Portland has a new billionaire in the building — and he brought a $600 million ask with him. Tom Dundon closed his purchase of the Trail Blazers just weeks ago, and the early headlines haven’t been about basketball. They’ve been about cost-cutting, lobbying campaigns, and a demand to commit north of a billion dollars in public money to renovate an arena the public already owns.
Two guys with a website and zero budget noticed — and built a case that’s now showing up on KGW and landing in city council chambers.
Jonathan Pulvers is a lifelong Portlander, hardcore Blazers fan, and co-creator of RipCityNotRipOff.com. We sat down the day of Game 3 — Jonathan was taking his six-year-old to the nosebleeds — to dig into whether Portland is on the verge of the worst arena deal in NBA history.
What we get into:
The relocation threat is a bluff. The NBA just expanded to Las Vegas and Seattle. There’s nowhere to go — and the math doesn’t work anyway. Dundon would face a $400M relocation fee, hundreds of millions in litigation, and would walk away from whatever subsidy he’s already been promised.
The real price tag is $1 billion. State bonds + City of Portland’s $400M + Multnomah County’s $88M. Dundon’s contribution: zero. No rent, no naming rights, no private capital.
Nobody knows where $600M came from. The Blazers’ own consultants produced the number. No independent review. Comparable renovations have run $150–200M.
The love bomb era that wasn’t. Two weeks in: no playoff t-shirts, the team masseuse had no hotel room, two-way players were left home, and staff waited in lobbies because checkout had to happen by 12:30 PM. What happened to dinner and a drink first?
Co-owner Mark Saar runs Blue Owl Capital, which recently sold a warehouse in Pennsylvania to ICE. Reported in the New York Times. Portlanders can weigh that.
What a real deal should look like: $150M+ private capital contribution, 30-year lease, meaningful relocation penalties, PILOT payments, naming rights revenue share, free TriMet to the games, street pricing, community benefits, and labor standards. All of it exists in other NBA deals. Portland is the only city being asked to give everything and get nothing back.
We close with a live round of Would Dundon Cut It? — the game show built for this episode.
Find Jonathan: ripcitynotripoff.com · @RipCityNotRipOff on Bluesky · Reddit
Pro-deal? The invitation is open — come make the case.
Enjoying the show? Subscribe on Substack and consider chipping in a few bucks a month to keep the mics on and the conversation independent.
A personal note from Mike:
This episode was taped just hours before our heartbreaking Game 3 loss — and I have to give Jonathan credit for nearly nailing the exact final score.
I’m posting this having just come home from Game 4, which was its own kind of heartbreak. Things looked so good in the first half. And then the better team showed up in the second half and reminded us where we are in this rebuild. That’s okay. It stings the way playoff losses are supposed to sting — but underneath it, there’s something genuinely impressive about what this team just did. They overperformed. They fought. And the future, assuming it doesn’t get squandered, is looking bright for this young squad.
Also — Wemby is just unreal. I don’t know what else to say about that.
Photo credit: me. I was there. I hope you enjoy some of the shots.
