Portland announces plans for historic shared WNBA and NWSL practice facility

The GIST: Yesterday, Front Office Sports confirmed a women’s sports first: Two pro women’s teams from different leagues will share a new multimillion practice facility in Portland, Oregon. While six other cities have both WNBA and NWSL teams like Portland will in 2026, only PDX boasts both teams under the same ownership umbrella.

• The move not only highlights how practice facilities are becoming a major investment trend in the NWSL and WNBA, but also how sports teams and sponsors can benefit from shared ownership. Sharing is caring.

The details: The facility will be for the NWSL’s Thorns and the WNBA’s unnamed Portland squad and will cost $150M for construction and development. The site — a former Nike building — will open its doors ahead of the Thorns’ 2026 kickoff and the W team’s inaugural season.

• The two teams will be positioned on opposite ends of the facility with separate entrances, but they will share a central common area for use such as recovery, dining, and offices. The facility’s swanky planned amenities include strength training equipment, a recovery pool, massage room, and hyperbaric chambers.

The trend: Sharing training digs isn’t novel for men’s and women’s teams under the same ownership, but the women have usually received the short end of the stick. These days, franchise owners have realized that building premium facilities pays off in the form of rising valuations, which has spurred a trend of building world-class practice centers in the WNBA and NWSL.

• While only four WNBA teams have opened their own practice facility, including the Golden State Valkyries’ brand new one, there are another six teams with facilities in the works. Development is slower in the NWSL, although the KC Current already have their own facility while three other teams have plans for future ones.

Zooming out: The Bhathals have a unique advantage in being able to pool resources — and so do sponsors as a result. A deal with Portland ownership gives both local and multinational sponsors the ability to access multiple franchises across two of the most powerful leagues in women’s sports. Nothing spendy here.