A roaring sold-out crowd of 19,335 at Moda Center welcomed professional women’s basketball back to Portland Saturday.
The Portland Fire fell to the Chicago Sky 98-83 in the home opener for Oregon’s newly built WNBA team. Even though the Fire trailed most of the game, the crowd – nicknamed ‘the fire pit’ – erupted in thunderous cheers for every basket and defensive stop.
“The fire pit was really lit,” Fire guard Sarah Ashlee Barker said. “It really was.”
Barker said it’s the loudest crowd she’s ever played in front of.
“I always heard things here and there about Portland and the women’s sports fandom there is here,” Fire forward Bridget Carleton said. “But never knew too much about it, especially never really being on the West Coast. But even this past week, feeling it on social media, feeling it in the city – going on a walk and people recognized me already and I hadn’t even played a game yet. It’s just incredible.”
Despite losing Saturday’s home opener, head coach Alex Sarama told reporters the mood in the locker room after the game was positive.
“We saw glimpses tonight of what we have the potential to be,” Sarama said. “I think it’s just a case of how we can get to that more consistently as a group. But really, really encouraged, especially by that run in the third,” when Portland Portland outscored Chicago 30-18.
Fans have had to wait more than two decades to cheer on a WNBA team in Oregon. Twenty-four years agp, the first version of the Fire — then owned by the Trail Blazers — folded.
Shelley Darcy was among the sold-out crowd at Saturday’s game, which beat the previous attendance record for an expansion team’s home opener set last season by the Golden State Valkyries who attracted just over 18,000 fans to their home debut.
Darcy has lived in Portland most of her life – except during one notable time, the first iteration of the Portland Fire in the early 2000s. After missing out the first time, she said it’s felt like a long ramp up to finally see pro women’s hoops in her own city.
“It’s just been a huge build-up of excitement,” Darcy said. “To have this be actually happening is amazing.”
The rekindled Portland Fire are launching in a city with a history of supporting women athletes across all sports. Oregonians have long shown up for women’s teams at schools like the University of Oregon, University of Portland and Oregon State University. That support helped draw a National Women’s Soccer League franchise, the Portland Thorns to the city in 2013.
In 2024, siblings Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, officially took ownership of the Thorns. Since its inception, the pro soccer team has consistently drawn some of the biggest crowds in the NWSL.
Through their sports investment firm, RAJ Sports, the Bhathals decided to build on their portfolio of pro women’s sports and won the bid to create a WNBA expansion team in 2026.
Leaders with RAJ Sports have been busy solidifying partnerships since before the Fire staff even knew what players would be on the team. In February, healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente agreed to join with RAJ Sports to build a first-of-its-kind training center specifically for professional women athletes. At the same time, Kaiser was named chief medical provider for the Fire and Thorns.
But it continues to be the grassroots support for female athletes in Oregon that gives RAJ Sports the confidence to brand Portland the “Epicenter of Women’s Sports.” One example is the success of the Sports Bra, the famous Northeast Portland sports bar that only shows women’s sports on its TV screens. The Sports Bra is now franchising.
Darcy, who is one of the Fire’s thousands of inaugural season ticket holders, said she’s been watching the rollout of the team. She gave kudos to the owners for investing in the new practice facility, and for recognizing Portland’s central role in women’s sports.
Darcy also praised the players for pushing for better pay in their recently-settled collective bargaining agreement. It’s just one thing about the players she expects the Portland community to get behind.
“We were down in the tunnel where the players were coming in and out,” Darcy said, “And they were signing little kids’ jerseys and basketballs, and just to see women come together like this and support each other, it’s magical.”
Meanwhile, as women’s sports fans in Oregon are welcoming the return of the WNBA, the Portland Fire players are still just getting to know each other. The team has spent only a few weeks practicing together, and all of them are new to the coaching staff and to Portland.
Barker said she’s already developing a special bond with her teammates despite only knowing them for a short period of time. That showed up on the court, she said, in how they supported each other even when they were losing.
“When we got good plays, we were all high-fiving and coming together in our timeouts and huddles and all that,” Barker said. “We really were just trying to give each other ideas and listening, and when you can have a team come together and build that chemistry on and off the court, it’s really special to see what can happen on the floor too. And so as long as we just stay together, we’re going to have a really fun season.”
