Tom Dundon’s Blazers Lay Off 50-Plus Employees in Latest Cost-Cutting Move That Has Portland Fans Furious
The Portland Trail Blazers made the playoffs for the first time since 2021 this past season. You would not know it from the way new owner Tom Dundon is running the place.
Portland laid off over 50 long-term employees on Tuesday, according to NBA reporter Evan Sidery. Other sources put the number as high as 70. The cuts came mostly from the business side, including the team’s in-house media operation. Some lower- and mid-level members of basketball operations were also let go, per Sean Highkin, though GM Joe Cronin and his top three assistants are still in place.
This is the same Tom Dundon who refused to cover travel expenses for the Blazers’ two-way players during the team’s playoff road games. Same Tom Dundon who killed free T-shirts for fans at home playoff games. Same Tom Dundon who is reportedly trying to hire the cheapest head coach he can find.
You can run a sports franchise like a hedge fund spreadsheet. You should not, but you can.
Dundon bought the Blazers earlier this year from the Paul Allen estate and made it clear from day one that he was looking to trim every dollar he could find. The Blazers are valued north of $3 billion. The math on cutting 50 mid-level staff salaries to add maybe $5 million back to the books in a $300 million-plus annual operation is laughable, but it is happening anyway.
The local response in Portland has been brutal. The Blazers have one of the most loyal fanbases in the league, built up over decades of small-market loyalty. Watching their new owner pinch pennies on team mascots, two-way travel, T-shirt giveaways, and entire jobs is the opposite of the energy this fanbase wanted after finally getting back to the postseason.
Sports ownership in 2026 is no longer the warm civic-pride model fans grew up on. The new wave of owners, Dundon being the prototype, are private equity guys who view the franchise as an asset class. Win when it is cheap. Cut everywhere else. Maximize the eventual sale price.
What makes this worse is the timing. The Blazers’ young core of Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Donovan Clingan, and Toumani Camara just took a step. There was momentum. There was reason to believe in the rebuild. Then the owner walked into the office, fired the people who help run the day-to-day operation, and announced he was still looking for a head coach who would take pennies.
The free agency window starts in about a month. The same agents who advise top NBA free agents will see these headlines and quietly cross Portland off the list. The same coaches who would have considered Portland as a destination job will look at the salary range Dundon is willing to pay and laugh.
This is how a franchise that should be in a multi-year ascending arc gets stuck in neutral. Not because of the basketball decisions. Because of the spreadsheet.
The NBA has had bad owners before. Donald Sterling. Robert Sarver. James Dolan at his worst stretches. Dundon is not in that tier yet, but he is collecting villainous chapters fast. Blazers fans deserve better than this, and right now they are getting Tom Dundon instead.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
