The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), the elite tier of women’s basketball in the US and Canada, has officially confirmed its latest expansion franchise will be allocated to Portland, Oregon.
The league’s 15th team will debut in the 2026 WNBA season and be owned and operated by the RAJ Sports investment group.
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RAJ Sports is led by siblings Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage, while their parents, (Marta and Raj Bhathal) are also part of the ownership group.
Lisa Bhathal Merage will become the controlling owner of the new Portland franchise, as well as its WNBA governor, while Alex Bhathal will become the alternate governor for the team.
Merage’s husband, the MIG Capital investment fund’s chief executive Richard Merage, will also join the ownership group as an investor and executive board member of the franchise.
Speaking on the addition of Portland as the league’s latest expansion, WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert stated: “Portland has been an epicenter of the women’s sports movement and is home to a passionate community of basketball fans.
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By GlobalData“Pairing this energy with the Bhathal family’s vision of leading top-flight professional sports teams will ensure that we deliver a premier WNBA team to the greater Portland area.”
Raj Sports also owns Portland’s women’s soccer franchise, the Thorns, of the NWSL in a $63 million purchase secured at the beginning of 2024.
At the time, the family stated that they planned to support widespread growth for both the people of Portland and women’s sports as a whole.
The family’s other sports investments include the Sacramento RiverCats AAA baseball club, the Stockton Kings NBA-G League affiliate, and Kings Guard NBA 2K esports team.
Raj Bhathal currently serves as vice chairman and alternative governor of the Kings, while Alex serves on the Kings' executive board. The family holdings also include Lisa and Alex’s parents.
The WNBA has history in Portland, albeit briefly. In 2000, the Portland Fire franchise was established, but it was dissolved in 2002 after only three seasons, though now the financial growth of the league will likely make its latest Portland expansion far more viable in the long term.
The 19,393-capacity Moda Center, home of the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers, is set to house the new franchise, after required construction work scuppered a previous bid to bring the WNBA to the city for the 2025 season.
The 14th WNBA franchise, also set to enter the league from 2026 onwards, was awarded to Toronto earlier in 2024, while its 13th, an affiliate of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, will enter the league in 2025.
The WNBA’s long-term expansion goal is to reach 16 teams by 2028.
Alongside Portland and Toronto, other sites that Englebert mooted as potential host cities include Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Denver (Colorado), and Nashville (Tennessee).
