Breaking: Blazers sold to Tom Dundon

[wco81]

Panda Express is owned by a Chinese family?

[DusterBuster]

Panda Express is owned by a Chinese family?

Yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cherng

[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.

This gut sense proved to be correct:

https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2025/09/panda-express-founders-join-tom-dundon-in-portland-trail-blazers-purchase.html?outputType=amp

What did come as a surprise, however, was that Dundon’s ownership group now includes a new — and notable — investor: The Cherng Family Trust.

The trust is the investment firm of Andrew and Peggy Cherng, the founders of Panda Express and the Panda Restaurant Group, and their family. The Cherngs have a net worth of $7.5 billion, according to Forbes, meaning they would be the wealthiest investors in Dundon’s group.

It's not Peggy or her husband making this investment, it's their trust, which is an investment firm unto itself. Owning the Blazers, as I suspected, is simply just an investment play on their part, likely driven by the people running the firm for them, and seems to likely have nothing to do with actual fandom or desire to bring a team to her/them. Peggy has a Oregon connection going to college in Corvallis, but what - if anything - that actually played in this investment is unclear.

[oldfishermen]

Does anyone have any background info on Sheel Tyle?

Saying he has ties to Oregon stretches the truth like grandma stretches her yoga pants. Other than his wifes new job. I can not find any ties to Oregon. His wifes ties have been a short time, and could change overnight.

But first, Tyle has some money,, not anywhere near the same league as the other investors. My guess, his ownership share is very small.

His wife, Sejal Hathi, is very talented, I'm not trying to discredit her. But I question how long she will keep her job in Oregon? She stayed on her last job in New Jersey for 4 months.

Now she has taken a part time job at Stanford. This topic is very complicated to understand. Best to read the article linked below


https://www.opb.org/article/2025/02/20/oregon-health-authority-director-sejal-hathi-has-taken-a-side-gig-in-california/

I'm not saying they are bad people. Just the opposite is true. They both appear to be good people and very elite in their fields. My impression is. This is a pure investment play, not a long term commitment to live in Oregon.

[Effigy]

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.

This gut sense proved to be correct:

https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2025/09/panda-express-founders-join-tom-dundon-in-portland-trail-blazers-purchase.html?outputType=amp

What did come as a surprise, however, was that Dundon’s ownership group now includes a new — and notable — investor: The Cherng Family Trust.

The trust is the investment firm of Andrew and Peggy Cherng, the founders of Panda Express and the Panda Restaurant Group, and their family. The Cherngs have a net worth of $7.5 billion, according to Forbes, meaning they would be the wealthiest investors in Dundon’s group.

It's not Peggy or her husband making this investment, it's their trust, which is an investment firm unto itself. Owning the Blazers, as I suspected, is simply just an investment play on their part, likely driven by the people running the firm for them, and seems to likely have nothing to do with actual fandom or desire to bring a team to her/them. Peggy has a Oregon connection going to college in Corvallis, but what - if anything - that actually played in this investment is unclear.

Let’s be real though. The value of the Blazers shoots up about a half billion dollars (at least) if they move to Vegas instead of Portland. So if they are solely an investment, then that’s what they should do.

[DusterBuster]

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.

This gut sense proved to be correct:

https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2025/09/panda-express-founders-join-tom-dundon-in-portland-trail-blazers-purchase.html?outputType=amp

What did come as a surprise, however, was that Dundon’s ownership group now includes a new — and notable — investor: The Cherng Family Trust.

The trust is the investment firm of Andrew and Peggy Cherng, the founders of Panda Express and the Panda Restaurant Group, and their family. The Cherngs have a net worth of $7.5 billion, according to Forbes, meaning they would be the wealthiest investors in Dundon’s group.

It's not Peggy or her husband making this investment, it's their trust, which is an investment firm unto itself. Owning the Blazers, as I suspected, is simply just an investment play on their part, likely driven by the people running the firm for them, and seems to likely have nothing to do with actual fandom or desire to bring a team to her/them. Peggy has a Oregon connection going to college in Corvallis, but what - if anything - that actually played in this investment is unclear.

Let’s be real though. The value of the Blazers shoots up about a half billion dollars (at least) if they move to Vegas instead of Portland. So if they are solely an investment, then that’s what they should do.

Potentially... There's still a lot that needs to happen before that can even become a notion tho.

There would need to be compelling reason beyond just valuations going up for the NBA Board of Govs and Silver to approve a move like that tho. Teams generally don't move just to move because it will make the team more valuable.

[Wizenheimer]

Potentially... There's still a lot that needs to happen before that can even become a notion tho.

There would need to be compelling reason beyond just valuations going up for the NBA Board of Govs and Silver to approve a move like that tho. Teams generally don't move just to move because it will make the team more valuable.

I think that's generically correct. But there's potential for a major wedge issue

if the ownership group decides they need a new arena (and Silver's comments may point to that being the case), and the local and state governments claim The Moda would suffice with some renovations, there could be problems in any partnership. The City owns the Moda and if the new Blazers owners have no interest in investing in Moda renovations, or signing off on and approving any renovations the city planned, I can see a rocky road ahead

I doubt it will come to that; I think the owners likely want to stay in Portland, but stay in a new arena. Still it is possible the two sides could end up far apart

[DusterBuster]

Potentially... There's still a lot that needs to happen before that can even become a notion tho.

There would need to be compelling reason beyond just valuations going up for the NBA Board of Govs and Silver to approve a move like that tho. Teams generally don't move just to move because it will make the team more valuable.

I think that's generically correct. But there's potential for a major wedge issue

if the ownership group decides they need a new arena (and Silver's comments may point to that being the case), and the local and state governments claim The Moda would suffice with some renovations, there could be problems in any partnership. The City owns the Moda and if the new Blazers owners have no interest in investing in Moda renovations, or signing off on and approving any renovations the city planned, I can see a rocky road ahead

I doubt it will come to that; I think the owners likely want to stay in Portland, but stay in a new arena. Still it is possible the two sides could end up far apart

I do think us as fans need to be prepped for a potentially messy “public” pressure campaign between the team and the city. Might not be as contentious in public as it is in private, but won’t be surprised if the two sides are “far apart” in the negotiations process.

[Walton1one]

Read on Twitter

I think many of you are missing the headline here “hopes it can be sooner”

So closing BEFORE March 26’, meaning in season possibly before the trade deadline, hopefully meaning cleaning house (goodbye Cronin, Schmitz, Oliva & Billups) sooner rather than later

Past time to get some NBA personnel into this organization who actually know what the heck they are doing

[Wizenheimer]

I think Duster is correct by saying, or at least implying, that very little should be read into the Cherng family being part of the group buying the Blazers

according to Forbes, the value of the Blazers in 2022 was 2.1B. Using the sale price, the value of the Blazers in 2025 is 4.25B. Double in value in 3 years. Even allowing for the possibility Forbes was low-balling the value a bit, that still means investing in an NBA team offers an appreciation rate of around 25% per year. Any investment group would be impressed by that

obviously, the appreciation in value got super-charged with the new media deal, but that media deal runs for another decade. Even if the appreciation rate drop to around 15-18% it's still a hefty annual return. And I'd have to assume the NBA would be viewed as a safe investment vehicle. I'd estimate this investment group's decision has little to do with fandom, and a lot to do with rate of return

[zzaj]

Potentially... There's still a lot that needs to happen before that can even become a notion tho.

There would need to be compelling reason beyond just valuations going up for the NBA Board of Govs and Silver to approve a move like that tho. Teams generally don't move just to move because it will make the team more valuable.

I think that's generically correct. But there's potential for a major wedge issue

if the ownership group decides they need a new arena (and Silver's comments may point to that being the case), and the local and state governments claim The Moda would suffice with some renovations, there could be problems in any partnership. The City owns the Moda and if the new Blazers owners have no interest in investing in Moda renovations, or signing off on and approving any renovations the city planned, I can see a rocky road ahead

I doubt it will come to that; I think the owners likely want to stay in Portland, but stay in a new arena. Still it is possible the two sides could end up far apart

I do think us as fans need to be prepped for a potentially messy “public” pressure campaign between the team and the city. Might not be as contentious in public as it is in private, but won’t be surprised if the two sides are “far apart” in the negotiations process.

Agreed on this, because there's no clear answer for what the team does--assuming a new Arena is a baseline.

My prediction is that they are going to opt for a long-term mostly off season Moda renovation, one that doesn't disrupt where the team can play...and that the public is going to pay more than some of us would like. My guess would be somewhere in the billion dollar range of public funds...

[mojomarc]

Wonder what happens to the value if the NBA decides to force Ballmer into a fire sale on the Clippers for the Kawhi scandal. Seems like all of the evidence is pointing to pants-on-fire level of scandal on his part, and that's a horrible look for the league if they just treat him like Minny with Joe Smith if all current stories are accurate. The Clippers were probably worth about $6b before this, and that's assuming the Intuit Dome. With a fire sale, the actual comp value (i.e. removing the value of the Intuit Dome) may be well below what the Dundon group has nominally offered.

[wco81]

I think new arenas are something which the league is pushing for as much as the new owners.

Ticket prices inevitably go up, by a lot, with new arenas and make franchise values go up, because they can show much higher revenues, with an arena which may be a franchise asset.

[Wizenheimer]

My prediction is that they are going to opt for a long-term mostly off season Moda renovation, one that doesn't disrupt where the team can play...and that the public is going to pay more than some of us would like. My guess would be somewhere in the billion dollar range of public funds...

I'm pretty skeptical of that, but obviously I'm speculating.

Again, I don't think Silver was riffing out random comments when he said Portland likely needs a new arena and it was only the NBA's "preference" the Blazers remain in Portland. Those were shots directly across the bow of local governments' assumptions and I'd bet they were based on feedback Silver got from the prospective buyers and maybe from the Vulcans as well

so if the new owners, backed by the NBA, want a new arena, they aren't going to participate financially and sign off on a Moda renovation. And the city won't start a 1B renovation project on an aging arena the new owners don't want to occupy long term

maybe I'm all wet and the Dundon group will be fine with a major renovation of the Moda. But I think the Moda's location is the biggest issue and you can't really renovate location

[zzaj]

My prediction is that they are going to opt for a long-term mostly off season Moda renovation, one that doesn't disrupt where the team can play...and that the public is going to pay more than some of us would like. My guess would be somewhere in the billion dollar range of public funds...

I'm pretty skeptical of that, but obviously I'm speculating.

Again, I don't think Silver was riffing out random comments when he said Portland likely needs a new arena and it was only the NBA's "preference" the Blazers remain in Portland. Those were shots directly across the bow of local governments' assumptions and I'd bet they were based on feedback Silver got from the prospective buyers and maybe from the Vulcans as well

so if the new owners, backed by the NBA, want a new arena, they aren't going to participate financially and sign off on a Moda renovation. And the city won't start a 1B renovation project on an aging arena the new owners don't want to occupy long term

maybe I'm all wet and the Dundon group will be fine with a major renovation of the Moda. But I think the Moda's location is the biggest issue and you can't really renovate location

Yeah, could be a new arena...although the current site makes some sense with the MC gone. More to my point, I think the "messy" that Duster mentioned between the Group's money and public money. I expect the public to pay for around a Billion toward whatever is decided. That's just based on a cursory look at other similar-ish situations, and how the money division played out.

[Wizenheimer]

My prediction is that they are going to opt for a long-term mostly off season Moda renovation, one that doesn't disrupt where the team can play...and that the public is going to pay more than some of us would like. My guess would be somewhere in the billion dollar range of public funds...

I'm pretty skeptical of that, but obviously I'm speculating.

Again, I don't think Silver was riffing out random comments when he said Portland likely needs a new arena and it was only the NBA's "preference" the Blazers remain in Portland. Those were shots directly across the bow of local governments' assumptions and I'd bet they were based on feedback Silver got from the prospective buyers and maybe from the Vulcans as well

so if the new owners, backed by the NBA, want a new arena, they aren't going to participate financially and sign off on a Moda renovation. And the city won't start a 1B renovation project on an aging arena the new owners don't want to occupy long term

maybe I'm all wet and the Dundon group will be fine with a major renovation of the Moda. But I think the Moda's location is the biggest issue and you can't really renovate location

Yeah, could be a new arena...although the current site makes some sense with the MC gone. More to my point, I think the "messy" that Duster mentioned between the Group's money and public money. I expect the public to pay for around a Billion toward whatever is decided. That's just based on a cursory look at other similar-ish situations, and how the money division played out.

usually, a city will 'pay for', or provide the land. And supply utilities, streets, access, permits, etc.. And the franchise will pay for the structure/building enabling them to get the full impact of depreciation schedules and tax breaks. Obviously there's going to be overlap in some of those costs, probably going both directions. I don't know enough about Portland to identify the best site for a new arena. But the area around the Moda just doesn't seem to offer enough for ancillary business expansion. Maybe my imagination is limited

[zzaj]

I'm pretty skeptical of that, but obviously I'm speculating.

Again, I don't think Silver was riffing out random comments when he said Portland likely needs a new arena and it was only the NBA's "preference" the Blazers remain in Portland. Those were shots directly across the bow of local governments' assumptions and I'd bet they were based on feedback Silver got from the prospective buyers and maybe from the Vulcans as well

so if the new owners, backed by the NBA, want a new arena, they aren't going to participate financially and sign off on a Moda renovation. And the city won't start a 1B renovation project on an aging arena the new owners don't want to occupy long term

maybe I'm all wet and the Dundon group will be fine with a major renovation of the Moda. But I think the Moda's location is the biggest issue and you can't really renovate location

Yeah, could be a new arena...although the current site makes some sense with the MC gone. More to my point, I think the "messy" that Duster mentioned between the Group's money and public money. I expect the public to pay for around a Billion toward whatever is decided. That's just based on a cursory look at other similar-ish situations, and how the money division played out.

usually, a city will 'pay for', or provide the land. And supply utilities, streets, access, permits, etc.. And the franchise will pay for the structure/building enabling them to get the full impact of depreciation schedules and tax breaks. Obviously there's going to be overlap in some of those costs, probably going both directions. I don't know enough about Portland to identify the best site for a new arena. But the area around the Moda just doesn't seem to offer enough for ancillary business expansion. Maybe my imagination is limited

Honestly, I'm REALLY not the person to be speculating about any of this because REALLY I know jack-squat. But I've seen others mention the demo of the MC and potential buying (from AVT) of the PPS building on the other side of Broadway, since PPS HQ is moving. That would leave about a 7x3 block area for businesses which would be way more than enough. It would also be bisected by a pretty major thoroughfare in lower Broadway, which is both good and bad. That's mostly predicated on AVT selling to Dundon's business interests and the MC getting demoed--the latter of which I wouldn't forsee as much of a problem.

Of course if you demo the MC and you are using the offseason to reno the Moda, then that's going to be quite a bit of lost revenue over the summer.

PS. Why is it even still called the Moda Center, anyway?!

[wco81]

Has the new owner mentioned talk of subsidies and other tax incentives?

Because we saw that's what happened with the Bucks recently and the Raiders and A's extracted concessions from the city/county and state of NV for their new stadia.

Typically these owners are able to leverage cities and states for big concessions.

Where you get owners to fund the arenas on their own, like Chase Center with the Warriors and the Intuit Dome with the Clippers, are the exceptions, not the rule.

New owners of the Timberwolves have talked about new stadium there too. Minneapolis is the around the middle of the NBA by market size, around #16th. Portland is #23rd by market size.

Wolves have one of the oldest arenas in the league so they're due, though it was renovated in 2017 and has a pretty high capacity, over 19,300.

City and State committed to over 1/2 of the funding of the Vikings' US Bank Stadium:

On March 1, 2012, Governor Dayton announced an agreement for a new stadium to be built on the site of the Metrodome, pending approval by the state legislature and the Minneapolis city council.[59] The $975 million project, half of which would be publicly funded, would be patterned after Lucas Oil Stadium. It would utilize part of the footprint of the Metrodome and would only require the Vikings to play at TCF Bank Stadium during the final year of construction.[60] The agreement met with mixed reaction, and some criticized the proposal as being unfair to taxpayers and a giveaway to team owners.[61]

On May 10, 2012, the Minnesota Legislature approved funding for a new Vikings stadium on that site. The project is projected to have a $975 million price tag, with the Vikings covering $477 million, the state covering $348 million, and $150 million covered by a hospitality tax in Minneapolis. The city of Minneapolis must pay a total of $678 million over the 30-year life of the deal, including interest, operations, and construction costs.[62] The bill was signed by Governor Dayton[63] and received the approval of the Minneapolis City Council on May 25, 2012.[64][65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Bank_Stadium

[DusterBuster]

Has the new owner mentioned talk of subsidies and other tax incentives?

Because we saw that's what happened with the Bucks recently and the Raiders and A's extracted concessions from the city/county and state of NV for their new stadia.

Typically these owners are able to leverage cities and states for big concessions.

Where you get owners to fund the arenas on their own, like Chase Center with the Warriors and the Intuit Dome with the Clippers, are the exceptions, not the rule.

New owners of the Timberwolves have talked about new stadium there too. Minneapolis is the around the middle of the NBA by market size, around #16th. Portland is #23rd by market size.

Wolves have one of the oldest arenas in the league so they're due, though it was renovated in 2017 and has a pretty high capacity, over 19,300.

City and State committed to over 1/2 of the funding of the Vikings' US Bank Stadium:

On March 1, 2012, Governor Dayton announced an agreement for a new stadium to be built on the site of the Metrodome, pending approval by the state legislature and the Minneapolis city council.[59] The $975 million project, half of which would be publicly funded, would be patterned after Lucas Oil Stadium. It would utilize part of the footprint of the Metrodome and would only require the Vikings to play at TCF Bank Stadium during the final year of construction.[60] The agreement met with mixed reaction, and some criticized the proposal as being unfair to taxpayers and a giveaway to team owners.[61]

On May 10, 2012, the Minnesota Legislature approved funding for a new Vikings stadium on that site. The project is projected to have a $975 million price tag, with the Vikings covering $477 million, the state covering $348 million, and $150 million covered by a hospitality tax in Minneapolis. The city of Minneapolis must pay a total of $678 million over the 30-year life of the deal, including interest, operations, and construction costs.[62] The bill was signed by Governor Dayton[63] and received the approval of the Minneapolis City Council on May 25, 2012.[64][65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Bank_Stadium

There hasn't been a single word said about any of that. This new ownership stuff is all really still in its infancy stages. I wouldn't expect to hear anything about this until March 2026 at the earliest... even then, I suspect they won't start getting into the nitty gritty about it until the Summer of 26.

[mojomarc]

usually, a city will 'pay for', or provide the land. And supply utilities, streets, access, permits, etc.. And the franchise will pay for the structure/building enabling them to get the full impact of depreciation schedules and tax breaks. Obviously there's going to be overlap in some of those costs, probably going both directions. I don't know enough about Portland to identify the best site for a new arena. But the area around the Moda just doesn't seem to offer enough for ancillary business expansion. Maybe my imagination is limited

How much of that changes if you can get rid of the grain elevators? I know that the property was for sale last year, but no idea if it still is available, or if there would be an eminent domain opportunity.

And how cool would it be if the area around the Moda Center included all of the area over the top of where I-5 is because they did a Seattle and moved the viaduct for the freeway to a tunnel and turned the area over the top into an expanded entertainment district? The city has a great model for moving waterfront freeways to some other approach both with Waterfront Park and up north, so it's more a matter of political will.

I guess my question is: which is better politically and for the future of the city: build a new arena somewhere, or invest money that would go into building the new arena to renovation of the existing one and investment in finally buying out the grain elevator and burying I-5 through the inner East Side? And if you do the latter, does that satisfy the concerns? I would suspect that the Key Arena transformation to Climate Pledge would more than be satisfactory, and I don't think the bones of Moda Center are anywyhere near as bad as they were in Key Arena where that drastic a transformation would be required if they could take care of the surrounding area.