Is Tom Dundon A Good Fit For The Portland Trail Blazers? | Dirt & Sprague

Is Tom Dundon A Good Fit For The Portland Trail Blazers? | Dirt & Sprague

The big breaking news of the day is that the Blazers have found their new owner, Tom Dundan. Who the hell is Tom Dundan? Let me tell you. Uh he is the current owner of the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL. I was reading through a listener sent in a suggestion. It’s a great piece on Dundan on the Sports Business Journal. What’s wrong? Oh, something I said. Okay. No, it’s it’s I was like, did I say something stupid there? Did I mess something up? All right, that’s my bad. The mic should off Shut up over there. uh in this sport business journal piece it talked about so he bought the Hurricanes in 2018 and I remember this being a thing I just didn’t pay that close attention to it because I didn’t know that I needed to know about the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes but at the time they were in a very similar spot to where the Blazers are right now of an older arena. What are we going to do? Are they going to leave town? Passionate fan base. Very very similar vibe when he took over. Um, and after all of that, he secured their future there primarily because of the fan base and the city and the relationship that they had. Uh, extended their lease until 2044 in Raleigh. And he’s also, uh, redeveloping all the land around PNC Arena to turn it into a transformative mixeduse development. And by most estimates, the value of the Hurricanes has more than doubled since he bought the team in 2018. So, he has invested a ton of money. He’s building up the area. And I’m like, “Ah, that sounds kind of familiar.” So, how would you what did he describe the area around the arena as? Uh, he he he didn’t No, but what is he trying to build up? Transformative mixeduse development. What are we hoping they do around the MOA? Transformative mixeduse development. Look, the other guy attached it. It needs to not over be overlooked cuz Dundan is the bigger name today. He did the he had the quote to Sportico. It’s being reported by Sham Shirania. the there’s a Portland based guy here and uh I saw this from Gundy. That guy’s wife is running the Oregon Health like authority or whatever. So like strong roots here locally. Very strong roots. This guy has no history of wanting to move teams. He’s Dallas based. He jumps on a private bird and flies anywhere he goes. You had a fun anecdote that he is such a sicko and wants to win so badly he won’t attend hurricane games at home because he’s afraid of watching them lose. Yeah, there was a staffer who entered the box one night and a visiting reporter told was told by the team staffer uh don’t talk to him while the game is on because he’s that intensive a guy insanely into it and he loves owning the Hurricanes but he doesn’t like going to games because he said quote the chance you might lose and it just essentially it tears him up seeing it in person. Um I am Tom Dunan if I’m ever an owner. I don’t like going to games because I don’t want to watch him lose. Yes. I got this one from Travis Hancock. He is a radio host on the morning show in Charlotte WFNZ. Uh, we’ve had him on before. I asked him, “Hey, super random. Just what are your thoughts on Dundan as a Hurricanes owner?” He says, “No problem. They’ve made the playoffs every year. He’s been the owner. Canes have been one of the more consistent and well-run teams in sports in general under his watch. He’s kept the same coach the whole way through. He’s a very patient person. The negative on the resume, because today you’re going to hear a lot of positives. There’s going to be audio and hey, look what he did with the Hurricanes and this and that.” And that’s great. He says, “The only negative I can give you on the resume of Tom Dundan, he was the one who put the Alliance of American Football into bankruptcy. So his venture there to something different was a failure. He got sued for $184 million.” Oh, okay. That’s that’s the only negative that he gave me. Other than that, fans, players, coaches, team employees rant and rave about this guy. Yeah. About how good of a sports owner he’s been. He tried something different. It didn’t work. I mean, there obviously seems to be deep pockets around him. I I think the biggest thing that I wanted in an owner was somebody who I never questioned their passion and overall direction of what they wanted to accomplish. Like we talked about in the first hour of the show, Jerry Jones. Jerry Jones has almost become a caricature of himself. Yes. It doesn’t m doesn’t matter. He’s a business. He loves the attention. He loves being a soap opera. The on the- field success stuff is an afterthought for him at this point because he cares about Netflix documentaries and acting and shows and doing interviews and being a headline. Like that’s what he cares about. I never knew that that was the the northstar end all beall for Jod Allen primarily because we didn’t know how long she was going to own the team for. We knew eventually she was going to have to sell it. Just was this weird gray area. We’re in this purgatory of not knowing what the long-term vision was going to be. And so that was the biggest thing that I wanted. You want somebody with deep pockets. You’re going to have deep pockets if you can buy an NBA team and there’s a lot of money around him in this case. The the little anecdotes about how competitive he is and how much he wants to win are the biggest selling points for me of that’s all I needed to see. And then it’s hilarious the, you know, synergy between what the Hurricanes went through and having to redevelop the area around their stadium and extend their lease and recommmit to the city and all of that. And the fact that he just went through this in another sport with another city and now he’s going to have to face the same exact battle here, which is a dream we’ve had for how many years to have a district area around the Mo Center where you’re not just going to one restaurant or one bar that they’re jacking up the prices for $13 cocktails. And there’s actually something to be able to do when you go to an event down there. So, is that currently the uh the area around the hurricanes? Is that underway or is he still pushing for it? It says in this article um let me refine where that was. Yeah. U this is what it says. And after long Yeah. And after long being the subject of relocation rumors, the team has a more secure future in Raleigh than ever. Last August, this was written last summer, by the way, so this would have been 2023. Okay. Dundan reached a deal to extend the team’s lease through 2044 and redevelop the land around PNC. So, I don’t know how far along they are, but they reached an agreement two years ago to redevelop the land around it into a transformative mixeduse development. And it’s not wrong to say that since he bought the team in 2018, he’s not the one that moved them from Hartford down to Raleigh. He bought it from the guy that moved the team down to Raleigh. Um, they have doubled in value. Now, part of that is the NHL just growing in popularity. I think that kind of happens in all sports really. They go up. It’s like buying a house for the most part. The value is just going to keep going up and up and up if you’re in the right neighborhood. Um, but I think also part of it is the success of the team, which he’s had a direct hand in because of his passion and his desire to win and all of that. And then if you did fix up the area around the arena, that does make the value of your franchise more attractive. So, this is great. This is a great day. This is the day, man. I I I I’ll just say this, like I have no idea if he’s going to deliver a title. I I don’t want to get into that. That’s it’s kind of ridiculous those kind of opinions. You have no idea. Sometimes it’s luck. Whatever. I would say in the hour we’ve known about this minus the statter story segment, all we’ve learned is that this dude’s hyper competitive, gives a lot of dams. Yeah. Is financially backed by multiple people. He’s rich himself, but he has other deep pockets with him, a lot of roots that are Oregon-based. Has no history of removing teams from cities and relocating. And like that’s all I want. And also if you build up that area and I’m sure again I said this when it we talking about the Seattle move. I’m sure the seat the city and him are going to have real conversations about hey man like there’s benefits to you as a city. What are you chipping in? Yeah. How do you help us get this done? You know some people in our city are going to be like no never. And I’m going to be like would like to have that. You know if he’s covering this what happens if you cover that? I’ll scratch your back. You scratch my back. I’m sure that’s going to happen. And so I I I just think this is great. It’s not somebody coming in with a poor track record. It’s not somebody coming in with question marks. It’s somebody that seems overly excited, has connections here, is already making it clear there’s no intention of moving. I I That’s all I want. That’s all I want is somebody to chime in with a I give a damn and I want to show you that I give a damn. And that’s what it seems to be right now. Couple of quick thoughts here at the Fantex 9 and then we’ll kind of put a bow on this show and move on and send you off your way on to the firm of Harrison Merang. Somebody said uh he’s a Trump supporter with no ties to the Pacific Northwest. This will go over well. First counter to that is one we don’t really care about that the way people think we do. How many owners do you think are like what percentage of sports owners are Trump supporters? Who’s the most billionaires? Who’s the most woke owner in sports though? I mean it probably was Mark Cuban at the time. Uh but he’s not an owner anymore. not own and I don’t I wouldn’t classify Mark Cuban as woke. So I just the whole like no matter who is going to buy the damn team, they’re going to be a Republican. So if that’s a break deal breaker for you, I don’t know what to tell you. Do Duck fans lose sleep over who Phil Knight donates? No, he wins a lot of games and he donates a lot of cool stuff, so it doesn’t matter to me. Also, no ties to the Pacific Northwest. You do we got a lot of billionaires laying around here that I’m not aware of. Well, outside of the one that tried to buy the team a couple years ago and then with Rebuff, like I just said it, so I don’t know if that text came in after or before. There’s other people in this group. It’s not just a solo one of them connected here locally and one of them is very connected here locally. So there’s there’s going to be more information that comes out about that. I just the politics stuff, man. Like I I get it. It’s a very contentious time. I’m trying to separate these two. If you don’t think that professional sports owners are Republicans, I don’t know what to tell you, buddy. They’re billionaires. You know who largely gives them tax breaks? That party. You know what party wants to tax them more? The other party. You know who they vote for? Who they give their money to? That part. Like that’s the way the world works. He also has no connection to Charlotte. He’s defending it. That’s just the way it works. He lives in Dallas. So like he lives in Dallas, no ties to Raleigh, and he’s extended the the lease and the uh agreement there in Raleigh. So I just People keep texting him about maybe we can get the Hurricanes out of this. You’re not getting the Carolina Hurricanes out of this. I love the idea. The Carolina Hurricanes are not moving to Portland, Oregon. Uh as much as I would love to see it. Now, will he allow them to play in the MOA center again? Jody Allen didn’t want to pay for ice at the MOA center and the Winter Hawks owner said, “I’ll pay for the ice.” And Jody Allen said, “I’m not even going to return your phone call.” So maybe that happens down the road. Uh but the they’re also improving the VMC this offseason, so I don’t know what the future plan is. I’ll retweet this with our show page at Deran Break. One of our listeners sent us the actual article from the News Observer over there, which is the paper of note. The area they’re building up down there. Badass. Badass. You can go find it at Duransprag. I’m retweeting the article right now. Okay.

Tom Dondon is set to take over the Portland Trial Blazers, but is he the right fit for the team?

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