The WNBA has experienced a great surge of growth over the past few seasons across many categories including ratings, attendance, exposure and overall popularity.
That growth has been accompanied by expansion, with the league adding San Francisco and Toronto as the 13th and 14th franchises. On Wednesday, the league added a 15th team as the deal with Portland was finally announced.
The team, which begins play in 2026, will be led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, who own the Portland Thorns of the NWSL.
It was the culmination of a back and forth process that initially involved discussions with wealthy businessman Kirk Brown. But after those discussions fell apart, the Bhathal family jumped in and sealed the deal.
“We believe in the transformative power of women’s sports and are thrilled that the W will call Portland home,” said Lisa Bhathal Merage. “We know that Portland’s vibrant and diverse communities will highly support and rally around this team. Our goal is to grow this organization in partnership with the Portland community and we look forward to supporting the best women’s basketball players in the world when they take the floor at the Moda Center in 2026.”
The Moda Center is the home of the Portland Trailblazers.
The announcement of a Portland franchise adds another team to the sports-rich state, which includes the Trailblazers, Thorns, Oregon Ducks, Oregon St. Beavers, and G League team, Rip City Remix.
But it also marks a return of the WNBA to the city, as it once was home to the Portland Fire (2000 – 2002). Owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the team played in the league for three seasons before folding due to financial losses.
Now that the WNBA has finalized its 15th franchise, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert has eyes on a new city for its 16th franchise.
We say that city must be Philadelphia.
Philadelphia, as all sports fans know, has a rabid fanbase that is unafraid to show emotion when it comes to its teams. They will celebrate athletes when they win and put them on a pedestal, yet they will boo them mercilessly when they underwhelm or lose.
Philadelphia is also the only major U.S. city without a women’s professional sports team, which is crazy. The city’s last one was the Philadelphia Rage of the ABL (1997-98), which moved from Richmond in 1997 but ended a year later after the league folded.
The city is ripe for a WNBA franchise, for it has all of the qualities, resources and relationships both the team and league need.
It has an NBA partner in the 76ers.
It has city venue options in the Wells Fargo Center, home of the Sixers, and The Liacouras Center, home of the Temple Owls. So regardless of crowd size/expectation, both can accommodate the team’s fanbase.
Philadelphia is a major media market, ranking in the top 5 nationally. It has the potential to partner with a major media company as Comcast is located downtown, which gives it both national, regional and local media options.
The city is separate from South Jersey by a bridge and will easily attract fans from the Garden State to the games. It’s also between NYC and Washington DC, so a rivalry between the Liberty and Mystics would blossom naturally.
Philly is a diverse city with an international appeal as well, and the team could unite communities across the city at either venue.
The City of Brotherly Love is also home to multiple universities including Temple, Drexel, UPenn, St. Joseph’s and LaSalle, with Villanova not too far away, so building an audience with the college community is easy.
Most importantly, Philly has a rabid fanbase that would quickly embrace the team for the city craves sports.
Commissioner Engelbert, who is a South Jersey native and went to school at Lehigh in Pennsylvania, has Philly in her sights and let everyone know it was an option two years ago.
“We’re looking for the right ownership groups with the right commitment, the right arena situation, the right city to support a WNBA franchise,” she said in 2022. “Philly is definitely on a list.”
After adding Toronto and Portland, the time to make Philadelphia the 16th WNBA franchise is now.
