Sacramento Kings Co-Owners Just Paid $125 Million For A New WNBA Team In Portland

Topline

Two co-owners of the Sacramento Kings basketball team, Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, are expanding further into women’s sports with a new WNBA team in Portland that will tip off in 2026, the league’s third expansion team planned for the next two years as the popularity of women’s basketball continues to grow.

Key Facts

Siblings Bhathal Merage and Bhathal will run the still-unnamed team, which they paid $125 million for, under the company Raj Sports, according to the Associated Press (the Bhathal family is part of a group that bought the Sacramento Kings in 2013).

Portland joins Golden State and Toronto as the WNBA’s most recent expansion teams, with the Golden State Valkyries set to join the league next year and Toronto joining with Portland in 2026.

The move comes less than one year after the WNBA initially pressed pause on a plan to expand to the city, citing renovations to the Moda Center area—home of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers—where the new team will play (the women’s team could have to play some of its second season at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum next door as work continues).

The Bhathals, who also own a controlling stake in the Portland Thorns women’s soccer team, have said they plan to build a dedicated practice facility for the team.

Surprising Fact

This is the first time the WNBA will return to a city it previously left. The Portland Fire played from 2000 until it folded in 2002.

Key Background

The WNBA has seen a surge in popularity in recent years—including a significant spike last year when college standouts Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark joined the league—which is evident in its substantial increase in TV ratings, rising ticket sales and a $2.2 billion media deal secured in July. The 2024 season had the most-attended opening month in 26 years and the most-watched games ever on national television, the WNBA said. Roughly 400,000 people attended WNBA games in the first month of the season and more than half of those games were sold out, a 156% increase from the number of sold out games in the same period the year before. WNBA games also averaged a TV audience of 1.32 million viewers on ABC, ESPN and other networks—triple the viewership of the season before. Clark's debut on May 14 drew 2.13 million viewers to become the most watched WNBA game since 2001 and the highest ever on cable television.

What To Watch For

The first round of the WNBA playoffs starts Sunday, Sept. 22.

Further Reading