by DOUG FEINBERG
The WNBA is returning to Portland with the Oregon city getting an expansion team that will begin play starting in 2026.
The team will be owned and operated by Raj Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal. They paid $125 million for the franchise.
“This is huge for Portland. We are so honored and humbled to be the building that brings this WNBA franchise to Portland,” said Lisa Bhathal. “And that’s really how we consider ourselves. Portland is this incredibly diverse and enthusiastic community. We saw the passion first hand when we started looking into the Portland Thorns and that’s Basketball City. So we’re very excited about the future.”
Bhathal began having conversations with the WNBA late last year after a separate bid to bring a team to Portland fell through.
“I think from our perspective, knowing the league was interested in coming to Portland gave us confidence that pursuing the opportunity would be well received by the league,” Alex Bhathal said.
“The idea of expanding our footprint in Portland and being able to create a platform focused on women’s sports in the Portland market and really being able to set foot and get on the ground in Portland and make the brand as ‘and the epicenter of a global women’s sports market is something that was really compelling and interesting for us and very much deserved by the Portland community.’
It is the third expansion franchise the league will add in the next two years with Golden State and Toronto getting the other two. The Golden State Valkyries will begin play next season and Toronto in 2026.
“It’s great that the Pacific Northwest is closed now,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
Engelbert said he hopes to have more teams by 2028, but he doesn’t think the league will add any more that begin play before 2027.
Portland had a WNBA team, the Fire, from 2000 until 2002 when it folded. This franchise averaged over 8,000 fans when games were played at the Rose Garden. The new franchise will play at the Moda Center – home of the Trail Blazers. The Bhathals will also build a dedicated practice facility for the team.
The Bhathal family brings more than 50 years of professional sports experience, including as co-owners of the Sacramento Kings and controlling owners of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns.
Portland has been a strong supporter of women’s sports from stellar college teams at Oregon and Oregon State to the Thorns. The Bhathals bought the football team for $63 million earlier this year. The franchise is averaging more than 18,000 fans this season.
The city also had the first bar dedicated to women’s sports – The Sports Bra.
“When you look at our numbers, not just the attendance of the Thorns off-the-charts, which is incredible, what you saw, in Eugene, what you saw at Oregon State, we know this is going to be. one of the great sports moments for Oregon,” said Senator Ron Wyden. “We saw, February of 2023, what was possible. So I can tell you that now there are women making games in Portland. They are bouncing in Roseburg, they are shooting in Hermiston. Every corner of our state is in it.”