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By: Anne M. Peterson
The Associated Press//April 22, 2025//
Hillsboro facility to suit women’s sports teams
Anne M. Peterson
The Associated Press//April 22, 2025//
HILLSBORO — The expansion Portland WNBA team doesn’t have a name yet, but it will soon share a training facility with the Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League; officials broke ground on Tuesday.
The $150 million facility will be created by repurposing buildings once owned by Nike west of Portland. The project is the first such alliance between the two women’s leagues.
Portland’s WNBA team will join the league in 2026. The team is owned by the Bhathal family, which also owns the Thorns and has a stake in the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.
It’s important for the ownership group to create a space that focuses on the needs of women, Lisa Bhathal Merage said.
“I think this performance center will be changing the dynamic for women’s sports for generations to come,” she said. “It’s the first dual-purpose professional women’s sport performance center in the world, and we may not see any others after this. Our view is to collaborate, involve the community and really lift up everybody by that collaboration.”
Among those at the ceremony were NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek.
While some NWSL teams share facilities with Major League Soccer teams, the Bhathals’ approach is not only unique, but smart investment-wise, Berman said.
“Instead of thinking about it through the lens of the same playing surface or playing environment, you both have female athletes and there are going to be economies of scale in our ability to service those professional athletes as women,” she said. “So, we’re going to build this center of excellence around female athletes that’s rooted in our investment in the WNBA and NWSL. Makes total sense to me. And certainly, there are both strategic and tactical investments that can be made that can be leveraged for both properties that wouldn’t have to be duplicated.”
As for the much-anticipated team name, that will come in the months ahead.
“We’ve literally compiled every single comment from every single person into a massive spreadsheet and rank them in order of how popular they were. And we’ve worked with the WNBA on all of those names,” Merage said. “So, we are getting closer. We’re waiting for final league approval and, hopefully within the next two, maximum three months, we’ll be able to unveil everything.”
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