The Portland Fire officially return next year. Here’s everything we know about the WNBA team

(Update: Adding video)

By: Anthony Macuk (KGW), Alex Jensen

PORTLAND, Ore. — The biggest burning question about Portland's WNBA team got an answer Tuesday morning: the league's 15th team will officially be called the Portland Fire, reviving the name used by a previous WNBA team that called the Rose City home from 2000 to 2002. 

Welcome to the Portland Fire, coming in 2026. #PortlandFire #Reborn pic.twitter.com/FZcJTsmqHo

— WNBA Portland (@wnbaportland) July 15, 2025

There are still many questions to be answered and hoops to be jumped through before the team takes the court next year. Here's everything we know about the team so far, and what's coming next:

Where will the team play, and when do they start?

The Portland Fire will start playing in the 2026 WNBA season, which begins next May. The team will play its home games at the Moda Center, sharing the arena with the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Moda Center is scheduled to undergo renovations ahead of hosting the NCAA Women's Final Four in 2030, and the Portland Fire may have to play some home games at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum during construction, but the work won't begin until 2027, guaranteeing that the team will be in the Moda Center for at least its first full season.

The team will practice at a new $150 million training center that will be shared with the Portland Thorns of the NWSL. The owners of the two teams announced plans for the center in February, saying that they would convert a former Nike office complex in Hillsboro into a state-of-the-art facility with two full-size basketball courts, among many other amenities.

Who's in charge?

The new team franchise is owned and operated by RAJ Sports, which also owns the Thorns and is a principal owner of the NBA Sacramento Kings, the NBA G-League Stockton Kings and the MiLB Sacramento RiverCats. RAJ Sports paid $125 million for the Portland WNBA franchise.

RAJ Sports is owned by the Bhathal family and led by siblings Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage. Lisa Bhathal Merage will serve as controlling owner and WNBA governor of the Portland Fire, with Alex Bhathal serving as alternate governor.

The team's interim president is Clare Hamill, who was only recently named to the role following the reported ouster of former team president Inky Son, who had been brought on in April as the team's first executive hire.

The team currently does not have a general manager or head coach, and so far there's been nothing announced about a timeline for those hires.

How will the team get players?

Portland wasn't part of the 2025 WNBA draft in April; the team will begin participating in the draft starting in 2026, directly ahead of its inaugural season. But that won't be the team's only opportunity to build out its roster. There will also be a 2026 WNBA Expansion draft in which the two newest teams — the Fire and the Toronto Tempo — can pick from players on existing WNBA teams.

The newcomers will be limited to picking one player currently under contract from each existing team, and the other teams will be allowed to protect a certain number of players on their rosters. When the Golden State Valkyries held their expansion draft this year, the other teams were allowed to protect six players each. The Fire and Tempo will also each be able to select one player who is eligible for unrestricted free agency, essentially giving each team one early shot to secure a player without having to compete with the other teams.

The new teams will also be able to acquire players through free agency.

This is all according to the current WNBA collective bargaining agreement. The rules of the expansion draft and free agency could change when the players and league agree to a new CBA ahead of the 2026 WNBA season. The two sides have shared initial proposals and will have their first in-person meetings this week to negotiate the terms of the new CBA.

How much will tickets cost?

Full pricing hasn't been announced and season tickets are not yet available, although fans can reserve a spot to buy season tickets with a $26 deposit. Season tickets for the WNBA Seattle Storm range from $782 to $2,185, though there's no guarantee that Portland's pricing will be similar.

The Fire racked up 5,000 deposits in the first two weeks after the WNBA announced the expansion last fall, and the number had surpassed 10,000 by late June, putting the team on track to set a league record. 

When the expansion was announced, Alex Bhathal said the goal would be to sell 20,000 deposits before the 2026 season starts — a milestone that the Golden State Valkyries recently hit ahead of their inaugural 2025 season.

How long has this been in the works?

Portland has been on the short list for a WNBA expansion team for years due to the city's enthusiastic support for the Trail Blazers, the Thorns and women's college basketball — not to mention the original Portland Fire, which routinely drew more than 8,000 fans on game nights during its two-season run.

The original team's demise was due more to corporate reorganization than a lack of local fan support; Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen also served as chairman of the original Fire, but he declined to purchase the team when the NBA — which owned the WNBA teams at the time — decided to sell them off in 2002. When no other ownership bid came together, the team folded.

Bringing the WNBA back to Portland has been a longtime goal for local business and political leaders, including U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden. A deal nearly came together in 2023 as the WNBA was preparing to add its 13th and 14th teams, but the league ultimately punted on a Portland expansion, reportedly due to concerns about the construction schedule at the Moda Center. 

The 13th and 14th team slots instead went to the Golden State Valkyries and the Toronto Tempo, but it wasn't long before the Rose City was reported to be back in the running. The city officially landed the league's 15th expansion franchise in September 2024.

The idea of reviving the previous Portland WNBA team's name was frequently floated in the weeks and months after the expansion was awarded. The first hint that the team might indeed be moving in that direction came in mid-June, when the team filed four trademarks — two for "Portland Fire" and two with a stylized letter "P," matching the logo that was revealed on Tuesday.