The morning of September 18th it was announced across many different sources that Portland will be the newest location of a WNBA expansion team.
The WNBA, founded on April 24th, 1996, started with eight franchises in locations such as Charlotte, Cleveland, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Utah. Over the course of the WNBA’s creation, six other expansion teams were added to the league. Portland will make the total number of franchises 15.
The team is set to start participating in the league in 2026. Two other teams based out of San Francisco and Toronto have also been added during this round of expansion for the WNBA, with the San Francisco team set to start playing in 2025 and the Toronto team joining with Portland in 2026.
In 2000, the WNBA actually had a team in Portland known as the Portland Fire; however, the team only lasted two seasons and was folded in 2002. Many people in Portland are happy to see that they are getting a WNBA franchise back and will have another team to support in their city. The partnering NBA team, known as the Portland Trail Blazers, will now have this WNBA team to mutually support and bring more influx of basketball fans to Portland.
The franchise is set to be owned by RAJ Sports, an organization trying to spread women’s sports across cities in the United States. The ownership group is run by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal. The group also has a women’s soccer franchise in Portland as well.
David Otto, a junior at Lower Dauphin, had this to say about the new expansion team: “It’s a good area to have a team, I think the WNBA is growing and it’s a good addition to the WNBA.” Many students at Lower Dauphin are basketball fans and are looking forward to the new competition and growth in women’s basketball.
The addition of a new team to the WNBA is another step forward within women’s basketball, as well as women’s sports in general. The traction the WNBA has picked up the last few years from star rookies such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese should help kickstart these new expansion teams and it will create more opportunities for women who want to play at the next level.
