Rose City? Rip City? Let’s be Rep City and bring the WNBA to Portland!

It’s time to bring a WNBA team to Portland, a place where we support women and women’s sports. The Rose City has a proven track record of showing up for our women’s teams, and a growing community of fans eager for a new team to root for. 

Portland is home to the best fan-supported women’s soccer club in the world, the Portland Thorns. (Just ask our competitors!) Our National Women’s Soccer League champions attracted more attendees than any other team in  the league for eight of the last nine seasons. The fandom extends from the pitch to the court across the state.  Oregon’s women’s college basketball teams boast a passionate fan base and their games draw huge crowds. In 2000, our WNBA team, the Portland Fire, amassed a loyal following approaching 10,000 fans a night and in 2019, as a first-time NCAA Regional site, Portland averaged over 11,400 fans a game.

Although Portland is known as the Rose City and Rip City, we are also Rep City—as in REPresentation. We have shown how much representation matters at The Sports Bra, the landmark sports bar (just a mile and a half away from the Rose Quarter) that’s attracted international attention as the first and only women’s sports bar in the world. The place is packed with fans hungry to watch women compete in pro sports as well as women’s college basketball, softball, tennis, volleyball, lacrosse and gymnastics. It is the epicenter of women’s sports fandom and serves as a foundation of fans for our future WNBA team. It’s a place where we support women and women’s sports, just like our city. 

The evidence is clear that if we build it, they will come. Give Portland a WNBA team, and fans will show up with unrivaled support!