All articles tagged with #dundon
Portland earned a playoff spot amid turmoil, but the story has shifted to owner Tom Dundon’s reported cost-cutting moves during the postseason—ranging from restricting staff perks and skipping away-game media to pursuing the cheapest possible head coach—raising questions about the impact on team chemistry, performance, and fan perception.
Portland’s sale to Tom Dundon for about $4.25 billion arrives with a cost-cutting reputation: he reportedly aims to keep the head coach’s salary around $1.5 million a year, staff were told to check out early to dodge late fees, playoff T-shirts won’t be handed out, and two-way players will not travel with the playoff team, a contrast to typical NBA practice; Dundon’s Hurricanes tenure featured similar frugality, but while results have been strong, observers question whether these penny-pinching moves will truly help the Blazers win.
ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting report that incoming Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon was a key driver in Santander Consumer USA’s 2013 push to waive income-verification (POI) for car loans, a move regulators later described as predatory and harmful in a 2020 multistate settlement. New records connect Dundon to these tactics even after leaving Santander in 2015, while Oregon lawmakers consider about $870 million in public funding to renovate the Moda Center, prompting questions about taxpayer exposure given his regulatory history; Dundon did not comment ahead of the deal closing.