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 in 2026.

The team will be owned and operated by Raj Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, who also own the Portland Thorns of the National Women's Soccer League. 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,'' Bhathal Merage 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.''

Some 300 invited guests attended a kickoff event at Portland's Moda Center on Wednesday afternoon with the Bhathals, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and other state and local officials. Afterward, there was community-wide event outside the stadium.

The Bhathals started having conversations with the WNBA late last year after a separate bid to bring a team to Portland fell through.

The city is well known for its embrace of women's sports. In addition to the Thorns, who are drawing more than 18,000 fans on average to each home game, Portland is home to the nation's first bar exclusively for women's sports, the Sports Bra, which opened in 2022 and recently announced plans for additional franchises.

''It really wasn't our intention when we came to the Portland community, but we saw the opportunity, the stars aligned and here we are. We are at the epicenter of women's professional sports,'' Bhathal Merage said.

It's the third expansion franchise the WNBA 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.

''We've been working on Portland for a while, so when we did our original data analysis, I guess two and a half years ago, Portland was one at the top of the list, after the Bay Area,'' Engelbert said. ''So I've had my eye on Portland."

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek was unable to attend at the Moda Center, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, but issued a statement.

''The decision to choose Portland for the next WNBA team is just as much a recognition of our past as it is about faith in our future," Kotek said. ''Portland has an unequivocal love of women's sports. ''

Engelbert has said she hopes to have more teams by 2028 but doesn't think that the league will be adding any more that will start playing before 2027.

Portland had a WNBA team, the Fire, from 2000 until it folded in 2002. That franchise averaged more than 8,000 fans when games were played at the Rose Garden. The new franchise will play at the same arena, now known as the Moda Center, and the Bhathals plan to build a dedicated practice facility for the team as well.

In addition to the Thorns, the Bhathal family has been a co-owner of the Sacramento Kings since 2013. The Bhathals added to their sports portfolio earlier this year when they bought the women's soccer team for $63 million.

''When you look at our numbers, not just the Thorns' off-the-charts attendance, which is incredible, what you've seen, in Eugene, what you've seen in Oregon State, we knew that this was going to be one of the great moments in sports for Oregon," Wyden said. ''We saw, February of 2023, what was possible. So I can tell you that right now there are women playing in Portland. They're rebounding in Roseburg, they're hooping in Hermiston. Every nook and cranny of our state is into this.''

The new Portland WNBA team is not yet named. The Bhathals said they wanted to tap into the community to select one.

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AP Sports Writer Anne M. Peterson in Oregon contributed to this report.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball