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The Portland Trail Blazers’ long-awaited sale finally went through via a $4.25 billion deal to private equity investor and Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon. However, since becoming the steward of the franchise, Dundon’s willingness to spend big appears to have dissipated.
After taking control of the franchise just before the start of the NBA playoffs, Dundon immediately implemented several cost-cutting measures, including laying off over 70 front office employees, slimming down travel accommodations, the removal of commemorative T-shirts for fans at home playoff games, and a reportedly well-below-market-value deal for its new head coach, Micah Nori.
Now Dundon is making “dramatic” cuts to Portland’s broadcast team, according to a Forbes report.
After 19 seasons with the Blazers broadcast team, TV analyst Michael Holton has been let go, along with statistician Tom Haberstroh, former ESPN legend and Blazers’ TV host Neil Everett, and TV host Jamie Hudson. Play-by-play man Kevin Calabro and Radio play-by-play man Travis Demers both have contracts up for renewal and are facing uncertainty entering the first full season under the new regime.
Producer Greg Fonseca’s departure from the franchise to take a job with NBA Broadcasting, coupled with cuts to the production crew and cuts to graphics reportedly imminent, have left future broadcast quality in an uncertain and precarious situation.
In an appearance on Barstool’s Pardon My Take, NBA commissioner Adam Silver defended Dundon’s “scrappy approach” to doing business.
“People are starting to say he’s not really willing to spend the money. Remember, this is a guy who just won a bidding war, [spent], call it $4.5 billion to buy the team, and they’re calling him cheap. It just can’t be,” Silver said.
“It’s a mindset on how to run a business. It’s a scrappy approach to, I think, focusing on details, making people feel like everything matters. So, again, the idea that this guy [who] spent one of the highest prices for a professional sports team in history is being called cheap makes absolutely no sense to me. This guy’s a winner; he’s won in everything he’s ever been involved in.”
However, if Silver is wrong, and the Blazers aren’t immediately successful under Dundon’s stewardship, calls for “unrestrained fury” from fans about the franchise’s new ownership could find themselves answered rather quickly.
The post Blazers make sweeping cuts to broadcast team under Tom Dundon appeared first on Awful Announcing.
