WNBA basketball is returning to the Pacific Northwest.
The league announced that Portland, Oregon, has landed an expansion franchise that will take the floor in 2026.
The Portland team, owned and operated by RAJ Sports, will be the 15th WNBA franchise. It joins the Golden State Valkyries and a Toronto franchise in the current round of league expansion.
The expansion marks the WNBA's return to Portland after more than 20 years and the first time the league has returned to a city it previously left. The city had the Portland Fire from 2000-02.
“As the WNBA builds on a season of unprecedented growth, bringing a team back to Portland is another important step forward,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a press release. “Portland has been an epicenter of the women’s sports movement and is home to a passionate community of basketball fans. Pairing this energy with the Bhathal family’s vision of leading top-flight professional sports teams will ensure that we deliver a premier WNBA team to the greater Portland area.”
The new team will play its games at the Moda Center, which is home to the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers.
RAJ Sports paid $125 million for the franchise, per The Associated Press. Lisa Bhathal Merage, who is also governor for the NWSL's Portland Thorns, will be the team's controlling owner and WNBA governor. Alex Bhathal, Merage's brother, will serve as alternate governor.
“For decades, Portland has been the global epicenter of sports lifestyle and today, we are now the global epicenter of women’s sports,” Merage said. “We believe in the transformative power of women’s sports and are thrilled that the W will call Portland home. We know that Portland’s vibrant and diverse communities will highly support and rally around this team. Our goal is to grow this organization in partnership with the Portland community and we look forward to supporting the best women’s basketball players in the world when they take the floor at the Moda Center in 2026.”
Bhathal Merage said she hopes the team name will be announced by the spring and community input will play a part in the decision to reclaim the Fire name or pick a new one.
"It's an exciting time," she said, via ESPN. "It's fun to be able to create a new team from scratch. Our hope is by the spring we'll have an announcement, but we do of course have deadlines if we want to have more customized jerseys with Nike and things like that."
