Dozens of Portland Trail Blazers employees on the business side lost their jobs Tuesday in a sweeping internal restructuring that blindsided much of Rip City. Estimates from local reporters and people familiar with the move range from roughly three dozen to as many as 70 positions, with cuts reportedly hitting senior leadership roles. Among those out is longtime in-house reporter Casey Holdahl, who publicly confirmed his departure on social media.
As reported by KATU, the cuts came from the franchise’s business operations, and the organization has not released a complete list of affected employees. That early coverage drew on reporting and sourcing from multiple local outlets, which quickly converged on the same basic picture: a major shakeup outside of basketball operations.
Willamette Week published a statement from Blazers president of business operations Dewayne Hankins, who said the organization was "deeply grateful" to the employees who were let go as the team "repositions for the future." WW reported that people familiar with the situation estimated the total number of reductions could reach as high as 70 and that roles up to the senior vice president level were affected.
The larger figures were soon circulating widely. Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report posted on X that he had been "told around 70 people were let go today," a number that other outlets have repeated. Those posts moved quickly through fan and media circles, sparking immediate questions about who was impacted and what the loss of that many business-side staffers might mean for fan services and community programs that help define the team’s public presence.
Legal Questions And WARN Notices
KATU also reported that, as of about 2 p.m. Tuesday, the state had not yet posted a WARN notice connected to the layoffs. WARN notices are the formal alerts employers typically file when they plan mass terminations. Any obligations around notice and severance will hinge on the final number of positions cut and the specifics of employment law, and advocates note that missing or late WARN filings can complicate timelines for benefits and required notice periods for workers.
Why The Timing Matters In Portland
The restructuring lands at a delicate political moment. The Blazers are in ongoing talks with the city and Multnomah County over roughly $600 million in public funding for an overhaul of the Moda Center, and local coverage has pointed out that the timing has intensified scrutiny of the new ownership’s cost-cutting decisions. For elected leaders and fans alike, deep reductions to back-office staff turn what might otherwise be viewed as a private corporate reorganization into a public optics problem.
So far, the Trail Blazers have issued only a short statement about the changes and have not provided a full list of affected employees, details about severance, or a clear public timeline for how fan-facing and community services will be handled during the transition. This remains a developing story, and local reporters are continuing to press for answers as the organization and former employees share more information.
