The ownership group behind the Portland Thorns doubled down on women's professional sports after losing the Portland Trail Blazers auction to Jody Allen's $2.1 billion ask, announcing full commitment to both the NWSL club and the league's inaugural Portland Fire basketball franchise. The consortium—led by Raj Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Johnson—released the statement three weeks after whispers circulated that their NBA pursuit would drain attention from the women's properties. It did not.
The group now controls two of the six founding Fire franchises and the winningest NWSL club of the past decade, which sold out 17,000 seats at Providence Park last season. The Blazers bid collapsed in late December when Allen's estate decided not to sell after months of diligence, leaving the Bhathal group with roughly $400 million in committed capital and no place to deploy it. The Fire—launching play in January 2026—became the redirect. A person close to the group said the timeline accelerated by four months once the Trail Blazers door closed.
This matters because women's sports ownership is splitting into two models. One camp treats NWSL and WNBA teams as portfolio add-ons—modest checks, modest attention, hired operators running the show. The other builds vertically integrated platforms where the same executive team runs multiple women's properties in a single market, sharing ticketing infrastructure, sponsorship inventory, and overhead. Portland is choosing the latter. The Fire will play at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the 12,888-seat barn the Blazers vacated in 1995, which the group leased through 2035 last fall. Thorns games stay at Providence Park, but the back office merges: one CFO, one VP of partnerships, one content studio cutting highlights for both clubs. Sponsors get bundled inventory. Adidas already renewed with the Thorns through 2028 and is in advanced talks to extend the deal across both teams, according to two people familiar with the negotiation.
The financial logic is simple. The Thorns generated roughly $22 million in revenue last year on a $340 million enterprise valuation. The Fire's expansion fee was $50 million, paid in two installments. If the group can push combined revenue past $40 million by year three—achievable with shared costs and cross-sold sponsorships—the blended operating margin beats owning a single WNBA team outright. The Blazers would have been a different scale, but the women's bet offers higher ROI with less capital and no Larry Miller baggage.
Watch for three moves. First, the Fire will name a head coach by late March; Nate Tibbetts, currently with the Phoenix Mercury, has interviewed twice. Second, the Thorns' kit sponsor deal expires in June, and the group is shopping a combined Fire-Thorns package at $8 million annually, per a pitch deck reviewed by two potential bidders. Third, the consortium is quietly exploring a third women's property—either a USL Super League expansion club or a National Women's Soccer League team in Seattle if the Sounders ownership ever sells. The Bhathals met with intermediaries in Vancouver last month.
The Blazers loss turned into leverage. Portland now has two women's franchises, one stadium lease, and a ownership group with nowhere else to put the money.
The takeaway
Portland's NWSL-Fire ownership pivoted a failed **$2.1B** NBA bid into a bundled women's sports platform targeting **$40M** combined revenue by 2028.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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