Breaking: Blazers sold to Tom Dundon

[Norm2953]

There appears to be a real estate plan in place but Canzano mentioned the development of the Rose Quarter
is problematical, which makes one wonder if an arena will be built elsewhere

Do you have a link to this?

I've got a subscription to Canzano

[DusterBuster]

There appears to be a real estate plan in place but Canzano mentioned the development of the Rose Quarter
is problematical, which makes one wonder if an arena will be built elsewhere

Do you have a link to this?

I've got a subscription to Canzano

Woof. Would rather light a 20 on fire for no reason.

To each their own tho

[DusterBuster]

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Lot of talk about the building / moving. It's national reporters, so keep expectations in check for the insights here.

Liked hearing that apparently Mark Cuban has given Dundon his "seal of approval" as an owner. A Cuban-esque owner is what I've hoping for.

[DusterBuster]

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Interview with Tim Donnelly of ‪@999FMTheFan‬ in Raleigh.

[DusterBuster]

Some actual information and dates here:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6563404/2025/08/19/potential-trail-blazers-ownership-close-deal-march/?source=emp_shared_article

Dundon’s group is in the process of negotiating documents, but the source close to Dundon says all major points have been agreed upon. The hope is to have a purchase agreement signed in September. A target date of March 31, 2026, has been set for the close of the deal.

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With how those dates break down, I would say next summer we will know what Dundon is gonna do with the FO and coaching. He’ll probably have enough information to go off of from this upcoming season with how it plays out to decide if he wants to keep the current staff or not.

[m0ng0]

Oh
Goody are we going to tank for a new head coach and FO now? I can think of about 5 who will be of this mindset right from game one

[PDXKnight]

Oh
Goody are we going to tank for a new head coach and FO now? I can think of about 5 who will be of this mindset right from game one

I bet with dundon we never tank again unless absolutely necessary. And there will be a lot more common sense decisions. I think Cuban is a good comparison

[DusterBuster]

Oh
Goody are we going to tank for a new head coach and FO now? I can think of about 5 who will be of this mindset right from game one

I bet with dundon we never tank again unless absolutely necessary. And there will be a lot more common sense decisions. I think Cuban is a good comparison

Yes and no. If it's a injury plagued season that just goes sideways by no fault of anyone by bad luck, I don't think he would have a problem turning it into the side of the mountain to get a high pick.

Largely tho I agree, that's never going to be plan A and if that's a backup plan for a season, he's only going to want it to be for one season. I expect any season that ends poorly like that (especially for non-injury seasons), he's going to be ultra aggressive to make moves the summer after.

[PDXKnight]

Oh
Goody are we going to tank for a new head coach and FO now? I can think of about 5 who will be of this mindset right from game one

I bet with dundon we never tank again unless absolutely necessary. And there will be a lot more common sense decisions. I think Cuban is a good comparison

Yes and no. If it's a injury plagued season that just goes sideways by no fault of anyone by bad luck, I don't think he would have a problem turning it into the side of the mountain to get a high pick.

Largely tho I agree, that's never going to be plan A and if that's a backup plan for a season, he's only going to want it to be for one season. I expect any season that ends poorly like that (especially for non-injury seasons), he's going to be ultra aggressive to make moves the summer after.

Yup. And id add i think he will Chase deals for superstars at the right time and he is the type of owner stars will want to stick around for id imagine. Jody hasnt given much buy in with the blazers and she just isnt a fun person which I think makes it hard to attract top of the line fas or convince superstars to even want to be dealt here. And above all winning covers a multitude of sins and players tend to overlook city/market a lot more if we are in the race or swinging for the fences to get there

[zzaj]

Watch on YouTube

Interview with Tim Donnelly of ‪@999FMTheFan‬ in Raleigh.

This is pretty great context for all the rumors that have been swirling around regarding his "hands-on" approach.

It's way too early and tough to say right now, but so far it's looking like we as fans got pretty dang lucky in terms of a new owner for the team. Things could be much, much worse--even up to this point.

My prediction is that this season is going to be mostly status-quo. The Blazers will end up about where they were last year in terms of record. Pushing for the Play-In within the uber-talented West, and next off season there are going to be some heads rolling and roster shakeup.

[DusterBuster]

My prediction is that this season is going to be mostly status-quo. The Blazers will end up about where they were last year in terms of record. Pushing for the Play-In within the uber-talented West, and next off season there are going to be some heads rolling and roster shakeup.

Yep, this is what I'm expecting too. I give it maybe a 30% chance Dundon may keep Cronin around for the summer. Just due to timing of the sale, Dundon won't be in a position to give Cronin a new mandate for how to run the team until after the trade deadline has passed. If the two have a good working relationship, I could see Dundon giving Joe another summer and maybe into the season to see how good he is at executing a new plan from ownership.

But if Dundon is coming in with his own plans, I can also see him firing Cronin on Day 1 and then trying to get someone new in place asap for the draft and summer moves.

The timing of when the sale looks to be completed (mid-March) makes any FO moves a little tricky.

[DusterBuster]

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Nothing major, just formalities.

[DusterBuster]

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From Marang, she’s worth 7b. So anyone worried about Dundons net worth, the group looks like they’re gonna have plenty of funds to pull from.

She’s one of the top 50 richest people in the world. So anyone concerned about the team needing to be penny pinching, that seems unlikely.

I’m sure some will be concerned about the LV connection, but she’s also got strong Oregon ties originally, so to me this is still a plenty strong sign that any move is unlikely. I’m sure others will feel different.

[DusterBuster]

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[DusterBuster]

The ownership group now collectively is around 10-15b. Feels like the team financially is gonna be just fine.

Dundon, while the face and Gov for the day to day, likely isn’t going to have the most financial ownership percentage of the team. Biggest percentage owner is likely this partner from Panda Express.

With his sports business experience tho, Dundon clearly running the team.

[oldfishermen]

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From Marang, she’s worth 7b. So anyone worried about Dundons net worth, the group looks like they’re gonna have plenty of funds to pull from.

She’s one of the top 50 richest people in the world. So anyone concerned about the team needing to be penny pinching, that seems unlikely.

I’m sure some will be concerned about the LV connection, but she’s also got strong Oregon ties originally, so to me this is still a plenty strong sign that any move is unlikely. I’m sure others will feel different.

About a year ago, I watched an interview of Peggy Cherng. Very impressive lady with very high standards.

[Effigy]

The fact that she lives in Vegas is a little scary though.

[oldfishermen]

https://youtu.be/9k-BqPbGuq4?si=W9ZkPWfNYtslOgJC

[Norm2953]

Is not mention of Garcia good news?

[DusterBuster]

The fact that she lives in Vegas is a little scary though.

Figured a comment around this would be incoming.

We all need to get over this idea of where someone lives being a draw for them to have the team at that location when it comes to these billionaires. The likelihood that Peggy Cherng gives two **** about the NBA or basketball in general is slim to none. It's an investment opportunity, pure and simple. Sports ownership is a portfolio item that - so far - has proven to show it never depreciates or drops in value (knock on wood).

Granted, I'm very much just giving an educated guess here just based on how the landscape of sports ownership has changed in the past 30 years, but I don't believe there's any compelling argument for her - at this moment - to be pushing to move the team to Vegas.

Now, the reason I add the caveat is that, as I stated earlier, this is an investment for her. If she has controlling ownership percentage in the team (which seems likely) and she believes she can make more money moving the team to Vegas... that could be a problem. However, also as previously noted, this is just a portfolio item for her. Panda Express is clearly her top priority. Unless the Blazers as an investment starts losing her substantial amounts of money and the reason for it doing that is the city of Portland and the arena, I'm not convinced there's going to be compelling reasons for her to push for a move.

The current arrangement of the ownership group looks like she's the "whale"/big money owner, Tom is the CEO handling the ops, than a few of the local minority owners help with the ground game of engaging the team with the community.

So at this point and time, I'm not particularly concerned or going to lose sleep over it. The Allen Estate has seemed to do all they can to vet ownership groups and it's been reported that one of the main mandates from Paul was to get a group that was committed to keeping the team in Portland.