{"id":66187,"date":"2025-08-13T22:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T22:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66187\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T22:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T22:59:08","slug":"dallas-hockey-billionaire-proclaims-deal-to-buy-trail-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66187\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Hockey Billionaire Proclaims Deal to Buy Trail Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 summer of making national headlines has been wrapped up with a bow, with reports emerging Wednesday morning that the estate of Paul Allen has agreed to sell the team for more than $4 billion to a group led by Dallas billionaire Tom Dundon, who also owns the NHL\u2019s Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

A source close to the matter confirmed to WW this morning they\u2019d received word of the sale, after the news was first reported by the business journal Sportico, which lists the sale price as $4.25 billion.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Neither the Allen estate nor the Blazers organization have confirmed a sale.<\/p>\n

The team, being sold for the first time in 37 years, has never had ownership from outside of the Pacific Northwest. With Phil Knight announcing that he wouldn\u2019t buy the team the day after it went up for sale\u2014and Oregon otherwise short on billionaires\u2014it was a fait accompli that a buyer would hail from outside the state.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s noteworthy that the reported ownership group features an Oregonian. Sheel Tyle, a rising star in the private equity world<\/a> who had a TedTalk as a teenager, lives in Portland; his wife, Sejal Hathi, is the director of the Oregon Health Authority.<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a promising sign for the city\u2019s prospects of keeping the team longterm. The fear as soon as Allen\u2019s estate put the team on the block in May was that an outsider would buy the team and move them to another city, \u00e1 la Seattle and the SuperSonics in 2008. <\/p>\n

National outlets first reporting the story this morning led with Dundon\u2019s intentions to keep the team in Portland. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, the most highly-placed Blazers booster, expressed optimism on that front. \u201cVery encouraging news,\u201d he posted on X, \u201cthat the Trail Blazers appear set to stay right where they always have belonged\u2014and will belong: right here in Rip City.\u201d <\/p>\n

The practical future of the team, however, still hinges on a negotiation over who will pay for a renovation or replacement of Moda Center, which NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has indicated is a condition for keeping the team in Portland. That\u2019s a delicate negotiation, given that last year the city bought the arena for $1 (and the Rose Quarter land below for $7 million), removing most practical barriers to Dundon\u2019s ownership group moving the team to another site\u2014in the Portland region or elsewhere.<\/p>\n

That concern led to the formation of an advocacy group called Rip City Forever, spearheaded by former Trail Blazer turned politician Chris Dudley and sports executive Marshall Glickman, the son of the team\u2019s founder. They launched a pressure campaign last month<\/a> to urge public officials to be proactive in keeping the team in Portland. Practically speaking, that means coming up with public arena financing in the $500 million range, a difficult sell to voters. <\/p>\n

\u201cPublic expressions intending to keep the Blazers in Portland are just the first step,\u201d Rip City Forever said in a statement. \u201cOnce a sale agreement is finalized, we\u2019re ready to help put words into action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Tina Kotek and Mayor Keith Wilson pledged in July to work on a private-public partnership to upgrade or replace the arena. Now we know who they\u2019ll be negotiating with.<\/p>\n

Dundon has owned the NHL\u2019s Carolina Hurricanes since 2018. In addition to not abandoning Raleigh\u2014a market similar in size to Portland\u2014his ownership has seen the team become a consistent winner after missing the playoffs for nine straight seasons. (The Trail Blazers haven\u2019t made the playoffs since 2021, though they appear poised to be competitive next season.)<\/p>\n

Dundon, by the standards of the hyper-wealthy, is a small-time player. His wealth was recently estimated at $1.1 billion. (Like Tyle and the group\u2019s third member, Marc Zahr, Dundon\u2019s background is in private equity.)<\/p>\n

But by NBA bylaws Dundon will have sole authority at the negotiating table with government officials as the team\u2019s majority owner.<\/p>\n

Now, the conversation will turn to the team\u2019s arena. But that is a worry for another day. Today, all is well in Rip City. Damian Lillard has come home, the Yang Hansen adventure has only just begun, and the team appears ascendant. <\/p>\n

Portland, generally speaking, now finds itself optimistic about the future of the Blazers, on and off the court. It\u2019s been a while. <\/p>\n

\"\"Panic Meter, Aug. 13. (Sophia Mick) <\/p>\n

Willamette Week\u2019s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. <\/p>\n

Help us dig deeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 summer of making national headlines has been wrapped up with a bow, with reports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-66187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}