Professional women’s hoops has returned to Portland after a nearly 24-year absence.
Thousands of ecstatic basketball fans descended on the Moda Center Sunday for the return of the Portland Fire. It was a preseason game — meaning it didn’t count towards the team’s record — but you wouldn’t know it from a crowd that was excited for their first opportunity to see the team play in the Rose City.
Kati Dowling was among 13,550 fans cheering on the Fire, who ultimately lost 85-75 to the Los Angeles Sparks.
“It feels like it’s the first game of the season, even though it’s a preseason game,” Dowling said, “because we haven’t had a game here in 20 years.”
During the first quarter of the game, the crowd erupted in cheers for every bucket as if it were a close playoff game. Haley Jones scored the first two points for the Fire. Jones has plenty of experience playing in front of Oregon crowds, but it was as a visitor, playing road games in Eugene and Corvallis during her college career at Stanford.
Joining Jones in the starting lineup for Portland was Nyadiew Pouch, Luisa Geiselsöder, Bridget Carleton and Carla Leite.
The Moda Center crowd included social media influencers in the women’s basketball space like Coach Jackie J, former Fire players, beloved Trail Blazer Damian Lillard and his daughters, and former pro soccer player and Olympian Shannon Boxx.
After the game, Nyadiew Puouch — who along with rookie Serah Williams led the Fire in scoring with 12 points – told reporters the energy of the crowd was “like our sixth man.” She said it created a fun atmosphere to play in.
“One minute to go, they were still yelling and cheering for us, which is really cool,” Pouch said. “I think it’s one of the best things ever, having your fan base really like getting around you, whether you’re winning or losing.”
The 30th WNBA season comes as the league undergoes enormous change. Portland and the Toronto Tempo joined as new expansion teams this season. Three more expansion teams in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia will join the league by 2030.
The players’ union and the WNBA also just agreed to a historic collective bargaining agreement that both sides have called “transformational”. The labor contract creates a revenue-sharing model that looks similar to other sports leagues, like the NBA. It will ensure a big pay bump for current players and pave the way for future players to get an increasing amount of the revenue they help generate.
The first iteration of the Portland Fire launched just over a quarter century ago during the fourth season of the WNBA. At that time the league also was going through rapid expansion, doubling in size from its original eight teams to 16 for the 2000 season. Current league and team leaders are aware of that history as they help write the team’s next chapter.
“There’s a history here that we have to be stewards towards,” Karina LeBlanc, executive vice president of strategic growth for team owner RAJ sports, which owns the Portland Fire and Portland Thorns, told OPB in July when the team name was announced. “And it’s being stewards to the city, it’s being stewards to the fan base, it’s being stewards to the athletes.”
The first iteration of the Fire was a counterpart to the city’s NBA team, the Trail Blazers. The WNBA gave the Blazers’ an option to buy the Fire, find a third party owner, or dissolve the team. The Blazers’ had its own financial struggles at the time, and an independent deal never came through. The first version of the Fire disbanded in late 2002 during a challenging decade for the WNBA, which shrank to 12 teams by 2010.
The current Trail Blazers are in the midst of their own transition, with a new owner, legislation to renovate the Moda Center and team roster at a crossroads. Other than playing in the same arena, the Blazers and Fire are mostly on separate paths now, and the WNBA looks quite different from the early 2000s.
Over the last decade, the WNBA renegotiated its TV contracts, ushered in a wave of new investors and increased player salaries. Popularity has skyrocketed, and the previous two seasons have broken attendance and viewership records.
The Fire join Oregon’s growing roster of women’s sports teams — including a new pre-professional soccer team the Cherry Bombs and Athlete’s Unlimited professional softball team the Portland Cascade. The Fire also have the benefit of playing in a city known for supporting female athletes.
At Sunday night’s game, although the Fire fell to the Sparks, fans showed up ready to cheer for a group of gifted athletes in an expanding league. The Portland Fire walked off the court to raucous cheers and a standing ovation.
“Hearing at the end, after a loss, the crowd, just the support, the cheering, it was incredible,” Alex Sarama, head coach of the Fire, said. “We actually fed off their energy when we made that run in the 4th — I think the crowd was such a big part of it.”
Although the Fire lost, they outscored the Sparks 21 to 13 in the final quarter. Sarama said the players commented on the fan energy during timeouts.
“I want to say ‘thank you’ to the fans,” Sarama said. “To show up like that and be so loud, that means a lot to us, and it’s really gonna help as we head into the season.”
The Portland Fire’s official season opener is Saturday May 9th at the Moda Center.
