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(CNN) — The WNBA is returning to Portland, Oregon, starting in 2026.
The new expansion franchise will play its home games at the Moda Center in downtown Portland and become the WNBA’s 15th team, the league announced Wednesday.
“As the WNBA builds on a season of unprecedented growth, bringing a team back to Portland is another important step forward,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement. “Portland has been an epicenter of the women’s sports movement and is home to a passionate community of basketball fans.”
The yet-to-be-named club will be owned and operated by RAJ Sports, led by controlling owner and WNBA governor Lisa Bhathal Merage and alternate governor Alex Bhathal.
“For decades, Portland has been the global epicenter of sports lifestyle and today, we are now the global epicenter of women’s sports,” Merage said in a statement. “We believe in the transformative power of women’s sports and are thrilled that the W will call Portland home. We know that Portland’s vibrant and diverse communities will highly support and rally around this team.”
The Bhathal family has more than 50 years of experience in professional sports, serving as investors of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and controlling owners of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns.
The city previously had a WNBA team – the Portland Fire – from 2000-2002 before it folded. During those three seasons, the Fire were 37-59 and never made the postseason.
“Portland has a passion for women’s sports and the teams who play in the Rose City, making us the ideal home of the next WNBA team,” Oregon governor Tina Kotek said in a statement. “From the Thorns to the Rose City Rollers to the Sports Bra, Portland embraces a diversity of athletes and fans. This is an exciting new chapter for our city and our state.”
US Senator for Oregon Ron Wyden also welcomed the move. “Today puts basketball fans in Portland and all across Oregon solidly in the ‘W” column,” he said in a statement. “Our city and entire state have consistently set the gold standard for supporting women’s sports, and I’m thrilled the Bhathal family is expanding its commitment to women’s sports locally by bringing Portland a much-deserved WNBA franchise.”
The 12-team league has expanded by adding two more teams in the past year.
The Golden State Valkyries are set to begin play in 2025 while a team in Toronto, the league’s first franchise to be based outside of the US, will tip off in 2026.
In April, Engelbert said the WNBA’s goal is to have 16 teams by 2028.
“We’re on our way to 16,” Engelbert said at the time. “That will add 48 roster spots in just a couple of years. That, in a league of 144, is a lot. That’s 30 percent. I think it’ll be great when we get those done over the next couple years.”
The WNBA’s 28th regular season concludes Thursday.
With the arrival of rookies Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever and Angel Reese of the Chicago Sky, along with two-time league MVP A’ja Wilson of the defending back-to-back champion Las Vegas Aces, the league has set records in viewership, attendance and merchandise sales this year.
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