Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is threatening to close the company’s Manhattan office because of Zohran Mamdani’s election, saying he hates the inexperienced, “Communist” pol and warning that the mayor-elect will wreck the business climate.
Portnoy made the comments during a YouTube livestream last week, amid expectations Mamdani would defeat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Nov. 4 election.
“I hate the guy,” Portnoy said of Mamdani. “I can’t stand the thought of him running New York City. I can’t stand it.
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“Thirty-something-year-old Communist running New York City who’s never had a job in his life, hates America — doesn’t seem like the best.”
Portnoy, 48, weighed the pros and cons of getting out of Manhattan during Mamdani’s reign.
“Honestly, I’ve given that a lot of thought — he’s definitely going to win — going to Hoboken or Jersey City or something,” Portnoy said.
“I don’t want to f–king have an office [in Manhattan]. But then we have all those people who, like, that f–ks up their life because I hate the guy. Like, all the people in the New York office have to go to Jersey City or … Hoboken. So it’s a Catch-22.”
Still, Portnoy indicated he’s seriously weighing an exit.
“A part of me is like, how much will actually change? But I really have given it thought,” he said. “I told our finance guys to start looking around for property, no joke. Take a principled stand.”
After networks projected Mamdani, 34, as the winner on Tuesday night, Portnoy posted on X, “Thank god I don’t live there anymore.”
Portnoy’s frustration with the new mayor has been building for months.
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In a July appearance on Fox Business, he warned that Mamdani “hates capitalism” and would “blame the victims of 9/11 rather than the terrorists.”
“It’s a very scary time,” he said. “I can’t believe that this guy may be the mayor of New York City. He’s closer to a Communist.”
Barstool, which Portnoy founded in 2003 in Massachusetts, has maintained a major office in Manhattan even after relocating many of its operations to Chicago. The company was worth about $600 million as of 2023.
Mamdani, a New York state assemblyman who was born in Uganda and describes himself as a Democratic socialist, ran on a platform of rent freezes, city-run grocery stores and expanded public housing — measures that critics say will cripple investment and drive employers out.
His victory appeared to mark a stunning political shift for New York, where business leaders rallied behind Cuomo, who ran as an independent.