 He approached Ned Irish, the president of Madison Square Garden who had successfully promoted college basketball matches at the venue, with a proposal to lease the Garden on open dates for use by Kase's professional basketball team.Irish informed Kase that the Arena Managers Association of America, which owned the sports arenas in the largest cities, had a pact which required Madison Square Garden to own any professional basketball team that played there.However, Irish was persuaded that Kase's idea had merit and, in 1946, Irish became one of the founders of the new Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the original owner of the New York Knicks.