Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is threatening to move his company out of Manhattan after the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s next mayor.
Portnoy said the “communist” mayor-elect will “destroy” the city with his anti-business policies.
“I hate the guy,” Portnoy said of Mamdani in a YouTube livestream last week.
“I can’t stand the thought of him running New York City. I can’t stand it.
“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,” he added.
Mamdani, 34, cruised to victory Tuesday night, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa.
Portnoy, 48, said he’s given “a lot of thought” to moving to Hoboken or Jersey City in New Jersey amid Mamdani’s meteoric rise in New York City politics.
“I don’t want to [expletive] have an office” in Manhattan, he said. “But then we have all those people who, like, that [expletive] 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.”
Portnoy emphasized that he is seriously considering relocating across the river to escape Mamdani’s reach.
“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.”
Portnoy took to X on Tuesday night after news networks projected Mamdani as the winner of the mayoral contest, writing, “Thank god I don’t live there anymore.”
His negative opinion of the Big Apple’s mayor-elect has developed over several months.
Appearing on Fox Business Network in July, Portnoy declared 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.”
Although many of Barstool’s operations were relocated to Chicago two years ago, the company has maintained a major office in Manhattan.
Portnoy founded Barstool Sports in Massachusetts in 2003. It was reportedly worth approximately $600 million as of 2023.
Mamdani, a New York state assemblyman who represents Queens, was born in Uganda. He ran on a platform of increased affordable housing, rent freezes, city-run grocery stores, free buses and childcare, and tax increases for the wealthy.
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