News that the WNBA will add three new teams in back-to-back succession — Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029), and Philadelphia (2030) — was met with excitement and surprise by a lot of fans (especially fans who will finally get to enjoy a team closer to home). But the league's announcement was also met with confusion and questions, especially from cities like Nashville, Austin, and Kansas City, who all put up impressive ownership bids that were ultimately unsuccessful.
Unfortunately, another expansion team might be the reason some cities will have to wait longer before WNBA teams arrive: WNBA Portland is clearly in trouble, and the team hasn't even gotten off the ground yet.
WNBA Portland: what's going on in the Pacific Northwest
Portland, Oregon, was awarded the league's 15th franchise in 2024. The team in Portland is meant to follow up the Golden State Valkyries, who have enjoyed an incredibly successful launch so far, and the Toronto Tempo, who are supposed to begin playing in 2026 alongside Portland.
Though the city is also home to the Trail Blazers, the WNBA team in Portland will not share ownership with the NBA team. Instead, the team is owned by RAJ Sports, siblings Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage. The pair, who own several the Portland Thorns as well as the Sacramento Kings, the Sacramento RiverCats, and the Stockton Kings, live in Southern California.
Though WNBA Portland is theoretically on the same timeline as the Tempo, the team has done little in terms of moving closer to building a coaching staff and roster. In fact, the team's owners fired WNBA Portland's president in June — while simultaneously announcing over 10,000 season ticket deposits had been placed. So the problem certainly isn't demand, as there are clearly plenty of people who want to see the WNBA play in the city, but it's also not clear what exactly is going on.
How WNBA Portland could impact future expansion teams
There's an ongoing debate about whether or not WNBA teams should share ownership groups with their NBA counterparts, and so far WNBA Portland is doing little to suggest that it's not a good idea. Unfortunately, this may have a ripple effect on future expansion teams.
Both Detroit and Cleveland have been home to WNBA teams before, and all three cities have NBA ownership ties to their WNBA bids. Nashville, Austin, and Kansas City simply aren't home to NBA teams, and if the league is assessing the progress of the Tempo (the team's principal owner is Larrey Tanenbaum, who is a 25 percent owner of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment — the owners of the Raptors) versus the progress of WNBA Portland when weighing expansion team possibilities, it's likely Portland is doing more harm than good (at this stage).
That doesn't mean that the ownership group can't turn things around, and it doesn't mean that WNBA teams will never come to cities that aren't home to NBA teams... but it could mean that it will be a lot harder to make the dream a reality.