolan on social media who now have difficulty getting past security to attend shows and games.

Most of the enforcement of Dolan’s bans appears to stem from the facial recognition technology utilized by venue security, which helps ID people who are on the ban list. But based on Miller’s case, there seems to be some surveillance beyond that at play. It would seem that the only way Miller would even end up on MSG’s radar is if someone was scraping social media, keeping tabs on voices critical of Dolan, and putting them in the system to keep them out of future events. But surely a billionaire wouldn’t be so thin-skinned as to turn his venues into retribution machines against his critics… right?

If this sounds familiar, it’s because this is not an isolated case.

Attorneys and entire law firms have been banned using the same technology:

In 2022, Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG), the company that operates venues like Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, implemented a controversial policy banning attorneys from law firms involved in litigation against it. This attorney ban, which extended to all lawyers at such firms regardless of their personal involvement in the cases, was enforced using facial recognition technology. The policy sparked significant legal challenges, public debate, and scrutiny from regulators, raising questions about privacy, civil rights, and the use of biometric technology.
The policy began in June 2022, when MSG started notifying law firms engaged in active litigation against the company that their attorneys were barred from entering MSG venues until the disputes were resolved. This included not just the lawyers directly handling the cases but all personnel at the firms, potentially affecting thousands of attorneys across more than 90 firms. MSG justified the ban by arguing that litigation created an “inherently adversarial environment,” and the measure was intended to prevent opposing counsel from gathering evidence outside formal legal channels or interacting with company staff in ways that could compromise ongoing cases.
To enforce this ban, MSG employed facial recognition technology, scanning the faces of attendees against a database compiled from law firm profile photos and other sources. This led to high-profile incidents, such as Kelly Conlon, a New Jersey attorney, being denied entry to a Rockettes show at Radio City Music Hall in November 2022 while chaperoning her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. Conlon’s firm was involved in litigation against MSG, though she personally was not, yet she was identified and ejected. Another lawyer was removed from a Knicks game, and others faced similar exclusions, even when holding valid tickets or season passes.
The use of facial recognition to enforce the ban drew immediate backlash. Critics, including civil liberties advocates, argued it represented an unprecedented and punitive application of the technology, potentially chilling free access to public venues and discouraging lawyers from taking on cases against MSG. Affected attorneys filed lawsuits, claiming the policy violated New York’s civil rights laws, which prohibit discrimination and retaliation in places of public accommodation. One notable case saw a temporary injunction granted in November 2022 by New York State Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank, who found no rational basis for the blanket ban beyond intimidation. However, an appeals court later upheld MSG’s right to enforce the policy in March 2023, reinforcing the company’s property rights over ticket holders’ access.
Public and regulatory scrutiny intensified. In January 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James launched an inquiry, sending a letter to MSG questioning whether the policy and its enforcement violated state and federal human rights laws, including those against retaliation. James expressed concern that barring lawyers could deter legitimate claims, such as those for sexual harassment or employment discrimination, and highlighted potential biases in facial recognition technology, particularly against people of color and women. MSG was asked to justify the policy by February 13, 2023, but maintained its stance, asserting it was lawful and applied only to a small percentage of lawyers during active litigation.
MSG’s CEO, James Dolan, defended the ban, likening it to not inviting a litigant into one’s home and emphasizing that affected attorneys would be welcomed back once litigation concluded. The company also claimed exemptions for cases involving sexual harassment or employment discrimination, though skepticism persisted about the policy’s scope and execution. Meanwhile, New York legislators introduced bills in early 2023 to curb such practices, including one to extend a 1941 civil rights law—originally protecting theater critics—to sports venues, aiming to ensure ticket holders’ rights.
The controversy highlighted broader issues around facial recognition in private settings. While legal in New York, its use to target perceived adversaries fueled calls for regulation, with the New York State Bar Association backing biometric privacy legislation. The episode underscored tensions between property rights, technological power, and individual freedoms, leaving a lasting mark on debates over privacy and access in the digital age.
 

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