{"id":588439,"date":"2026-02-07T14:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T14:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588439\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T14:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T14:35:20","slug":"he-likes-to-win-inside-tom-dundons-rise-from-failed-burger-joint-to-buying-the-portland-trail-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588439\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He likes to win\u2019: Inside Tom Dundon\u2019s rise from failed burger joint to buying the Portland Trail Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before he became a billionaire and the prospective owner of the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>, Tom Dundon<\/a> opened a fledgling burger joint located just outside the Southern Methodist University campus in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n

It was called Izzy\u2019s and Dundon, fresh out of college and armed with a bachelor\u2019s degree in economics from SMU, was hungry to make his mark as an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

He poured his heart into the modest business, reportedly working around the clock, day and night. And while he technically lived in his mother\u2019s nearby one-bedroom apartment, Dundon, as legend has it, often slept on the floor of the restaurant after sweating through marathon shifts.<\/p>\n

But after tepid reviews and lackluster sales, it flopped. Izzy\u2019s shuttered in less than a year, leaving Dundon roughly $80,000 in debt, according to published reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone at the fraternity called it Wasy\u2019s,\u201d Jon Altschuler, Dundon\u2019s old Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brother, said. \u201cIt was. Then it was over and it was done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty years later, the inauspicious business debut stands out as a rare misstep for a man who has amassed roughly $2 billion in net worth and grown into an influential figure in the American professional sports landscape. Few Oregonians had heard of Dundon before he and a group of investors submitted the winning bid<\/a> to buy the Blazers last August, but he is well-known in the business and sports worlds.<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old made his bones in the subprime auto lending business years ago. He built his first company, Drive Financial, into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate, even as that company\u2019s successor eventually faced allegations by state regulators, including in Oregon, of predatory lending<\/a>. Along the way, Dundon parlayed his success and wealth into multiple investment firms, assembling a vast and varied financial portfolio that includes holdings in everything from real estate to health care to technology to sports. <\/p>\n

Dundon now owns the NHL\u2019s Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, a professional pickleball league, is heavily invested in Topgolf Callaway and funded the construction of a premier Dallas golf course. Dundon also has been at the forefront of efforts to bring Major League Baseball<\/a> to Raleigh, N.C., and some have speculated that his long-term ambitions include owning an NFL team.<\/p>\n

Dundon\u2019s college fraternity brothers endearingly refer to him as a \u201cglass chewer\u201d and \u201ckiller,\u201d his political allies have respectfully labeled him a fierce negotiator and his friends acknowledge that he can be \u201cvery demanding\u201d and \u201cvery competitive.\u201d The traits have sparked plenty of detractors \u2014 and even led to lawsuits<\/a> \u2014 but they also have fueled Dundon\u2019s rise from a debt-ridden college graduate into a successful businessman.<\/p>\n

The Blazers are expected to transition from the hands of the Paul Allen<\/a> Estate to Dundon\u2019s group after the $4.25 billion sale is approved by the NBA this spring. Dundon has declined multiple interview requests from The Oregonian\/OregonLive since he agreed to buy the Blazers, saying he would reserve comment until the sale is finalized, and the Hurricanes have declined multiple requests to speak to their coach or anyone in the Carolina front office about Dundon\u2019s eight-year stewardship of the team.<\/p>\n

Insiders have long said Dundon intends to keep the Blazers in Portland. But with an expiring lease for an aging arena in desperate need of a facelift<\/a>, and business-friendly cities waiting on deck to land an NBA team, some fear the Blazers are ripe for relocation after 56 seasons in Portland. That has set up a high-stakes negotiation this month<\/a> over a potential $600 million public investment in the facility from the state, the city of Portland and Multnomah County.<\/p>\n

Dundon\u2019s negotiations were similarly challenging during his yearslong quest to secure public financing for an arena renovation and sign a long-term lease to keep the Hurricanes in Raleigh, which was finalized in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we have a deal struck, I can say that I like Tom 85% of the time,\u201d said Philip Isley, who spearheaded the North Carolina negotiations on behalf of local government. \u201cHe would respond: \u2018I think that\u2019s too high.\u2019 I say that in jest, but the negotiations were hard. We cussed at each other. We called each other bad names. I wake up from time to time and think, \u2018Gosh, I can\u2019t believe we got things done.\u2019 But I think we respected each other throughout the process.\u201d <\/p>\n

Assuming a deal is completed to keep the Blazers in Portland, those who know Dundon best predict that he will bring a new level of success to Oregon\u2019s most iconic sports franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were working at the Blazers, I\u2019d get ready to have someone who\u2019s going to be passionate, intense and curious,\u201d said Fred Perpall, president of the United States Golf Association, CEO of The Beck Group and Dundon\u2019s longtime friend. \u201cTom\u2019s wicked smart, he\u2019s very demanding and he\u2019s very competitive. But I also would say Tom is a very fair person. He\u2019s just very intense about what he does and very committed to getting good results. He likes to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewRALEIGH, NC – FEBRUARY 19: Tom Dundon, left, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, and Charlie Ebersol, of the Alliance of American Football, speak to media before an NHL game against the New York Rangers on February 19, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Karl DeBlaker\/NHLI via Getty Images)NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A ringleader and a captain <\/p>\n

Dundon\u2019s passion for sports \u2014 and winning \u2014 stretches back to his days at SMU, where he served as president of Phi Gamma Delta, a fraternity best known at the time for its unhealthy obsession with intramural sports.<\/p>\n

In the early 1990s, long before unlimited transfers and permissible payments to players were synonymous with modern college sports, the SMU athletic department was largely irrelevant, thanks to severe NCAA sanctions. As a result, intramural sports carried an oversized importance on campus, at least for those living inside the Phi Gamma Delta house.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an unusually and perhaps unhealthy bent toward athletics,\u201d Altschuler said, laughing. \u201cWe thought we had something really important going and the rest of campus was like, \u2018What the hell are these guys doing?\u2019 We were so fixated on sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dundon was at the front and center of the fixation. He organized each of the house\u2019s intramural teams, which included everything from basketball to football to tennis, stacking rosters meticulously to maximize the fraternity\u2019s chances of winning. He wasn\u2019t Phi Gamma Delta\u2019s best athlete \u2014 though Altschuler said he was an \u201cexceptional\u201d tennis player and good at hoops \u2014 but Dundon had a knack for building skilled teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom was the ringleader and our captain,\u201d Altschuler said. \u201cHe always made sure we won.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dundon made an impression on his fraternity brothers away from sports, too. <\/p>\n

During his tenure as president, Phi Gamma Delta\u2019s house was destroyed by a fire, leaving dozens of college students without a home. Dundon helped navigate the tumultuous time deftly, Altschuler said, managing insurance claims, finding new housing for the brothers and even continuing to recruit new members to the fraternity. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe did a nice job keeping the group together,\u201d Altschuler said. \u201cEven as a young man, he was a good leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also had an eye \u2014 and a thirst \u2014 for making money. <\/p>\n

When SMU broke for summer break, the Phi Gamma Delta brothers would scatter in search of different summer jobs and side hustles. Altschuler said Dundon was a master at finding gigs that produced the most money in the least amount of time. One summer, that meant waiting tables at Dave & Buster\u2019s during the dinner rush, because, between tips and overflowing business, Dundon had calculated that it put the most money in his pocket.<\/p>\n

Around this time, Jerry Jones had recently purchased the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> and was in the early stages of transforming a losing team into a Super Bowl contender. During the transition, Altschuler said, Dundon had a girlfriend who worked for the Cowboys and she used to hook him up with free tickets. Dundon would take those tickets and orchestrate a series of deals with scalpers that resulted in him scoring better tickets and extra money, teasing his future negotiating skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got better seats and we landed a couple hundred bucks,\u201d Altschuler said. \u201cIt always worked. He was even good at making money back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dundon\u2019s childhood is a relative mystery, with little disclosed in published stories about his upbringing. But Dundon moved to Texas with his mother after his parents divorced and he attended Plano Senior High School in a suburb of Dallas, where he was a standout tennis player.<\/p>\n

Friends describe Dundon as quiet and introverted, which, they say, leads many to misjudge him as cold. But he\u2019s also loyal, analytical and laser-focused on success. He boasts a single-digit golf handicap, although Perpall, the USGA president and Dundon\u2019s longtime friend, says Dundon spends most of his time these days playing pickleball, his newest sports obsession. And he famously used to play in pick-up basketball games with fellow billionaire and former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.<\/p>\n

Perpall, who met Dundon at the pick-up game, said the group of 20-something-year-old men loved sports and leaned on hoops as an outlet from their budding and demanding careers. <\/p>\n

\u201cTom\u2019s a lefty,\u201d Perpall said, chuckling. \u201cHe liked to shoot a lot and he\u2019s never committed a foul in the history of pick-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perpall described Dundon \u2014 who has five kids and has been married to his wife, Veruschka, for more than 20 years \u2014 as a \u201cfamily man.\u201d They live in a posh, multi-million dollar home in Dallas that reportedly contains a water slide, a fishing pond, a go-cart track, multiple tennis courts and a baseball diamond. But away from the lavish eight-bedroom home, Dundon rarely carries the look of a billionaire. <\/p>\n

In most social and professional situations, you\u2019ll likely find him wearing a baseball cap, hoodie and Lululemon pants.<\/p>\n

Mark Molthan, who has known Dundon since high school, declined an interview request for this story, other than to say: \u201cHe\u2019s very misunderstood. He has a heart of gold and I\u2019m a little protective of him. He\u2019s firm but fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

This approach has led to a widely successful eight-year run in the NHL, but his stewardship of the team and path to ownership has not come without controversy.<\/p>\n

A \u2018glass chewer\u2019 with \u2018big personality\u2019<\/p>\n

Dundon\u2019s path to riches began with Drive Financial, the subprime loan company he co-founded, in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Dundon maintained an ownership stake and leadership role as CEO when the company was purchased in 2006 and transformed into Santander Consumer USA. Fueled by high-interest auto loans, its value exploded in the years that followed.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Santander Consumer reached an \u201cassurance of voluntary compliance\u201d with Oregon regulators, according to a joint investigation by Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica,<\/a> and was required to pay the state $25,000 and take steps to protect consumers. Over the next two years, Dundon in financial reports disclosed a state attorneys general investigation, a U.S. Department of Justice subpoena directed at the company, and that the Securities and Exchange Commission planned to investigate its lending, Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

By 2015, the company had agreed to pay at least $9 million to settle allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice that it improperly repossessed vehicles belonging to hundreds of military service members. Dundon left later that year, walking away with more than $700 million from his separation agreement, which included cashing out his stock, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Five years later, Santander Consumer agreed to a $550 million settlement with 34 state attorneys general, including Oregon\u2019s, over its lending practices. The company, as in early cases, did not admit wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

By that time, Dundon had owned the Carolina Hurricanes for two years and was well on his way toward overhauling an organization in disarray. <\/p>\n

Carolina had missed the playoffs nine consecutive seasons before Dundon arrived. Owner Peter Karmanos Jr., who was bleeding money, regularly fielded one of the lowest payrolls in the NHL. The Hurricanes played in an aging arena with an expiring lease that housed sparse crowds. And rumors persisted that the franchise would be relocated to Quebec. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hurricanes were in pretty dire shape,\u201d Luke DeCock, a sports columnist for The News & Observer, said on the Oregonian Sports Podcast<\/a>. \u201cIt was a very toxic situation, very grim.\u201d<\/p>\n

But things seemed to change overnight when Dundon became owner, thanks largely to a series of calculated moves designed to win over fans and shake up the front office.<\/p>\n

Off the ice, Dundon blew up years of status quo. He reduced the price of beer. He lowered the price of parking for the first 100 fans who arrived at games. He embraced the franchise\u2019s long-ignored past, hosting throwback nights while resurrecting its popular old-school Whalers uniforms. He crafted creative ticket packages. And one night in 2018, during a game against the Ottawa Senators, he allowed fans to sit virtually wherever they wanted, inviting people in the nosebleed sections to fill vacant lower-level seats at no additional cost.<\/p>\n

All the while, as he tried to build goodwill with fans, Dundon overhauled nearly every aspect of the franchise. He fired the head coach and general manager within months, replacing them from within. Then Dundon promoted a low-level analytics specialist, Eric Tulsky, to vice president of hockey management and strategy, and charged him with revamping the analytics department. Tulsky is now general manager.<\/p>\n

Dundon, who is known as a hands-on owner, publicly said he didn\u2019t want \u201canyone to feel comfortable\u201d in the organization and made it clear that everyone \u2014 from high-level players to behind-the-scenes marketing employees \u2014 was under scrutiny. He made a host of public and private personnel decisions to cut costs. And he personally sat in on exit interviews with players after his first season as owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a glass chewer,\u201d Altschuler said. \u201cHe brings big energy, big personality and he\u2019s demanding. One of his great lines came in a press conference after his first season. What he told every player \u2014 and this is what he told the media \u2014 is that our job is to find players better than you and it\u2019s your job to make that hard. It\u2019s a brutal but very clearly understood line. That sums up to me how he does things.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this approach did not always sit well with everyone and some of Dundon\u2019s earliest moves caused significant public backlash.<\/p>\n

After his first season, Dundon reportedly asked a beloved longtime radio announcer to take an 80% pay cut to keep his job. When he refused, Dundon opted to simulcast audio from the team\u2019s television broadcast on the radio. Two years later, in the thick of the pandemic, Dundon made a similar cost-cutting move with respected television play-by-play voice John Forslund, whose employment also dated to the team\u2019s days in Hartford, Connecticut. <\/p>\n

Forslund refused to offer details of the contract discussions, but sources told The Oregonian\/OregonLive that Dundon asked Forslund to take an 83% pay cut. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was blindsided,\u201d said Forslund, who left the organization and now serves as the TV voice of the Seattle Kraken. \u201cIt was a very difficult situation for me and my family, one that still makes me wonder why. I didn\u2019t really have a choice to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTom is a very intelligent guy,\u201d Forslund added. \u201cHe\u2019s extremely savvy with his business, with his acquisitions and with his sales. He wants to be an unconventional guy and mix things up. But more than anything, he wants to feed the lion, which is the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversial cost-cutting moves angered fans and earned Dundon a reputation for being cheap. But amid the backlash, Dundon offered a different explanation during a radio interview in Raleigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to put all the money on the ice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dundon\u2019s negotiations were similarly contentious with Isley, the Chairman of the Centennial Authority in Raleigh, when the Hurricanes were pursuing arena renovation funding and working on a new lease.<\/p>\n

Isley called the talks \u201ccomplicated as hell\u201d and said he regularly questioned whether the sides would reach consensus. It didn\u2019t help, Isley said, when NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said to his face that Dundon\u2019s \u201cgot a lot of leverage over you.\u201d But it did help that Isley and Raleigh had an enticing carrot \u2014 more than 80 acres of undeveloped land surrounding the arena \u2014 to dangle in negotiations.<\/p>\n

In the end, Dundon and the sides reached agreement on a 20-year lease extension to keep the team in Raleigh through 2044. The framework included $300 million in city-backed financing for an arena renovation and allows Dundon to transform the surrounding vacant land into an $800 million mixed-use development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard,\u201d Isley said. \u201cBut we came up with a fair deal that\u2019s good for the community. I think we respected each other throughout the process. Tom is a very smart, very savvy businessperson. But the man never lied to me. And in my book, that\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PortlandNew Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon chats with GM Joe Cronin during an NBA game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Moda Center on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.Sean Meagher\/The Oregonian<\/p>\n

Passionate about winning<\/p>\n

While some might question Dundon\u2019s aggressive approach, no one can question his results. <\/p>\n

The Hurricanes haven\u2019t merely made the playoffs in eight consecutive years, they\u2019ve also advanced past the first round all eight times, winning 10 playoff series. Dundon has invested aggressively in players \u2014 the Hurricanes boast the sixth-highest paid roster in the NHL this season \u2014 and the front office has made multiple shrewd moves by going against the grain and leaning on its state-of-the-art analytics department. <\/p>\n

With two months left in the season, the Hurricanes sit atop the Eastern Conference standings with 57 wins and 78 points, and are one of the leading contenders to win the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

What does Dundon\u2019s ownership of the Hurricanes portend about his future ownership of the Blazers? Only time will tell, but those who have known him longest insist he will bring a familiar zeal and thirst for success.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re getting a great owner who is passionate about winning and will do everything he can to turn it into a great franchise,\u201d Altschuler said. \u201cHe\u2019s not buying the team for social status. It\u2019s not important to him that people think differently of him because he owns the team. He just wants to win and what more could you want as a fan?\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Blazers visited Dallas in November for a game against the Mavericks, Perpall plopped down in a courtside seat near the visiting bench at American Airlines Center. He brought a special guest: Dundon.<\/p>\n

The game was fast-paced and competitive, featuring 12 lead changes and 17 ties. Dallas forward Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 NBA draft, put on a show. The Mavericks rallied from a 12-point deficit to force overtime, then made all seven of their shots in the extra period, dealing the Blazers a tough 138-133 defeat.<\/p>\n

Throughout it all, as Dundon watched his soon-to-be new team from that courtside seat, he couldn\u2019t stop raving about Deni Avdija<\/a>, the Blazers\u2019 25-year-old forward who has emerged as a first-time All-Star and pillar of the rebuilding franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom was very impressed with him and there was a lot of commentary about his effectiveness as a player,\u201d Perpall said. \u201cHe kept talking about how smart he plays, how efficient he plays and how good he is for the team. You could tell he was already thinking ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Tom, at the core, is a basketball guy and he always wanted to own a basketball team. Blazers fans are going to be very happy they have an owner that\u2019s really passionate, that cares, and that\u2019s going to be really intense about the team being successful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long before he became a billionaire and the prospective owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, Tom Dundon opened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,40836,6,1106,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-588439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-list2018020919","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-portland","14":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","15":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","16":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116029851824832783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}