Portland WNBA sells 7,500 ticket deposits ahead of 2026 season

PORTLAND, Oregon — This story is courtesy of the Portland Business Journal, a KGW news partner. Read their story here.

Two months after the WNBA formally announced Portland as its 15th expansion franchise, the team has already sold a total of 7,500 season ticket member deposits.

While the number indicates a slowing rate of deposits compared to the 5,000 season ticket deposits sold in the two weeks after the announcement, the team still has ample time to collect more deposits before it starts playing at Moda Center in 2026.

The deposit, which guarantees access to Portland’s WNBA season tickets upon availability, costs fans around $26, and does not include additional seating selections and costs that will be announced at a later date by the team.

The 7,500 deposits mean the Portland WNBA team has made approximately $195,000 in revenue just from deposits. For comparison, the Golden State Valkyries only reached 20,000 season ticket member deposits themselves, over a year after the expansion was announced.

Ownership group RAJ Sports acquired both the WNBA team and the city’s NWSL team, the Portland Thorns, this year for a combined $188 million. RAJ’s Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal have emphasized Portland’s significance in women’s sports and its potential to be a global hub for women’s sports since acquiring the Thorns in January.

“I would love to see Portland really solidify itself as the epicenter of women’s professional sports,” Bhathal Merage said to the Business Journal in August. “I think that the fans of the Thorns were early supporters and recognized the potential of women’s sports, which has made a significant impact on the industry today.”

RAJ Sports also recently appointed the Thorns’ former General Manager Karina LeBlanc as the group’s executive vice president of strategic growth development, and Mike Whitehead, former senior VP of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, as the group’s managing director. (Merage and Bhathal are the children of Raj and Marta Bhathal, who own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.)