WNBA Expansion to Portland Stalls After Stadium Concerns: Report

The WNBA has shelved plans to bring an expansion team to Portland after talks stalled, according to The Oregonian.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent a letter to Senator Ron Wyden confirming the news on Wednesday, saying that Portland had been identified as "an ideal destintation for a WNBA franchise" but that plans had been delayed, per The Oregonian.

An ownership group led by entrepreneur Kirk Brown has been fighting to bring the WNBA back to Portland. Wyden has been pushing the issue as well, while the potential expansion has the support of New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, who went to University of Oregon.

In the letter, Engelbert noted renovation plans at Moda Center, where the Portland Trail Blazers play, as a primary point of concern. Renovations are planned for sometime during the new few summers, but the WNBA season runs from May to October.

Engelbert wrote that the WNBA would wait to come to Portland until the scheduled renovations are settled.

Now with 12 teams, the WNBA peaked at 16 teams in 2002. One of these teams was the Portland Fire, which played starting 2000 before folding in 2002.

The league is hoping to add "a couple of teams" ahead of the 2025 season, with cities like Denver considered as top candidates for expansion. At the beginning of October, the WNBA announced the addition of a team in the Bay area, with the ownership group committing $50 million to expansion.