It’s been more than 20 years since the Portland Fire played its final WNBA game. However, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert reignited the flame formerly known as the Fire when she announced the league is awarding Portland a WNBA expansion franchise Sept. 18.
The Portland franchise, becoming the 15th WNBA team, will begin play in the 2026 season.
Advocacy drove the process to this point. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) was at the center of that advocacy. Engelbert acknowledged Wyden’s contributions at the official announcement held at the Moda Center.
“I want to provide my sincere gratitude to Sen. Wyden for his ongoing support of the WNBA,” Engelbert said. “He has played a pivotal role in this moment.”
Wyden has long advocated for the WNBA and its players, even beyond helping draw an expansion franchise to Portland.
Wyden led a July 21, 2022 bipartisan Senate resolution calling for WNBA star Brittney Griner’s immediate release from her ‘wrongful detention’ in Russia. Wyden joined the “Wake Up and Win podcast w/ DeVon Pouncey” (also published by Street Roots) the following month to speak about the Senate resolution while simultaneously dreaming of the day that the WNBA could return to Portland.
He mentioned a conversation he had at The Sports Bra, a Portland bar dedicated to broadcasting only women’s sports, where he described what a summer day in Portland could look like if a WNBA franchise were here.
“Can you imagine what it would be like, our sitting here on a sunny afternoon in summer in Portland, what it would be like here on Broadway, at (The Sports Bra), if everybody was getting ready for a WNBA playoff game in Portland at Moda (Center) in a few hours?” Wyden said. “I talked about thinking how excited our city would have been. Think about the fact that it would have brought in a lot of money to Portland.”
Less than a month after Wyden’s conversation on the podcast, he began working to make that dreamy summer day in Portland a reality. Wyden sent a Sept. 7, 2022 letter to Engelbert and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver advocating for WNBA expansion to Portland. He was sure to point out the success women’s sports have in the Oregon market.
“Portland, and our entire state of Oregon, has proven to be a hotbed for women’s sports,” Wyden said in the letter. “In the National Women’s Soccer League, the Portland Thorns regularly are at or near the top of the league attendance list befitting a passion for women’s soccer that took root long ago at the University of Portland with now-household names like Megan Rapinoe, Christine Sinclair and Tiffeny Milbrett playing locally. And when it comes to women’s basketball in the state, both the University of Oregon and Oregon State University draw huge crowds for their women’s basketball teams.”
Wyden received positive responses from Engelbert and Silver later that month.
“Portland is a market that we hold in high regard and are actively considering,” Engelbert said.
Silver shared similar sentiments.
“I have no doubt that Portland is on the list of cities under consideration,” Silver said.
Wyden then hosted a Feb. 6, 2023 roundtable discussion at The Sports Bra, where he invited Engelbert to speak with executives from the Portland Trail Blazers and Thorns, as well as University of Oregon and Oregon State University women’s basketball head coaches and student-athletes, among others.
When asked what it’s been like to collaborate with Engelbert during his most recent appearance on “Wake Up and Win,” Wyden was appreciative of Engelbert taking the time to accept his invitation to Portland.
“She’s been a pleasure to deal with, a former player herself,” Wyden said. “And the reality is she didn’t have to come to Portland in February 2023. She had a lot of demands on her time.”
Wyden’s advocacy efforts didn’t cease after hosting Engelbert in Portland. Wyden, alongside Sport Oregon CEO Jim Etzel, hosted a May 26, 2023 press conference at Sport Oregon in Downtown Portland to release a letter to Engelbert signed by more than 140 local businesses in support of the WNBA expanding to Portland.
The WNBA awarded the Bay Area with the first WNBA expansion team (Golden State Valkyries) to join the league since 2008 on Oct. 5, 2023. Reports insinuating Portland was also supposed to land a team left many wondering why Portland wasn’t announced as an expansion city. Wyden’s confidence didn’t waiver in a statement his office issued reacting to the Bay Area expansion news.
“He continues to work hard with everybody teaming up for Portland to earn a WNBA expansion franchise,” Hank Stern, Wyden’s spokesperson, said. “And he remains confident the scoreboard will end up with Portland winning that franchise.”
Since then, the WNBA also awarded Toronto with an expansion team officially announced on May 23. Toronto will begin play in 2026 along with the Portland expansion team, while the Golden State Valkyries will begin play during the 2025 season.
Moments after the official announcement press conference, where Wyden was one of the chosen speakers, Wyden joined the “Wake Up and Win” podcast to reflect on and discuss the monumental day the WNBA officially made its return to Portland. To use the podcast’s title as a double entendre describing what that day felt like in Rip City, he described it as a “Wake Up and Win” type of day.
When asked about the team name, Wyden encouraged Oregonians to bring their ideas to his town hall meetings so he can “pass it on and put it in the mix.” Wyden is keeping community inclusivity at the forefront of his mission in assisting to make sure the WNBA in Portland will be a success.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2024 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 40
This article appears in September 25, 2024.