Portland Fire WNBA: Roster, Schedule, and How to Get Tickets in 2026

The Portland Fire are the WNBA's newest expansion franchise, tipping off their inaugural season in May 2026 from Moda Center in downtown Portland. The team plays in the Western Conference under first-time WNBA head coach Alex Sarama, with a 12-player roster led by veterans Bridget Carleton and Megan Gustafson alongside rookie Serah Williams. Ownership sits with siblings Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, the same RAJ Sports group that runs the NWSL's Portland Thorns FC.

If the name sounds familiar, it should. Portland had a WNBA team called the Fire from 2000 to 2002, with Paul Allen serving as chairman through the Trail Blazers organization. The new Fire share the name, the city, and even the same arena, but the franchise itself is brand-new. Here's the full picture, including who plays where, what the 2026 schedule looks like, and how to grab seats for a home game at Moda Center. Information is current as of May 21, 2026.

Who Are the New Portland Fire?

The Fire are Portland's first WNBA team in nearly a quarter century, founded as part of the league's ongoing expansion push. They were announced on September 18, 2024, alongside a 2026 launch target, and they hit that 2026 target exactly on schedule.

At-a-Glance: The Portland Fire by the Numbers

A quick snapshot of the basics:

• League: WNBA (Western Conference)

• First season: 2026

• Founded / Announced: September 18, 2024

• Home arena: Moda Center (capacity 19,393 seats)

• Owners: Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, through RAJ Sports

• Head coach: Alex Sarama

• General manager: Vanja Černivec

• Interim president: Clare Hamill

• Vice president of basketball operations: Ashley Battle

The Fire joined the WNBA during a period of significant growth for women's basketball and the league itself. They're one of the newest expansion franchises added during the WNBA's recent growth period, following the Golden State Valkyries in 2025 and arriving the same year as the Toronto Tempo.

Why "Fire"? The Name Comes Back to Portland

The "Fire" name is not new to Portland. The original Portland Fire played three WNBA seasons from 2000 to 2002 before folding. When the league granted Portland a new franchise in 2024, ownership opted to revive the name rather than launch fresh. The result: the same city, the same arena, and the same brand—but a different team and a different era. The deeper history sits later in this guide, but the short version is that the new ownership group wanted to anchor the franchise to Portland's WNBA past while building something structurally independent.

The 2026 Roster

The Fire finalized their 12-player opening night roster ahead of their season debut. Eight of those 12 came from the April 3, 2026 expansion draft, where Portland selected 11 players from existing WNBA rosters. Two of the original 11, Chloe Bibby and Maya Caldwell, were traded post-draft, and Nika Mühl's contract was suspended while she recovers from an ACL tear.

The roster shifted again on May 21, when Portland waived guards Sug Sutton and Kamiah Smalls and forward Haley Jones, promoted developmental players Frieda Bühner and Holly Winterburn to standard contracts, activated guard Teja Oblak off a suspended injury contract, and re-signed guard Jordan Harrison to a developmental deal. What remained was a mix of established WNBA veterans, accomplished international signings, and a marquee rookie prospect.

Guards

• Sarah Ashlee Barker: Wing-sized combo guard out of Alabama, drafted into the WNBA in 2025 and selected by Portland in the expansion draft.

• Carla Leite: French guard with EuroLeague Women experience, expected to handle backup ball-handling duties.

• Karlie Samuelson: One of the roster's most established perimeter shooting threats; one of the most experienced guards on the roster.

• Holly Winterburn: British guard with pro experience across England, Turkey, and Greece and one college season at Oregon; promoted from a developmental deal to a standard contract on May 21.

• Teja Oblak: Slovenian guard and 2025 EuroLeague Women champion; activated off a suspended injury contract on May 21 and yet to make her Fire debut.

Forwards

• Bridget Carleton: A Canadian national team forward and one of the Fire's most experienced players, formerly with the Minnesota Lynx. Carleton was Portland's No. 1 overall selection in the 2026 expansion draft, the franchise's first-ever pick.

• Emily Engstler: Versatile defensive forward who plays bigger than her listed size.

• Nyadiew Puoch: Australian wing with a developing two-way game.

• Frieda Bühner: German forward-center and the Fire's 2026 second-round pick (17th overall); promoted from a developmental deal to a standard contract on May 21.

Bigs

• Megan Gustafson: The 2019 Naismith Player of the Year at Iowa and one of the most decorated big women in college basketball history. She brings WNBA experience and post scoring.

• Luisa Geiselsöder: German center adding length and rim protection.

• Serah Williams: The Fire's rookie spotlight, a young big with NCAA pedigree expected to develop into a long-term frontcourt piece.

Developmental contract: Jordan Harrison, a guard re-signed on May 21, sits outside the 12-player active roster but practices and travels with the team and can be activated for a limited number of games without counting against the cap.

How the Roster Came Together

On opening night, Portland's expansion-draft retention rate sat at roughly 73%, eight of the 11 original picks made the roster. The May 21 waivers of Sug Sutton and Haley Jones, both expansion-draft selections, brought that down to six of 11, or about 55%, by late May. The Bibby and Caldwell trades freed cap space and brought in rotation depth before the season, while Mühl's medical situation explains the one non-trade departure heading into opening night.

The roster skews younger than most established WNBA teams, which is typical for a first-year franchise. Carleton, Samuelson, and Gustafson form the veteran core. Williams, Barker, and Bühner represent the developmental ceiling.

Head Coach Alex Sarama and the Front Office

The Fire entrusted their first season to Alex Sarama, a first-time WNBA head coach with a background in player development. Sarama has spent years working with elite-level players individually before being handed a full roster, and the hire signals an emphasis on development over short-term wins. That fits the realistic outlook for any first-year expansion team.

Who Is Alex Sarama?

Sarama built his reputation as a player development specialist before taking on the head coaching role. He held head coaching jobs in Italy and arrived in North America with a stint at Rip City Remix, the Trail Blazers' NBA G League affiliate based in Portland, before joining the Cleveland Cavaliers as an assistant coach and director of player development. That Rip City Remix connection matters locally: it means Sarama already knows the Trail Blazers organization, the Portland front office culture, and the player-development pipeline that the Fire's roster will lean on. His résumé skews toward individual skill work and modern offensive concepts rather than traditional coaching ladders, which makes him a slightly unconventional hire for a head coaching slot. For a team that needs to build culture, identity, and player growth simultaneously, that profile makes sense.

The Fire filled out the rest of the bench well ahead of the season, completing the staff by March 2026. Sarama's assistant coaches are Brittni Donaldson, who doubles as an assistant general manager, Hall of Famer Sylvia Fowles, Danielle Boiago, and Sefu Bernard, who also serves as director of learning and development. The group pairs Sarama's individual-skills background with experienced voices like Fowles, reinforcing the franchise's development-first identity.

RAJ Sports: The Ownership Group Behind the Fire

The Fire's ownership group, RAJ Sports, is led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal. The same group owns the Portland Thorns FC of the NWSL, giving the Bhathal family a foothold in two of the country's most established women's professional leagues in the same city.

That dual-team ownership is more than cosmetic. It signals a longer-term investment in women's professional sports in Portland, shared infrastructure, shared front office expertise, and a built-in audience that already supports a women's franchise locally. RAJ Sports has also broken ground on a roughly $150 million joint training facility in Hillsboro that will house both the Fire and the Thorns FC under one roof, with practice courts, training rooms, and front office space designed for two professional women's teams from day one. For fans in Portland or Vancouver, that overlap matters because it suggests the Fire are being built to last, not to flip.

Moda Center: Home of the Portland Fire

The Fire play their home games at Moda Center, the 19,393-seat arena in Portland's Rose Quarter neighborhood. The building is best known as home of the Portland Trail Blazers and as one of the busier mid-sized NBA arenas on the West Coast. For WNBA games, the seating bowl is often reconfigured to a smaller footprint, but the full capacity remains a target for marquee matchups.

Moda Center is reachable by MAX light rail (Rose Quarter Transit Center stop) and sits a short walk from downtown Portland. Parking is available in adjacent garages, though it tends to be cheaper to take transit on game nights.

Same Arena, New Era

Here's the part that ties the franchise's two eras together: the original Portland Fire (2000–2002) played at the exact same building, when it was known as the Rose Garden. The arena was renamed Moda Center in 2013 as part of a naming-rights deal with Moda Health, but it's the same venue Jackie Stiles played in 24 years ago. That continuity is rare in professional sports, where revivals usually come with new buildings, new neighborhoods, or both. The 2026 regular season home opener against the Chicago Sky drew an announced crowd of 19,335, a near-sellout that signaled Portland was ready for the franchise's return long before tipoff.

2026 Schedule and What to Expect

The Fire's inaugural 2026 season covers a 44-game regular season schedule plus a short preseason, with the team carrying a 1-2 record through May 14, 2026. The early stretch was designed to give the roster live reps before the bulk of conference play in the summer.

Be there for the first chapter of Portland Fire basketball. Explore upcoming home games and find Portland Fire tickets on TicketX with transparent pricing and zero buyer fees.

Key Dates of the Inaugural Season

A quick rundown of the dates that matter most for fans planning a first visit:

• Preseason home opener: May 3, 2026, vs Los Angeles Sparks

• Regular season home opener: May 9, 2026, vs Chicago Sky

• Primary rivalry: Seattle Storm (Pacific Northwest geography makes this the natural in-conference rivalry)

• Total regular season games: 44

Specific times, opponents, and dates beyond the early stretch sit on the official Fire schedule page, which is also where you'll find date-by-date ticket options.

What a Realistic First-Season Outlook Looks Like

Expansion teams rarely contend in year one. The Golden State Valkyries set a historic benchmark in 2025, becoming the first WNBA expansion team ever to reach the playoffs and finishing 23–21 in their inaugural season. Portland's road looks steeper: a deep Western Conference and a less-established roster mean a realistic year-one bar is a competitive, .500-level run rather than a playoff push. The roster has WNBA veterans in Carleton, Gustafson, and Samuelson, and the rookie class has promise, but a young expansion team will need time to find its footing.

For many fans, that's not a downside. Inaugural seasons offer something later years can't: open seating choices, lower secondary market prices on most non-marquee dates, and the chance to be in the building for the franchise's first home win and a sold-out playoff push down the road.

The Original Portland Fire (2000-2002) vs the New Portland Fire (2026)

The new Portland Fire share a name with a team from a quarter century ago. They share an arena, a city, and a fan base that overlaps generationally. They do not, however, share an ownership, a coaching staff, a roster, or even a corporate structure. The two eras compare side by side like this:

The takeaway: brand continuity, but legal and structural separation. 

If you caught Jackie Stiles at the Rose Garden in 2001, you're watching the same building this summer, but a different team altogether.

Whether you're reliving the original Fire era or seeing Portland basketball history for the first time, browse upcoming games and compare Portland Fire tickets on TicketX.

Why the Original Fire Folded

The original Portland Fire wound down after the 2002 season because the WNBA was restructuring its ownership model. Paul Allen, who also owned the Trail Blazers, opted not to repurchase the Fire as an independent franchise. The Trail Blazers were carrying financial pressures of their own, and the WNBA at that point was operating on tighter margins than today. A local group reportedly led by Clyde Drexler and Terry Emmert tried to acquire the team but couldn't finalize a deal in time.

The franchise compiled a 37–59 record across three seasons and never reached the playoffs. Jackie Stiles was the marquee player and won 2001 WNBA Rookie of the Year after setting NCAA Division I scoring records at Southwest Missouri State. A serious injury during the 2002 season cut short both her playing arc and a key piece of the team's identity. Head coach and GM Linda Hargrove ran the roster across all three seasons, and a handful of Fire alumni stayed in the WNBA orbit, including Vanessa Nygaard, who later became head coach of the Phoenix Mercury.

How the Name and the City Came Back Together

When the WNBA awarded Portland a new franchise on September 18, 2024, the new ownership group chose to revive the "Fire" name rather than start fresh. That choice matters for older fans who watched Stiles at the Rose Garden, and it matters for younger fans who get a built-in piece of WNBA history with their new team. For Portland's sports identity (already anchored by the Trail Blazers, Timbers, Thorns FC, and Winterhawks), the Fire's return slots into a hole that's been open since 2002.

The Portland Fire in the WNBA's 2026 Expansion Wave

The Fire didn't arrive in a vacuum. The WNBA is in the middle of its largest expansion run since the league's earliest years, with multiple new teams added since 2024 and three more announced through the end of the decade.

From Valkyries to Fire to Tempo: WNBA's Growth Story

The current expansion timeline as of May 2026 looks like this:

• 2025: Golden State Valkyries (the WNBA's first team in the Bay Area)

• 2026: Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire (the league's first Canadian team and Portland's return)

• 2028: Cleveland franchise (announced)

• 2029: Detroit franchise (announced)

• 2030: Philadelphia franchise (announced)

That's six new teams in six years, in a league that spent most of the 2010s frozen at 12 franchises. The growth tracks alongside the larger WNBA business story: rising TV ratings, a new media rights deal, a renegotiated collective bargaining agreement, and the cultural moment driven by stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, A'ja Wilson, and Sabrina Ionescu. For a clear primer on how the WNBA and NBA compare in this expansion era, see our breakdown of NBA vs WNBA.

For Portland specifically, the timing matters. The city already supports a women's pro team in the Thorns FC, the geography fits a Pacific Northwest rivalry with Seattle, and the arena situation was settled before tipoff. The Fire arrived with infrastructure in place.

How to Watch and Where to Get Tickets

Most Fire home games are broadcast through the WNBA's national TV partners and the league's streaming option, with selected games picked up by regional networks. For in-person attendance, primary release tickets sit on the official team page through Moda Center's ticketing partner. Memberships and season ticket packages are available directly from the team.

For single-game tickets, especially on dates that have already moved through primary release, the secondary market is where most Portland-area fans end up. TicketX carries Fire home game tickets with zero fees on every purchase, which removes the unpredictable add-ons that often inflate final pricing on competing platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions

The questions Portland fans ask most before a first trip to Moda Center, from tip-off dates to where the cheapest seats live.

When does the Portland Fire start playing? When is the Fire's first home game?

The Fire's preseason home opener was May 3, 2026, against the Los Angeles Sparks. The regular season home opener was May 9, 2026, against the Chicago Sky. Both dates are at Moda Center, and the regular season runs into September with 44 games total.

Where do the Portland Fire play their home games?

The Fire play at Moda Center, the 19,393-seat arena in Portland's Rose Quarter. The building is shared with the Portland Trail Blazers and was previously known as the Rose Garden. The original Portland Fire (2000–2002) played in the same building under its earlier name.

Who is the Portland Fire head coach?

Alex Sarama is the Fire's first head coach. He comes from a player development background rather than a traditional coaching ladder, which signals an emphasis on long-term player growth over immediate roster fit. He is backed by a staff finalized by March 2026 that includes Hall of Famer Sylvia Fowles, with general manager Vanja Černivec handling roster construction alongside the coaching group.

Is the new Portland Fire the same team as the original Portland Fire?

No, not legally or structurally. The new Fire share the name, the city, and the arena (formerly Rose Garden, now Moda Center) with the 2000–2002 Portland Fire, but the ownership, coaching staff, roster, and corporate identity are all separate. The original team operated with Paul Allen as chairman through the Trail Blazers organization. The new team is owned by RAJ Sports.

How can I buy Portland Fire tickets for home games?

The team's official site handles season memberships and primary release single-game tickets through Moda Center's ticketing partner. For dates that have already moved through primary, the secondary market is the typical next stop. TicketX carries Fire home game tickets with zero fees on every order. See live availability with Portland Fire tickets on TicketX.

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