{"id":696268,"date":"2026-04-03T17:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696268\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:45:16","slug":"tom-dundon-debuts-as-portland-trail-blazers-owner-vows-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696268\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Dundon debuts as Portland Trail Blazers owner, vows improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Dundon on Thursday officially debuted as the\u202fnew owner\u202fof the Trail Blazers<\/a> during a press conference at the Moda Center, and he said that he purchased the team \u201csimply because it was available,\u201d according to Eve Peyser of the PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL. Dundon said, \u201cThey called me and said, \u2018there\u2019s an NBA team in Portland for sale.\u2019 Luckily, I found a bunch of guys to help me do it. That\u2019s how it happened.\u201d Earlier this week, the NBA board of governors approved the sale<\/a>, and Dundon and his investor group assumed control of the team. At the press conference, he was joined by Sheel Tyle, the \u201conly local member of the Blazers\u2019 new ownership group,\u201d minority owner Andrew Cherng<\/a>, GM Joe Cronin and President\/Business Operations Dewayne Hankins. When asked if he had similar plans to the Hurricanes and the Lenovo Center for investing in redeveloping the area around the Moda Center<\/a>, Dundon said, \u201cI just don\u2019t know yet, but I think those things are interesting to study and look at.\u201d He added that he \u201chasn\u2019t spent any time thinking about leaving Portland<\/a> and is focused on making sure Moda Center renovations happen in a timely fashion.\u201d When asked who would pay for the Moda Center renovations, Dundon \u201cdidn\u2019t answer directly.\u201d He said, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna negotiate and do a market deal\u201d (PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL, 4\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

MIDDLE GROUND: When asked if he will be a hands-on owner or delegate responsibility, Dundon said, \u201cIt\u2019s not that cut and dry.\u201d He added, \u201cYou can be involved and delegate.\u201d Dundon: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people involved with running these businesses, making decisions. I don\u2019t expect to be the decision-maker because the process creates obvious answers. But I\u2019ll push really hard to go through a process that doesn\u2019t leave anyone out and doesn\u2019t miss any variables\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 4\/2<\/a>). <\/p>\n

ASSESSING THE FIELD: In Portland, Joe Freeman noted while Dundon admits that \u201cI\u2019m looking at everything,\u201d he said that he \u201cprefers not to make sweeping changes in Portland, noting that the Blazers are in a better place than Carolina was in 2018.\u201d He added that he has \u201calready discovered \u2018there\u2019s really good people\u2019 guiding the organization.\u201d Dundon: \u201cI don\u2019t seek out change for change sake. I seek out improvement.\u201d Dundon said that he \u201cplans to meet with every department at every level of the organization,\u201d during which he will \u201cshare his vision and expectations for the future and learn more about what they do and how they do it.\u201d Along the way, he will \u201clook for inefficiencies and ways to enhance the fan experience.\u201d That includes the \u201cquality of food and the lines at bathrooms\u201d as well as the \u201cgame operations and the TV broadcast.\u201d It also includes \u201cparking and how fans enter and exit the arena\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 4\/2<\/a>). In Portland, Bill Oram wrote what \u201ccannot be denied\u201d now that the Blazers\u2019 new leadership is officially on the ground is that the franchise \u201cfinally has direction and momentum toward something.\u201d This week the Trail Blazers \u201ccrossed the Rubicon finally into something new.\u201d After years spent \u201cflirting with complacency and decay,\u201d the change brought by Dundon, \u201ceven the small change, feels energizing\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 4\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Dundon on Thursday officially debuted as the\u202fnew owner\u202fof the Trail Blazers during a press conference at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-696268","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-nba","11":"tag-portland","12":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","13":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","14":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116342025379972939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696268","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=696268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}