Tom Dundon, the owner of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, has agreed to buy the Portland Trail Blazers from the estate of Paul G. Allen for a valuation of just more than $4 billion, sources confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.
Dundon intends to keep the team in Portland, sources told ESPN. Other members of Dundon's group include Marc Zahr (copresident of Blue Owl Capital) and Sheel Tyle (Portland-based founder and co-CEO of Collective Global).
Sportico was first to report the agreement.
The Trail Blazers announced they were formally up for sale in May, with proceeds of the sale going to philanthropic endeavors.
Allen died from cancer in 2018, and his will called for the franchise to be sold "at some point." Allen's sister, Jody Allen, has been acting as the team's governor and the executor of the Paul Allen Trust during that time.
The trust has said the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, which the estate also owns, would not be part of the sale. Neither is the 25% stake in the MLS' Seattle Sounders.
The trust made the decision to sell the Blazers in the wake of several key developments over the past year. The NBA agreed to new 11-year media rights deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon for a combined $77 billion. In 2024 the Blazers sold their home arena, the Moda Center, to the City of Portland for $1 and the land under the arena for $7 million. It then launched a public-private partnership to renovate the arena and the surrounding area that included a new lease through 2030.
Dundon's group plans to discuss a public-private partnership for an arena deal with the city and state, sources told ESPN.
ESPN's Shams Charania and Brian Windhorst contributed to this report.
