The Seattle Storm’s team bench cheers during a 2018 WNBA game. Photo by Neil Enns/Storm Photography, via historylink.org, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Throughout a series of league expansion, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert announced that Portland, Oregon is now home to a new WNBA team. Englebert released this to the media on Wednesday morning, her announcement coming right before the WNBA’s post-season. Although the team is new, the WNBA played there before, the last time being in 2002, before the team disbanded.
Known as the Portland Fire, the team was the female counterpart to the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Albeit Portland’s basketball comeback is official, the mascot, logo and name is unknown to the public. However, Englebert has said that the Portland team will host their home games at the Moda Center.
The team’s ownership is led by the Bhathal family, the family that owns and co-owns the Portland Thorns and the Sacramento Kings, respectively. Lisa Bhathal Merage is serving as the team’s controlling owner and WNBA governor, while her brother, Alex Bhathal, serves as the alternate governor.
Portland’s team will join the WNBA in the 2026 season, along with another expansion team, from Toronto, Canada.
