Two of St. John’s best attributes are its stature as the Big East program in New York and having the Garden as its home court.
The Red Storm is in danger of losing the latter after the upcoming season.
Several sources at both institutions told The Post that St. John’s and the Garden have hit significant snags in negotiations over a future contract. Although officials at St. John’s and the Garden praised the relationship, sources said it is badly strained.
The contract expired after last season, and the parties have been unable to reach agreement on a new deal, sources said.
The parties have been working under a goodwill understanding, and the games for the upcoming season are not in jeopardy.
But if a new deal can’t be reached, it would be a lose-lose for both down the road, with St. John’s being the biggest loser.
The Red Storm’s single greatest recruiting tool is playing in the World’s Most Famous Arena. St. John’s plays the majority of its Big East home games there, and it’s usually the first reason given by players who sign with St. John’s.
“We’ve always valued our relationship with the Garden as our home away from home,” said Dominic Scianna, an athletic department spokesman. “It is an important part of our history and will continue to be as we look to future successes on the basketball court.”
The Garden would face trouble filling the dates if it loses St. John’s, one of its anchor tenants along with the Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. But the Garden has been very successful in recent years attracting marquee matchups between national powers such as Duke and Oklahoma, a fact that has irked St. John’s.
“It is company policy that we don’t discuss contract negotiations,” Joel Fisher, senior vice president of the Garden, told The Post. “We’ve had a longstanding, great partnership with St. John’s and expect that will continue.”
One source at the Garden, and one with close ties to St. John’s, said that relationship was strained when the university floated the mind-bogglingly absurd idea of moving its home games to Nassau Coliseum.
Now more than ever St. John’s needs its relationship with the Garden and the city. The team finished 6-21 in a season marred by the firing of coach Mike Jarvis and the arrests of several players who were falsely accused of raping a woman they met at a Pittsburgh-area strip club.
Larry Celona contributedto this report
