Portland’s incoming WNBA team names longtime sports and apparel leader to run business office

Sports and fashion industry veteran Inky Son will head business operations for Portland’s incoming WNBA team, franchise owners said Tuesday.

The professional women’s basketball team is set to start play in the Rose City for the 2026 WNBA season. The investment company RAJ Sports, led by siblings Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, owns the new Portland franchise, which doesn’t have a name yet. The company also owns the city’s professional women’s soccer team, the Portland Thorns.

Son has worked at labor unions representing men who play professional basketball and baseball. She most recently worked for the NBA Players Association as the chief administrative officer. Before joining the sports industry in 2015, Son worked in fashion. She was born in South Korea and raised in Gloversville, New York.

“This is an amazing opportunity to help bring back a WNBA franchise to Portland, a city that loves basketball and has already shown itself to be supportive of women’s sports,” Son said in a statement announcing her hire.

Son has the benefit of building the team’s front office in a state that’s emerged as a women’s basketball hub, even though it’s been without a professional team since the Portland Fire folded in 2002.

Oregonians have traditionally supported programs at major universities spanning from Eugene to Corvallis to Portland, and the state’s high schools have produced stars such as Stanford standout and current Los Angeles Sparks player Cameron Brink.

Part of Portland’s fame throughout the women’s basketball ecosystem is due to the success of the Sports Bra. The Northeast Portland pub gained national attention when it opened in 2022 and owner Jenny Nguyen pledged to only put women’s sports on the bar’s TVs. The Sports Bra is now franchising.

Nationally, the WNBA has surged in popularity in the last five years, breaking attendance and TV viewership records season after season. When the WNBA commissioner announced plans to add multiple teams before 2028, Portland seemed like a natural fit.

That made it all the more surprising when WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert rejected the first bid in November 2023, partially due to concerns over construction plans at the Moda Center. But less than a year later the Bathal family and RAJ sports, alongside Engelbert, announced Portland would be awarded a team.

In the announcement naming Son as team president, franchise owner Lisa Bhathal Merage said Son’s experience and passion make her the “ideal person to build a solid foundation for our franchise and reaffirm Portland as the global epicenter of women’s sports.”