{"id":535058,"date":"2026-04-01T17:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/535058\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T17:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:07:17","slug":"tom-dundon-begins-tenure-as-portland-trail-blazers-owner-pledges-focus-on-improvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/535058\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Dundon begins tenure as Portland Trail Blazers owner, pledges focus on improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday marked Tom Dundon\u2019s first day as owner and Governor of the Trail Blazers<\/a>. Dundon sat down with THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Jason Quick ahead of the Trail Blazers\u2019 game against the Clippers to share his vision. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.<\/p>\n

Q: I think there is a general unease among employees, worrying you are going to come in and make sweeping changes.<\/p>\n

Dundon: \u201cEverybody who\u2019s not thinking like that every day — like, regardless if there\u2019s new ownership, if you don\u2019t wake up fighting for your job, fighting for your spot, then that mindset is probably not very good anyway. So if it takes this for people to think like that, then that\u2019s fine. But I want people thinking about the future and not worrying about what I\u2019m gonna do. They need to worry about what they\u2019re gonna do. But I don\u2019t like getting rid of people. I like to see who\u2019s capable of taking that next step. So, I\u2019m not looking to get rid of people. I\u2019m looking to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Some people are fearful you will move the team out of Portland<\/a>. Can you offer any assurances that you won\u2019t?<\/p>\n

Dundon: \u201cWe haven\u2019t spent any time on that. (Team president) Dewayne (Hankins) and the team have spent all their time trying to figure out how to renovate Moda Center<\/a>. Anything that people write or say, it\u2019s just made up, because nobody has spent any time on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Why won\u2019t you put any money into the arena? <\/p>\n

Dundon: \u201cWell, so the way the arena deal will work is we are going to commit to be here for a long term (20 years), and that commitment\u2019s worth way more than anything else anybody\u2019s gonna do. And so \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Twenty years is pretty standard, though. <\/p>\n

Dundon: \u201cI don\u2019t think so in terms of the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: So you think 20 years is enough currency, so to speak?<\/p>\n

Dundon: \u201cTwenty years? That\u2019s a lot\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 4\/1<\/a>).<\/p>\n

BLACK & WHITE: In Portland, Bill Oram notes the Trail Blazers \u201ccould relocate\u201d without a $600M investment in renovating the Moda Center<\/a>. Oram raised the question, \u201cIf all those public dollars come through, does that take relocation off the table?\u201d Dundon said, \u201cOf course.\u201d It was the \u201clong-awaited pledge from the new steward of Portland\u2019s most precious civic asset\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 4\/1<\/a>).<\/p>\n

FAMILIAR TIES: In Portland, Joel Odom reported \u201ca tie to Microsoft will remain\u201d for the Trail Blazers, as one of the team\u2019s new minority owners is Jennifer Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Jennifer Gates, a doctor in her second year of pediatric residency at Mount Sinai Kravis Children\u2019s Hospital in N.Y., is a minority owner along with her husband Nayel Nassar, a professional equestrian who competed at the 2020 Tokyo Games (Portland OREGONIAN, 3\/31<\/a>).<\/p>\n

TAKING A BOW: Oram in a separate piece noted outgoing Trail Blazers Chair Jody Allen on Tuesday \u201coffered parting words to Trail Blazers employees and fans.\u201d She called it an \u201chonor to serve as the chair of the team\u201d since her brother Paul Allen\u2019s passing and called the sale to Dundon \u201cpositive for the team (and) the community\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 3\/31<\/a>).<\/p>\n

IN THE HUDDLE: In Portland, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh reported records showed that Portland city leaders have \u201cfor months relied on a code name to discretely refer to the towering public finance deal they\u2019ve deemed essential to keep the Trail Blazers from leaving town.\u201d Top city officials have \u201cheld a weekly \u2018Project Mt. Hood\u2019 meeting since at least early November,\u201d focused on a \u201ctaxpayer funded renovation of the Moda Center.\u201d City spokesperson Cody Bowman confirmed this week that the regular calendar event was \u201cabout the arena renovation\u201d but he could not \u201csay who exactly came up with the moniker\u201d (Portland OREGONIAN, 3\/31<\/a>).<\/p>\n

FANFARE: In Portland, Eve Peyser noted the Trail Blazers are currently 39-38, meaning if the regular season had ended Tuesday, they would host a play-in game against the Warriors — a first in franchise history. Many \u201cexpected the Blazers to have a losing record this season,\u201d and the fact that they are ahead of schedule has \u201cinspired newfound optimism in Portland.\u201d CRO Galen Davies said that ticket sales have been \u201csteadily increasing and the season ticket renewal rate, is the highest it\u2019s ever been: 96%.\u201d Davies said, \u201cWhen you go through a rebuilding process, as we have over the past couple of years, you know what\u2019s coming next is bigger and better than what you have today. We\u2019re starting to see a byproduct of that.\u201d Along with ticket sales, Davies said that the Trail Blazers\u2019 broadcast audience on Rip City TV \u201chas increased 200%\u201d over the past two years. He also said that the team\u2019s social media engagement \u201chas increased dramatically\u201d (PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL, 3\/31<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday marked Tom Dundon\u2019s first day as owner and Governor of the Trail Blazers. Dundon sat down with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5107],"tags":[568,194,29,5176,4790,5,195,555,4,5463],"class_list":{"0":"post-535058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-hurricanes","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","11":"tag-carolinahurricanes","12":"tag-fan-experience","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-hurricanes","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-ticketing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116330555231635040","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}