The WNBA announced months ago that the league would be expanding to Golden State (San Francisco) next season and Toronto a year later and it seemed like that would be it for a few years, but that was not the case.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Joining Toronto as a new franchise, the league has revealed the return of WNBA basketball to Portland in 2026. The Portland Fire was an expansion franchise in 2000 before it folded in 2002.
Welcome back to the @WNBA, Portland.
Many battles on the hardwood await in the Rose City! ???? pic.twitter.com/FNwXalnCWH— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) September 18, 2024
This will be the first time the WNBA returns to a city that had a team in which it either folded or relocated elsewhere. Teams like the Winnipeg Jets in the NHL and Los Angeles Rams in the NFL were in a city, left and came back years later.
The plan is for the new franchise to play at Moda Center, the home of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. With renovations of the Moda Center over the next two years, however, there is a chance the WNBA team may play at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the former arena for the ‘Blazers.
Now that San Francisco will be coming next season and Portland to follow them, the Phoenix Mercury is projected to have two new Western Conference foes, assuming both expansion teams are placed in the conference based on their geographical locations.
When the Fire existed back then, multiple former players and coaches also had affiliations with Phoenix. Former Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard was a coach of the Fire in 2000-01 while former assistant coach Tully Bevilaqua and forward Stacey Thomas both played during all three seasons of Portland’s previous existence.
It will be interesting to see how the processes of constructing the roster and picking a name will unfold. There is no information available on whether the Portland organization will be known as the Fire once again or go another direction.
With three new franchises joining, this will put the WNBA at an uneven number of teams, 15.
Time will tell if the league eventually does go to 16 teams and split into eight per conference. If they head that route with eight per conference, in-conference playoff matchups leading up to the Finals instead of seedings can be a realistic possibility. Currently, the league has 12 teams and the top eight get into the playoffs, regardless of their conference.
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers ASU Athletics, the Phoenix Mercury and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
