New Portland training center will serve NWSL, WNBA clubs

The Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League and the city’s as-yet unnamed WNBA team will train together at a new performance center in a first-of-its-kind alliance between teams from both leagues.

Both women’s teams are owned by the Bhathal family, which also has a stake in the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. The $150 million campus, set to open before the start of the 2026 WNBA season, will repurpose a facility formerly owned by Nike on 12 acres in Hillsboro, a city just west of Portland.

Amenities will include locker rooms and lounges for both teams, two soccer fields and an additional outdoor training area, a gym that will include two basketball courts, strength training, conditioning and rehab areas, film theaters, a dining room and team offices.

Portland was awarded an expansion team last September. RAJ Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, own and operate the team. They paid $125m for the franchise.

Karina LeBlanc, executive vice president of strategic growth for RAJ Sports, said Bhathal Merage set up listening sessions with athletes in designing the facility, which was announced on Thursday.

“My generation that played this sport gets to look at this and be like, `Wow, this is better than our dreams.’ The athletes are the center of this. They get to walk into a building where they feel like they belong, and they feel like they’re seen and heard,” said LeBlanc, who was a goalkeeper for the Thorns and later served as the team’s general manager.

Portland had a WNBA team, the Fire, from 2000 until it folded in 2002. That franchise averaged more than 8,000 fans when games were played at the Rose Garden. The new franchise will play at the same arena, now known as the Moda Center.

The Bhathals bought the Thorns earlier last year for $63m. Portland was one of the NWSL’s founding teams in 2013.

The Thorns train and play their matches at downtown Portland’s Providence Park.

While some WNBA teams share practice facilities with NBA teams, it is the first time a pair of women’s teams, in different sports, will practice together.

“The fact that it’s happening here in Portland, it just feels so fitting, because this is a city where we have the headquarters of the biggest brands, we have the best athletes in the world, and now we’re going to really be bringing in the best athletes in the two biggest sports in North American professional sports,” LeBlanc said. “It’s momentum. It’s a movement.”