PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland appears to be close to getting a WNBA expansion team, according to multiple reports.
On Thursday morning, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced a new expansion team in the Bay Area. The San Francisco-based team will be the WNBA's 13th team and will play its first season in 2025. During Thursday's announcement, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert said their "goal is to have a 14th team by 2025 as well."
Englebert said Thursday that the WNBA is "in continued discussion with several other cities." She didn't get more specific than that and no questions were asked specifically about Portland.
But multiple media reports indicate Portland could be that 14th team.
Mike Vorkunov, Marcus Thompson II and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the WNBA is in "the process of adding a second expansion franchise in Portland" and that Portland "is under strong consideration by the WNBA."
The Athletic included in its article a Thursday morning report by Howard Megdal of The Next that "discussions about adding Portland to the WNBA's next round of expansion have reached the Board of Governors level," which must give approval for a team to be added.
Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report wrote that the announcement of a second expansion team could happen "in the coming weeks" and that team will also be expected "to launch in 2025." Megdal reported that a "lead time of 18 months is considered vital" to launch a new expansion team. The 2025 season would begin around mid-May of that year, which is 19 months from now.
Engelbert said Thursday that an expansion draft would likely take place in late 2024.
KGW confirmed last year that Kirk Brown is leading the ownership group for a Portland WNBA team. Brown is a Newberg High School alum and founded a tech company based in Vancouver, Washington. Highkin reported Thursday that Brown is willing to pay the "asking price for an expansion fee."
"Brown, who lives in Las Vegas part-time, is an Aces season-ticket holder and avid WNBA fan. From what I've heard, he's made it clear to the league that he's willing to pay their asking price for an expansion fee (which could be well into nine figures), and plans to run the team the way Mark Davis runs the Aces and Joe Tsai runs the New York Liberty—by spending money and investing in it," Highkin wrote.
Portland had a WNBA team for three seasons, from 2000 until it folded following the 2002 season. The Portland Fire didn't win a lot — they won only 37 of their 96 games — but they were certainly popular, with more than 8,000 fans attending games at the Rose Garden on game nights, a number that would have ranked second in the WNBA last season, behind only the Seattle Storm.
Interest in women's sports has been growing, with TV viewership for both college women's basketball and the WNBA on the rise. Portland is an ideal fit for the WNBA, with proven interest in college women's basketball at Oregon and Oregon State, and one of the most dedicated fan bases in the NWSL with the Portland Thorns, who rank third in the league in attendance this season.
"There's no doubt a WNBA team would be a slam-dunk success in the Moda Center," said Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden.
Wyden has been at the front of a group pushing for WNBA expansion into Portland for years. In September 2022, he sent letters to Engelbert and NBA commissioner Adam Silver in September 2022 about the WNBA in Portland and received positive responses from both. In February 2023, Wyden organized a panel discussion about women's sports in the state and invited Engelbert to participate as the guest of honor.
The event essentially turned into a WNBA-to-Portland rally with notable sports names from across the state in attendance, including Kelly Graves and Scott Rueck, head coaches of the women's teams at Oregon and Oregon State, Portland Trail Blazers executives Dewayne Hankins and Joe Cronin, and several former WNBA players.
The WNBA also has the support of the Portland Trail Blazers, the city's NBA team, which is vital to the WNBA.
"We talk to the league all the time and ask what can we do to help bring this bid here," Blazers team president Dewayne Hankins told KGW earlier this year. At the February 2023 panel discussion, Blazers general manager Joe Cronin weighed in.
"Portland's such an incredible basketball city. There's a big void without a women's basketball team here," he said. "I think this group here shows the passion and the energy and how exciting this would be."
