Blazers get a new owner

The owner of the Carolina Hurricanes has apparently found his way to pro basketball through Portland.

Tom Dundon, 53, is reported to have made an agreement to purchase the Trail Blazers for upwards of $4 billion, and has made public statements to the effect that the team would not be moving to another market.

In essence, Dundon is buying the Blazers with the purpose of keeping the team in Portland, and not moving to either Seattle, Wash., or Las Vegas - the top expansion cities for the league.

The purchase must still go through the league, but if that happens the Blazers would have a new owner - only the third majority owner since the founding of the team in 1970.

Dundon, who lives in Dallas, heads an ownership group that includes Marc Zahr, co-president of Blue Owl Capital Inc., and Portland-based CEO Sheel Tyle.

Sources close to his team of investors have confirmed to ESPN that they intend to keep the Blazers in Portland.  

The Blazers’ pricetag reflects the current going rate for an NBA team, marking the third multi-billion-dollar sale of an organization this year.  

This sale also comes right on the back of the NBA’s new 2025-26 media rights agreements — an 11-year, $76 billion package with ESPN, NBC and Amazon — that will significantly boost franchise valuations across the league.

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