Portland's new WNBA team will be owned by RAJ Sports, led by controlling owner Lisa Bhathal Merage and her brother, Alex Bhathal -- who also are the majority owners of the NWSL's Portland Thorns. The team will play at the Moda Center.
Less than 11 months after WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert wrote in a letter that consideration of a Portland expansion team would be"," the league announced Wednesday a return to the city as its 15th franchise, to begin play in the 2026 season.
Engelbert's letter in November was addressed to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a champion of women's sports who had been working closely with the bid and hosted the commissioner at the nation's first sports bar dedicated solely to women's sports, the Sports Bra, First, the WNBA needed to find a new Portland ownership group. Enter the Bhathal family, which already had been evaluating the area closely in preparation for its
"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."Women's college basketball also has drawn well in Portland, which hosted a regional in this year's NCAA tournament and will bring the Final Four to the Moda Center for the first time in 2030.
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