The Latest in Women’s Sports Construction Arms Race: A $75 Million Joint WNBA-NWSL Facility

The practice facility arms race has been a defining feature in the explosion of women’s sports over the last year.

Now, women’s teams in Portland will be sharing a facility in what is believed to be a first. The owner of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns and a still-unnamed WNBA expansion franchise announced plans for a joint facility set to open in 2026.

RAJ Sports has owned the Thorns since 2023 and was recently awarded a WNBA expansion team that will start play next year.

“Building an innovative training facility that provides the best possible environment for our athletes across professional soccer and professional basketball will be a game changer for women’s sports,” Lisa Bhathal Merage, the co-owner of RAJ Sports and governor for both teams, said in a release. 

The construction and development of the facility will cost $75 million, a representative for RAJ told Front Office Sports. The organizations are planning to spend another $75 million in developing the site.

The $125 million the Bhathals committed to the expansion fee for the WNBA team includes the first $75 million in construction costs.

The Indianapolis Fever recently said they would spend $78 million on a new training center, while the Chicago Sky are building a $38 million facility slated to open in December after years of player complaints.

The facility will be on a 12-acre property 12 miles from downtown Portland in Hillsboro, Oregon. The Thorns play downtown at Providence Park, while the WNBA team will play nearby at the Moda Center.

It’s the first complex to house two professional women’s sports teams and will have the franchises on opposite ends of the facility, with a common area in the middle for recovery, dining, family rooms, business offices and other amenities. Players and staff will have separate entrances for their respective teams. Katrina LeBlanc, the former Thorns GM and now a RAJ Sports executive, said they consulted with Thorns players on what the facility needed, and the planned amenities include a strength training facility, recovery pool, massage room, and individual recovery rooms with hyperbaric chambers.

The building—previously owned by Nike and designed by architecture firm Populous—will be renovated and expanded and is set to open in 2026 in time for the Thorns’ season, which starts in March. The new WNBA team will begin its inaugural season in May. 

Though six other cities have both WNBA and NWSL teams, only in Portland do those teams share ownership.

The Bhathal family bought the Thorns for $63 million when previous owner Merritt Paulson was forced to put the team on the block in 2023 after allegations of sexual misconduct by a former coach came to light. The Bathals made their fortune in swimwear and are also minority owners of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

“They always intended to build a place for the NWSL,” LeBlanc told Front Office Sports. “So then you get the WNBA and the opportunity arose now of having the first ever [dual facility].”

Portland has been at the forefront of the recent growth of women’s sports. The Thorns have set attendance records in the NWSL and the city has the country’s first women’s sports bar, The Sports Bra. 

Though only three WNBA teams—the Storm, Mercury, and Aces—currently have their own practice facility, that number will more than triple in years to come as the Valkyries, Fever, Sky, Sparks, Wings, Liberty, and now Portland team are planning or building new ones.

In the NWSL, a similar race has started, but at a slower pace. League commissioner Jessica Berman said its infrastructure situation is “probably the hardest problem to solve long-term.” The Kansas City Current have their own training facility and the Utah Royals, Bay FC and Angel City FC all have plans for new ones in the coming years.

“I’m trying to tell people who don’t have their own practice facility that it’s a huge advantage,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase told FOS in October. 

While the facility is a year away from completion, LeBlanc said the early feedback has been positive and that it may help the WNBA franchise have early success.

“What’s the saying?” LeBlanc said. “If you build it, they will come.”