Madison Square Garden maintained a "risk" list of hundreds of musicians, actors and other celebrities, in some cases recording their race, gender and sexual orientation, according to a report by WIRED. The database, which came to light after hackers stole and ransomed data from the arena, has drawn attention both for its risk-tiering of high-profile figures — including some devoted Knicks fans — and for its apparently unexplained tagging of certain people as "LGBTQIA", raising fresh privacy concerns about how the venue tracks those who attend.

The "talent" database contains almost 40,000 names, of whom around 400 celebrities were given a risk designation across tiers labelled "flagged", "low", "medium" and "high". Those marked "high risk" reportedly include rappers Freddie Gibbs, Lil Jon, DaBaby and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, while Morgan Wallen, Lily Allen, David Harbour and Vogue's Anna Wintour were tagged "medium risk" and figures such as Ice Spice, Selena Gomez and Ben Stiller were "low risk". Ricky Martin, Phoebe Bridgers and Geese's Emily Green were among those noted as "LGBTQIA", with 89 others similarly labelled. The list applies to both MSG and the Sphere in Las Vegas, both linked to James Dolan's companies, and follows a 2023 controversy over the venues using facial recognition to bar lawyers suing them.