News broke on Monday that the Portland Trail Blazers have a new owner for the first time in nearly 40 years. The team is entering the most consequential era in franchise history since Paul Allen bought the team. This time, hope for change arrives with a hard edge
As first reported by Jason Quick of The Athletic, the NBA board of governors unanimously approved the sale of the team to an investor group led by Carolina Hurricanes owner and entrepreneur, Tom Dundon. (Subscription required.)
The team last
changed hands in 1998 when Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen spent $70 million to buy the Blazers team from Larry Weinberg. After Allen’s death in 2018, ownership of the team moved to a family trust managed by his sister, Jody Allen.
The reported $4.25 billion sale of the team to Dundon signals a pivotal turning point for a franchise mired in mediocrity since Paul Allen’s death. It offers the promise of sharper direction and competitive urgency. But Dundon’s track record, marked by both on-ice success with Carolina and controversy tied to his business dealings, underscores the tension at the heart of this moment. Can a more aggressive, results-driven ownership style restore winning in Portland without eroding the values and trust that have long defined the team’s relationship with its fan base?
Winning Time
Fans have reason to be optimistic about Dundon’s sports acumen. He told Jason Quick of The Athletic, “I can’t handle losing. I can’t handle thinking something could be done better. And if you get all the players and the coaches and the staff, everybody thinking that way … you should get better.” (Subscription required.)
Carolina, Dundon’s NHL team, has made the playoffs and won at least one round in all seven seasons of Dundon’s tenure as owner. The team won 10 playoff series in that period and made three trips to the NHL Eastern Conference Final.
The Hurricanes made huge strides off the ice as well. Annual corporate sponsorship revenue jumped, and the Hurricanes’ attendance increased dramatically over the span Dundon has owned the team with gains in both season ticket sales and suite leases.
Blazermania Ready to Run Wild
Dundon the developer has purchased a franchise with some deferred maintenance needs that extend beyond updating the Moda Center. The Jody Allen era was marred by losing streaks, confusing contract extensions for team leaders, draft misses and games in which the t-shirt cannon drew more cheers than the team on the court. While Paul Allen rarely spoke to the press, Jody never shared her sporting vision with the fans, and it’s not clear what her goals for the team were.
In spite of the entropy from the top down approach that defined the post-Paul-Allen-era, it is undeniable that Dundon has bought into one of the greatest fan bases in the league. Optimism about new team leadership—the return of Damian Lillard and the ascendance of Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara and Donovan Clingan—is already evident. In spite of a years long rebuild, Eve Peyser of the Portland Business Journal reported that the Blazers’ said ticket sales have increased, and the team’s season ticket renewal rate is the highest on record.. (Subscription required.)
Rip City historians know that if Dundon can bring some focus to the Blazers organization, the community will respond. The Trail Blazers team this writer grew up watching sold out 814 consecutive home games from April 9, 1977, to November 16, 1995, marking one of the longest sellout streaks in American professional sports history. A second big sellout streak stalled out at 195 games in 2012.
Questionable History
Many say winning solves everything. In a city hungry for basketball success, it will go a long way. But off the ice, Dundon’s NHL success was forged with a business acumen that indicates the winds of change in Rip City could be cold.
Before Dundon’s group even completed its deal to acquire the Trail Blazers, the franchise spent months lobbying city and state officials to secure more than $400 million toward arena renovations.
The team secured pledges from the state to cough up some of the $600 million bag the franchise is seeking, even as a report by OPB and ProPublica revealed a 2020 settlement between the State of Oregon and Santander Consumer USA Inc, a Dundon-owned company accused of predatory lending.
Mark Williams, a former Federal Reserve regulator who teaches finance at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, said Dundon’s record is an important consideration.
“The money used to buy the Portland Trail Blazers is money that was built on predatory lending,” Williams said of Dundon. “He had an opportunity. He seized it. He made lots of profit. And how did he make that profit? He made it on the backs of low- and poor-credit individuals.”
The State of Oregon participated in a 2020 multistate settlement with Santander Consumer USA Inc. regarding predatory subprime auto lending practices. The settlement provided over $550 million in relief, including loan forgiveness for consumers with high-risk loans. Santander Consumer did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement it paid to 33 states, including Oregon.
The Man in the Arena
As noted by Blazer’s Edge, Dundon did not let sentimentality cloud his vision when he began investing in professional sports. He built the Hurricanes into an NHL powerhouse with shrewd investments in his players and controversial cost-cutting moves in other parts of the operation.
Within Dundon’s first year of ownership, the Hurricanes hired a new coach, general manager and team president. In a story which repeatedly referred to Dundon as a “glass chewer” and a “killer,” The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman reported Dundon told Carolina players it was his job find players better than they were, and it was their job to make that difficult. NBA fans will now see if he applies a similar approach to the Blazers organization.
As Dundon shook up the sports side of the Hurricanes, he also slashed parking and beer prices (fan friendly) and cut operational costs, making major changes to Carolina’s broadcasting team (less so).
Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report wrote that Dundon’s clinical treatment of the Hurricanes’ celebrated radio broadcasting team “helped earn Dundon a reputation around the hockey world as a cheapskate.” (Subscription required.)
“I want to put all the money on the ice,” Dundon said.
How He Does it Matters
This new ownership group brings the possibility of urgency and course correction. But as the team changes hands from Allen’s Vulcan Sports Entertainment to Dundon’s Rip City Rising, there is also uncertainty created by Dundon’s willingness to make unpopular decisions. For a fanbase that has long prided itself on loyalty and connection, the coming years may test how much change it is willing to embrace in exchange for relevance.
There is no denying the opportunity in front of this franchise. Portland has a foundation of passionate fans, a proud history of 37 playoff appearance, three trips to The Finals and one Larry O’Brien trophy. The increasing ticket sales in an up-and-down season are evidence the city is ready to pack the streets for another parade down Broadway.
The Jody Allen regime lacked clarity and conviction. If Dundon provides both, the Trail Blazers could soon reemerge as a force in the Western Conference. But, if his glass chewing past is any indication, the path forward may be as uncomfortable as it is decisive.
