WNBA Announces New Expansion Team In Portland To Begin In 2026

The WNBA is expanding to 15 teams for the 2026 season with a franchise based in Portland, Oregon. ESPN reports that The W is returning to Portland 24 years after the city’s team, the Fire, ceased operations in the league. The team will be owned by RAJ Sports, which is led by siblings Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage, who are also majority owners of the Portland Thorns from the NWSL. As of September 2024, this move marks the first time that the women-focused league would be returning to a city from which they previously departed. The announcement arrives almost a year to the date that Cathy Engelbert, the WNBA commissioner, penned a letter deferring to expanding operations to Oregon. However, Engelbert explained the league’s expansion process during a conversation with ESPN, saying, “I don’t think we ever have a bias as to whether there was a team there before or not, but certainly I think Portland has proven they’ll show up for women’s sports and definitely for women’s basketball, so we’re excited to be coming back to the market. Alex Bhathal detailed how they pursued getting the WNBA to sign off on their idea for a team based in The City of Roses. Bhathal explained that doing business to acquire the Thorns inspired them to work towards returning The W to Oregon. “We became very convinced that the Portland market was a great market for sports in general and women’s sports,” Alex Bhathal said. “Having seen the media reports that the WNBA opportunity was something the WNBA wanted to do, but there were some issues with the timing and potentially finding the right ownership group, it became an ‘aha’ moment that maybe this is something that we could do as well and create a multisport platform in the market and really cement Portland as the epicenter for women’s sports.”

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