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As uncertainty swirls around the future of the Trail Blazers in Portland under new owner Tom Dundon, the family that lost out on buying the NBA franchise is going all in on the city through its WNBA and NWSL teams.
Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, the siblings who own the Fire and Thorns through RAJ Sports, tried to buy the Blazers last year but lost out to Dundon’s group. RAJ subsequently sued the Cherng Family Trust, one of Dundon’s limited partners, claiming they were originally part of Raj’s bid to buy the Blazers. Within a month, RAJ dropped the suit, reaching a deal out of court that was facilitated by Dundon.
Bhathal Merage previously told Front Office Sports that while missing out on the Blazers was the “big stinger,” the family was moving on.
She reiterated that the family is not looking in the rear-view mirror during the FOS Asset Class event on Tuesday.
“What happens for a reason happens for a reason,” she said. “We’re just really focused on our women’s sports properties in Portland.”
There’s a notable dichotomy in how Dundon has been treating the Blazers compared with how the Bhathals have handled the Fire and Thorns. Dundon has gotten criticized for cost-cutting, including layoffs and an unusually short one-year deal for new head coach Micah Nori. He has been fighting with the city over funding for renovations to the Moda Center, where the Blazers play home games. This has all led to some suggesting the Blazers could leave Portland under Dundon.
“I want to be very direct about it: I would see it as a failure if we did not keep the team in Portland,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said during a press conference following the league’s board of governors meeting this week.
The Bhathals, meanwhile, just opened the new Kaiser Permanente Performance Center in Portland, a facility that both the Fire and Thorns train in that cost more than $150 million and was financed privately. The facility, which is just under 100,000 square feet, was specifically designed to accommodate female athletes, including having mothers’ rooms and family rooms. There are two full-size soccer pitches and two full-size basketball courts.
“It is a home for our athletes,” Bhathal Merage said. “Great athletes want great environments, so it will hopefully attract and retain athletes, as well as staff, to us in Portland.”
Although the family hails from Southern California, they wasted no time fully embracing Portland once they saw how dedicated the fanbases were for their WNBA and NWSL teams. The city is the “global epicenter of women’s sports,” Alex Bhathal said.
“You can’t find passion the same way as you do in Portland,” Bhathal Merage said.
She recalled attending a Thorns game and being “shocked and amazed” to see there were 26,000 people in attendance. “You go to an NBA or NHL game, and those arenas hold, on average, 17,000 or 18,000 people.”
The Thorns currently lead the NWSL this season with average attendance of over 19,000. They finished last season first in average attendance as well. The Fire are currently fourth in average attendance in the WNBA with almost 15,000 people.
“For a city that has two-and-a-half million people, [Portland is] really a mid-market unicorn,” Bhathal Merage said.
The Bhathals also co-own the Sacramento Kings, but much of their focus is on the WNBA and NWSL teams in Portland. They are betting so big on women’s sports because they believe the WNBA and NWSL are good, long-term investments. “I don’t think women’s sports is a trend,” Bhathal Merage said. “Women’s sports is here to stay.”
Alex Bhathal did not balk when asked what he thought of comments that Jason Wright of Ariel Investments recently made to FOS, about WNBA team valuations being able to catch up to NHL valuations, pointing to growth in metrics like attendance, sponsorship revenue, merchandise sales, and media rights.
“We think there’s so much growth ahead in women’s sports,” Bhathal “There’s no reason why women’s sports can’t be comparable to men’s sports in valuations.”
