Tom Dundon Of The Carolina Hurricanes Has Dropped A Cool $4 Billion Dollars To Become The New Owner Of The Portland Trail Blazers

Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.

Tom Dundon, the owner of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, has agreed to buy the Portland Trail Blazers from the estate of Paul G. Allen for a valuation of just more than $4 billion, sources confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.

Dundon intends to keep the team in Portland, sources confirmed to ESPN. Other members of Dundon's group includes Marc Zahr (co-president of Blue Owl Capital) and Sheel Tyle (Portland-based founder and co-CEO of Collective Global).

Sportico was first to report the agreement.

The Trail Blazers announced they were formally up for sale in May, with proceeds of the sale going to philanthropic endeavors.

Coming off the heels of the Celtics being sold for $6.1B and the Lakers being sold for $10B, I can understand thinking the Blazers now being sold for $4B is a bit of a step back, but I wouldn't look at it that way. The Celtics and Lakers are the crown jewel franchises of the NBA. That's how the Celts got that price despite not even owning their own arena. When you look back to someone like the Suns who were just sold to Mat Ishbia, he paid $4B, so the Blazers' price is more in line with what I would imagine an average NBA franchise is going for these days. At the time Ishbia bought his team, that was an NBA record, and we also shouldn't pretend like $4B isn't a fuck ton of money. Of course it is.

I'm curious how Blazers fans might feel about this. On one hand, you finally have your ownership situation sorted out and for the moment, he's promising the keep the team in Portland. That's a win. I'm also not that big of a hockey guy, so I don't really know too much about this Tom Dundon fella, but after some quick research, the Canes did make the playoffs 7 straight years and won a series in 6 of them. There was an Athletic poll that listed him as the worst owner in the NHL, but that was from an agent's perspective, so take that with a grain of salt. It also seems like he's willing to spend money, which is pretty important when it comes to competing in the NBA, so that should excite you as a Blazers fan. 

On the downside, you don't exactly love an owner that might micromanage or is controlling, but from what I could gather, most Canes fans like the guy. He cares about winning and putting resources into his team, which is really all you care about as a fan as far as I'm concerned. The Blazers are still in their rebuild phase, so bringing in an owner who's going to be willing to spend/cares about winning and has a track record as an owner of building a competent and competitive team is a good thing.

It does feel like existing NBA owners are starting to cash in at the moment, so it makes you wonder who might be next. Given how high the sale prices are starting to get, does that convince someone like Jerry Reinsdorf to finally sell the Bulls? The latest valuations have the Bulls at over $5B, and I could see them easily getting the Celts' price of $6B. I'm sure Bulls fans would love that to happen, and as we know, everyone ultimately has a price. 

While it might take a few years for the Blazers to hit their potential, they are a team filled with young intriguing talent

Advertisement

(minus Simons obviously)

so I can understand why Tom Dundon would want to get into the Blazers business. Not only is investing in an NBA franchise an easy way to make a few billion, but the team could turn out to be pretty good before we know it. I'm not sure enough people realize the Blazers took legit steps forward to end the season last year. You get a couple of their young guys to pop, and suddenly that looks like $4B well spent.