With one exception, Dundon has experienced success in pro sports

Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has reportedly reached agreement to buy the Portland Trail Blazers (Courtesy of Josh Lavallee/Carolina Hurricanes Hockey Club)

The wait may be over, earlier than most people expected.

The Paul Allen Estate has reached an agreement to sell the Trail Blazers to self-made billionaire Tom Dundon. Tentative sale price is reported to be $4.25 billion, though that may be premature.

“I don’t think the deal is close to being completed,” one source told me.

Even if the sale goes through, it won’t happen immediately. A contract must be signed, and it will require approval of the NBA Board of Governors and by a two-thirds vote of the league’s owners. According to one source, Dundon’s net worth is between $1.2 and $1.7 billion. Another source estimates it at $2 billion. Keep in mind, he won’t be paying cash for his newest acquisition.

He will be joined by an ownership group that will apparently include a Portland resident — Sheel Tyle, 33, founder and co-CEO of Collective Global, a global investment firm that was formed in 2023. A Harvard Law School grad, Tyle got his B.A. from Stanford after three years at age 19. He settled in the Portland area after his wife, Dr. Sejal Hathi, became the director of the Oregon Health Authority in 2024.

Dundon, who will turn 54 on Sept. 5, was raised in Dallas and, near as I can tell, resides in the Dallas area. He graduated from Southern Methodist in 1993 and got his start in business with a company called Drive Financial Services, focused on subprime auto financing. In 2015, he founded Dundon Capital Partners, with investments in healthcare, auto finance and real estate development.

Dundon likes sports. He is owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and the Pro Pickleball Association and is a major shareholder in Topgolf. Dundon also co-founded Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, which opened in 2016 and has twice played host to the PGA’s AT&T Byron Nelson tournament. Swank Trinity Forest has initiation fees reported to be between $165,000 and $200,000.

The prospective new Blazers’ owner does have one blotch on his sporting resume. In 2019, Dundon was involved with the ill-fated Alliance of American Football, which folded before the end of the first season. More on that in a minute.

Sources tell ESPN that Dundon intends to keep the Blazers in Portland. When he bought the Hurricanes in 2018, he said he had no intention of moving the team out of Raleigh, N.C. He has kept his word. Dundon originally purchased a 61-percent share of the Carolina franchise, and in 2021 bought all minority shares, making him the club’s sole owner.

Prior to Dundon’s purchase, the Hurricanes had failed to make the NHL playoffs nine straight years. Since he took over they have made the postseason all seven seasons, reaching the Eastern Conference finals three times, including this past season. Carolina’s leading goal-scorer in 2024-25 was center Seth Jarvis, a former Portland Winterhawk.

“I had heard rumors that (Dundon) was interested (in purchasing the Blazers),” says Mike Johnston, the Winterhawks’ president/general manager and former coach of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. “I don’t know him, but the hockey world is pretty small. Seth has had a lot of positive things to say about him.

“(Dundon) has had really good teams in Carolina. They are always competitive, a good, solid franchise. He is a very involved owner, I know that. He has done a great job at the NHL level and has been a pretty successful businessman over the years.”

NEW: The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.

One venture that didn’t work out was the Alliance of American Football, a fledgling pro spring league with eight teams that was intended to be a developmental league for the NFL. In early February 2019, after teams had already played two of 10 scheduled regular-season games, it was announced that Dundon had agreed to invest $250 million in the league. He became controlling owner and chairman of the board. His reign lasted all of 46 days.

In an interview with Sports Business Journal in late February, Dundon clarified that the $250 million was intended to be “incrementally” invested, the figure a “theoretical maximum” if the league were to “aggressively expand.” He said he reserved the right to pull out of the league at any time.

“That would be crazy, to spend $250 million (in one season),” he said. “It wouldn’t pass the smell test. Why would any rational or sane person do that?” The $250 million figure, he said, is the “top end of what it would take to keep this league viable for a long time.”

A month later, it was reported that the NFL Players Association had balked at allowing young NFL players to swing down and play in the AAF. The NFLPA said it would violate terms of the collective bargaining agreement, risk injury to the players and force them into AAF action as a condition for consideration for NFL roster spots the following season.

“If the players union is not going to give us young players, we can’t be a development league,” Dundon was quoted as saying. “We are now looking at our options, one of which is discontinuing the league.”

A week later, on April 3, eight games into the season and with two regular-season games and the playoffs still scheduled, Dundon pulled the plug. In less than a full season, the AAF lost a net $88 million — $12 million in revenue against its $100 million in expenses.

Mike Riley was head coach of the San Antonio Commanders that season.

“I remember hearing (Dundon’s) name when he entered into the partnership with the AAF,” says Riley, a Corvallis resident and head coach for many teams through his career, including Oregon State and the San Diego Chargers. “Not long after that, we were done playing.”

The Commanders, 5-3 and tied for first place in the West Division, were in practice on a Tuesday, preparing for their penultimate game of the regular season against Memphis. The Express had just signed quarterback Johnny Manziel, the former Texas A&M star and the first freshman ever to win the Heisman Trophy.

“We were anticipating a crowd of 45,000,” Riley says. “It was going to be a big weekend.”

Daryl “Moose” Johnston, then general manager of the Commanders, came onto the practice field during practice and asked Riley to call the players together for a meeting.

“He informed us that the league was shutting down — it was over,” Riley says. “It was the strangest day. I went down to the locker room and the players were packing their stuff out the door and saying goodbyes. It was like a ghost town within a couple of hours.”

News sources reported that AAF players were evicted from the hotels in which their teams were being housed. Some were charged for unpaid bills, and they were required to pay their own way home. They also lost their health insurance and were forced to cover their own medical bills from injuries sustained during play.

“I heard stories about that around the league,” Riley says, “but I am not aware of anything like that happening with our guys in San Antonio.”

After the AAF folded, league co-founder Bill Polian issued a statement to the media.

"When Mr. Dundon took over, it was the belief of my co-founder, Charlie Ebersol, and myself that we would finish the season, pay our creditors and make the necessary adjustments to move forward in a manner that made economic sense for all," Polian wrote. “The momentum generated by our players, coaches and football staff had us well-positioned for future success. Regrettably, we will not have that opportunity."

Reached via phone Wednesday night, Polian struck a slightly different tone. I read to him the report from news sources about the indignities suffered by players after the cord was cut.

“As far as I know, those things are correct, but I am not privy to any of the details of that,” says Polian, now 82 and retired as a former general manager of the NFL’s Bills, Panthers and Colts. “All I know is what Charlie Ebersol told me. (Dundon) did pull the plug, and we were disappointed. But I learned a long time ago that owners own. It is their prerogative to do as they wish, and he did.

“He has done a good job with the Hurricanes, and I would expect he would probably operate the same way with the Trail Blazers. He is heavily invested in analytics. That’s the way he does things, and that’s fine. I would look to the Hurricane experience as to what people can expect in Portland.”

After the AAF was disbanded, Dundon directed attorneys to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In a bankruptcy court legal filing, he said league officials misrepresented their financial status. He alleged the league initially told him it would need only $55 million to get through one season, but in reality it needed $120 million. Dundon said the remainder of the $250 million was to be used in subsequent seasons.

In 2022 the U.S. trustee representing debtors in the bankruptcy filed a $184 million lawsuit against Dundon, alleging he took the league into bankruptcy when alternatives to ending the business existed. Dundon countersued Ebersol for the $70 million he had invested. In March 2025, Dundon’s suit against Ebersol was dismissed and the trustee’s suit against Dundon scheduled for April. Per San Antonio attorney Randolph N. Osherow, the judge has not issued a ruling yet. Since the judge’s ruling will likely be appealed, the judge is probably taking his time making his ruling.

Dundon’s attention has long moved on to other pursuits. The latest one is the prospective purchase of the Trail Blazers. If it happens, there is nothing the NBA can do to stop him from moving the franchise elsewhere. Senator Ron Wyden told The Oregonian that he had a conversation with Dundon on Tuesday, and indications were that the team will stay in Portland. For now, we will just have to take the gentleman at his word.

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