The WNBA is headed back to Portland, with Oregon’s greatest city getting an growth group that will start play in 2026.
The group will be owned and ran by Raj Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, who likewise own the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League. They paid $125 million for the franchise.
“This is big for Portland. We are so honored and humbled to be the vessel that provides this WNBA franchise to Portland,” Bhathal Merage stated. “And that’s actually how we thinkabout ourselves. Portland is this extremely varied, passionate neighborhood. We saw the enthusiasm first-hand when we began looking into the Portland Thorns and this is Basketball City. So we’re extremely delighted about the future.”
Some 300 welcomed visitors participatedin a kickoff occasion at Portland’s Moda Center on Wednesday afternoon with the Bhathals, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and other state and regional authorities. Afterward, there was community-wide occasion exterior the arena.
The Bhathals began having discussions with the WNBA late last year after a different quote to bring a group to Portland fell through.
The city is well understood for its accept of females’s sports. In addition to the Thorns, who are illustration more than 18,000 fans on average to each home videogame, Portland is home to the country’s initially bar specifically for ladies’s sports, the Sports Bra, which opened in 2022 and justrecently revealed prepares for extra franchises.
“It actually wasn’t our objective when we came to the Portland neighborhood, however we saw the chance, the stars linedup and here we are. We are at the e