Will the WNBA's new expansion franchise succeed in Portland?

The WNBA announced that they would be adding a team based in Portland, who would begin play starting in the 2026 season. We’ll take a closer look into the decision, and think about whether the new franchise will thrive when it joins the league. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage are a brother-sister duo who will be the primary owners of the new WNBA Portland franchise. According to Oregon Live’s website, this is not the first foray the tandem has made into Portland sports ownership.

The Bhathal’s also finalized a purchase of the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League earlier in 2024.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

“As we were pursuing the Thorns, we became very convinced that the Portland market was a great market for sports in general and women’s sports,” Alex Bhathal told ESPN. “We could create a multisport platform in the market and really cement Portland as the epicenter for women’s sports.”

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is pleased with how things came together with the Bhathal’s. She told Oregon Live’s website, “We already knew Portland was a market that we wanted to be in. Then to have them and their commitment to basketball as a whole and then women’s sports, was a good formula.”

However, the Bhathal’s only had the chance to jump in on this opportunity because previous talks to add a franchise in Portland stalled with another bidder.

For a long time, it seemed like tech billionaire Kirk Brown would be the person to bring the WNBA to Portland. As Oregon Live reported, Brown backed out of an agreement to bring an expansion franchise to the city just days before the league was going to make an announcement.

It appears as if Engelbert and Brown had visions that were not in lockstep with one another. For example, Brown wanted the new team to be called the Rose City Royalty, which Engelbert was not comfortable with. Brown also was an investor in Shoot 360 basketball training centers; Engelbert wanted him to sell his shares due to a potential conflict of interest, and he declined.

Another variable in the negotiation with Brown and the Bhathal’s was the location of where the new Portland franchise would play. Naturally, the expectation is that they would play at the Moda Center, where the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers call home. However, the arena is set to undergo renovations, which has complicated the logistics for the WNBA.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

Alex Bhathal told ESPN, “Our expectation is we’ll be playing at the Moda Center. There could be a situation where we play on a temporary basis at somewhere else, perhaps Veterans Memorial Coliseum, but because of the indeterminate nature of those negotiations, our base case is we’ll be playing in Moda Center for the visible future.”

This is actually not the first time the WNBA will have a team in Portland. The Portland Fire were a part of the league at one point, but only were in existence for three seasons from 2000-2002.

The team didn’t really get off the ground, as the Fire didn’t make the playoffs in their history. Then-Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen did not seem interested in buying the team, and other opportunities to sell the team didn’t come to fruition, according to Essentially Sports.

The new Portland expansion franchise does not have a team name yet. The Bhathal’s did not immediately rule out bringing the “Fire” moniker back, but also said that they were considering a number of possibilities.

According to Oregon Live, the Bhathal’s paid the WNBA a $125 million expansion fee for the franchise, which is a league record.

The new Portland franchise will be the 15^th in the WNBA, coming shortly after the announcement of new franchises in San Francisco and Toronto. Commissioner Engelbert told NBC News, “We’re trying to double revenue, we’re trying to triple things, we’re trying to quadruple things, five-times things, and it’s working.”

Engelbert has been steadfast in her desire to add teams to the WNBA. She told Oregon Live, “Expansion has been a top priority for me over the past couple years and the goal was always to take this really thoughtful approach to adding teams. You want to be in the right markets, with the right ownership groups, and we have that here with Lisa and Alex and their leadership.”

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!