WNBA expansion is here — yet again.
The league announced Wednesday that Portland has been granted a new franchise that will become the WNBA’s 15th team when it launches in 2026. RAJ Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and her brother, Alex Bhathal, will own and operate the team.
The news comes after two other expansion franchises were announced in Golden State (in October 2023) and Toronto (May 2024).
Portland previously was home to a WNBA team in the Portland Fire, which played three seasons from 2000 to 2002 before folding. It was the only WNBA franchise to never make the postseason.
The WNBA’s rapid expansion — it hadn’t added a new team since 2008 but now has three on the way in the next two years — signals the league’s vitality as it enters a new phase of rapid growth. With a new $2.2 billion media deal, greater investment from corporate partners, a boost in attendance and TV viewership and now expansion, fans and stakeholders alike have plenty of reasons to feel confident with where the WNBA is headed in the near future.
Here’s what we know about the new WNBA team headed to Portland:
When will Portland join the league? When will Golden State and Toronto start play? How will roster spots be impacted?
Portland’s team will begin play during the 2026 WNBA season, the same year Toronto’s franchise will launch. Golden State will tip off the season prior in 2025.
That means the WNBA will have 13 teams in 2025 and expand to 15 in 2026.
Teams can carry a maximum of 12 players under the current rules, so with three new teams, there will be a maximum of 36 more roster spots in 2026, bringing the league total to approximately 180 (some teams carry 11 players because of cap space) that year. — Alexa Philippou
Where will the Portland team play and train, and how will renovations to the Moda Center complicate things?
For at least the first season, Portland will play at the Moda Center, home to the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers.
The Blazers, who operate the arena, are planning two summers’ worth of renovations to the Moda Center between 2027 and 2029, ahead of hosting the 2030 NCAA women’s basketball Final Four. That would potentially displace the WNBA team, most likely to the nearby Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the Blazers played until 1995 and currently home to the Portland Winterhawks, a minor league hockey team.
“The timeline is being determined at this point, and those are still subject to negotiations,” Alex Bhathal told ESPN. “Our expectation is we’ll be playing at the Moda Center. There could be a situation where we play on a temporary basis at somewhere else, the VMC, but because of the indeterminate nature of those negotiations, our base case is we’ll be playing in Moda Center for the visible future.”
As practice facilities become more important in the WNBA, with two independent teams (plus the Phoenix Mercury) opening them in the past two years and the Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings both announcing plans for their own, Portland will be opening one as well.
“We will be investing in a training center for the WNBA as well as the Thorns,” said Bhathal, who along with Bhathal Merage, is a majority owner of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns. “Those are commitments that we have made. They’ll be first-class, state-of-the-art facilities.” — Kevin Pelton
What kind of market will Portland be for the WNBA, and what do we know about the owners?
While this is technically Portland’s second shot at the WNBA, it’s a completely fresh start.
The Portland Fire, which played just three WNBA seasons and never advanced to the playoffs before folding, never had a legitimate chance to build a following. It was similar to what happened to another short-lived WNBA expansion franchise, the Miami Sol. They made one playoff appearance from 2000 to 2002 before also quickly folding.
The Fire had the 2001 Rookie of the Year with No. 4 pick Jackie Stiles, who had become the NCAA’s career scoring leader earlier that year. But multiple injuries soon derailed Stiles’ career; she played just 53 games over two seasons. Portland’s brief time as a WNBA city was a story of disappointment.
Now, more than two decades later, it’s a different market for women’s basketball in Oregon and a different WNBA. The success of the Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers programs — both have made the women’s Final Four in the past eight years — increased the sport’s popularity in the state. The WNBA talent pool has grown, exemplified by this year’s rookie class.
There will be a Pacific Northwest rivalry in the WNBA now between the Seattle Storm and Portland. The bond between Portland — and the entire state of Oregon — and the new WNBA franchise will have a chance to truly develop.
That’s what the Portland WNBA owners want.
“At the root of it is the community,” Bhathal Merage said. “We truly consider ourselves vessels. We are a vessel to bring this team back to Portland. Community input is very important to us.” — Michael Voepel
How will the expansion teams be built?
Per league sources, the WNBA will soon announce a date and rules for the Golden State expansion draft, which will take place after the season and before the January start of free agency.
“Our teams do know how we’re thinking about the expansion draft,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told ESPN. “We’ve been socializing it with the GMs and head coaches for quite some time for next year. Then, the following year, we’ll start planning that. We’ve got to get this year’s expansion draft done. … We’ll see how ’26 plays out. We do have to talk with the players’ association and the players about that.”
With Portland and Toronto joining the WNBA in 2026, multiple teams will take part in an expansion draft for the first time since 2000, when the league went from 12 teams to 16. The timing of that draft is complicated by the potential for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that would increase salaries in the wake of new national TV deals.
Either the league or the Women’s National Basketball Players Association can opt out of the current CBA by Nov. 1, in which case it would conclude after the 2025 season. Because of that possibility, just two players leaguewide have signed veteran contracts that extend beyond 2025. With so many free agents, the league might have to tweak the rules for the expansion draft to make it viable.
On the flip side, with many of the WNBA’s biggest stars unsigned, Portland and Toronto will have the chance to build strong rosters through free agency. — Pelton
What’s next for WNBA expansion?
Engelbert stated in May that she hopes to expand to 16 teams by 2028.
“We’ll look very hard at what Team 16 might look like,” Engelbert said, “but on track for no later than ’28 for Team 16.”
In May, Engelbert mentioned Philadelphia, Denver, Nashville and South Florida as places the league was in discussions with for potential expansion teams. Regarding a potential expansion to Florida, the WNBA previously had teams in Orlando (moved to become the Connecticut Sun in 2003) and Miami (folded in 2002).
“The nice thing is we have a lot of demand but very low supply,” Engelbert said this week. — Philippou
