WNBA awards Portland an expansion franchise that will begin play in 2026
The WNBA is headed back to Portland, with Oregon's biggest city getting an expansion team that will begin play starting in 2026
The WNBA is headed back to Portland, with Oregon's biggest 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 vessel that delivers this WNBA franchise to Portland,” Lisa Bhathal said. “And that’s really how we consider ourselves. Portland is this incredibly diverse, enthusiastic community. We saw the passion first-hand when we started looking into the Portland Thorns and this is Basketball City. So we’re very excited about the future.”
The Bhathals started 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 that 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 put the foothold and to put a stake in the ground in Portland and make the mark as the epicenter of a global women’s sport market is something that was really compelling and interesting to us and very deserving by the community of Portland.”
It's the third expansion franchise the league will add over 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.
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