Tom Dundon has made himself hard to like in Oregon, and a new poll suggests the feeling is widespread.
Only 7% of Oregon respondents in a survey commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive said they have a positive impression of the Trail Blazers’ new owner, according to the poll of 600 registered voters conducted by DHM Research from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1 by telephone and text. Meanwhile, 36% said they view the Texas billionaire negatively, and 57% said they weren’t sure.
The numbers look even rougher in Portland, where just 5% of voters surveyed said they felt favorably toward Dundon. In that group, 59% said they did not have a favorable impression, while 36% said they didn’t know.
“My big takeaway is that Tom Dundon is not a popular guy,” said John Horvick, DHM Research’s senior vice president.
Dundon, who built his fortune in subprime auto lending and also owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, led the purchase of the NBA franchise in March for $4.25 billion. Since then, he has become a lightning rod in Portland, not only because of his public posture but also because of how he has run the team.
The backlash has only sharpened as Dundon presses for a $600 million overhaul of the publicly owned Moda Center, to be paid entirely by taxpayers, as part of an effort to keep the Blazers in Portland for at least the next two decades. The talks with the city have been tense, public and still unresolved.
Fans have also bristled at a string of cost-cutting moves over the past six months, along with layoffs that left the organization looking very different. During the team’s postseason run, Dundon trimmed the traveling party, kept players on two-way contracts home for road games and chose not to hand out commemorative T-shirts for home games.
Then came the larger cuts: more than 70 layoffs a month later, including several top business executives and employees with decades in the organization.
Around the league, Dundon was also known for presenting a bargain-basement offer in his search for a new head coach before ultimately hiring career assistant Micah Nori on an unprecedented one-year deal.
Still, the poll also shows that most voters are not deeply invested in the arena fight or even in whether the Blazers stay put. Across the state, 64% said it was not important to them whether political leaders succeed in keeping the team in Portland, while 32% said it was important.
Portland voters were somewhat more engaged, but not overwhelmingly so. In the city, 43% said a final deal on the arena was very or somewhat important, compared with 55% who said it was not too important or not important at all.
In Other News...
Blazers Open Season With A Real Availability Problem To Watch
The first injury report of the season already gave the Trail Blazers something to monitor before they even tip off against Phoenix. The Suns ruled out starting center Mark Williams with a shoulder injury and listed guard Luke Kennard as questionable because of a knee issue, so Portland is opening the year with the usual early-season roster uncertainty on both sides of the matchup.
For the Blazers, though, the attention is on their own availability picture, which is crowded enough to make the opener more complicated than a standard first-night test. Portland has multiple players listed as questionable or out because of injuries and illness, and the way that group shakes out will matter not just for this game but for how quickly the rotation can settle once the regular season starts. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Fans Have Every Right To Hate This Paul George What-If
The Paul George debut in Boston has only sharpened the second-guessing for teams that spent the summer searching for a wing upgrade, and Portland is very much in that conversation. The Celtics decision to swap Jaylen Brown for George and future draft capital immediately put a new spotlight on how differently the market could have unfolded, especially for a Trail Blazers roster that had reportedly shown interest in Brown while looking for help on the wing.
Georges first night in green only made the comparison harder to ignore, with a 38-point performance that hinted at a clean fit in Bostons offense. For the Blazers, the lingering question is less about what happened in Boston than what might have been available to them had they pushed harder for George, whose scoring and versatility would have addressed obvious needs. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Suddenly Have A Backcourt Decision With Real Trade Stakes
The Pistons opened the 2026-27 season with a win over Boston, but the bigger takeaway was how much of their offense still ran through Cade Cunningham. After a fourth-quarter surge carried them past the Celtics, Detroits own playmaking issues were front and center, especially with the hope that Ausar Thompson can grow into a more dependable creator as the season unfolds.
That leaves Portland in an interesting spot as the trade deadline approaches, because the Blazers suddenly have a crowded backcourt and the kind of surplus another team could try to tap into. With Damian Lillard, Ja Morant, Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson all in the mix, the front office may have a real decision to make if Detroit comes calling for secondary creation and a guard market starts to take shape. [Read more 🡒]