WNBA | Portland Fire & Toronto Tempo
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
A new CBA. Two new cities. And a season tipping off on May 8.
For the second year running, the WNBA is welcoming expansion franchises — and the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo aren't just filling roster spots on a schedule. They represent the league's leap into new markets, new fanbases, and in Toronto's case, an entirely new country. The Golden State Valkyries showed last year that expansion teams don't have to be punching bags. They made the playoffs. Now Portland and Toronto have to answer the same question: can you build a winner from scratch in Year One?
With the historic new CBA just landed this week, the offseason is finally moving — and things are about to get exciting. Numerous players are hitting free agency, the expansion draft is coming, the 2026 Draft is April 13, and training camp opens April 19. Here's your complete guide to what's coming and why both new teams are worth watching from Day One.
This isn't the first time Portland has had a WNBA team. The original Portland Fire played from 2000 to 2002 before folding during a dark chapter of league contraction. This new franchise is a resurrection — same name, same city, completely different era. The team is owned by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, the sibling duo who also own the Portland Thorns FC through RAJ Sports, who paid $125 million for the franchise.
The front office moves have been sharp. General manager Vanja Černivec served as vice president of basketball operations for the Golden State Valkyries before coming to Portland — meaning the person building this roster literally helped build the winningest expansion team in WNBA history. That's not an accident.
"Returning to the league that shaped me, now as an assistant coach with the Portland Fire, is truly special. When I retired, my hope was for a brighter, more powerful future for this league and its players. Now, I get to help turn that vision into a reality in Portland."
— Sylvia Fowles, Portland Fire Assistant Coach
Sylvia Fowles retired in 2022 as the league's all-time leading rebounder, with two Finals MVPs, two championships, the 2017 league MVP, and four Defensive Player of the Year awards. She was inducted as a first-ballot nominee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2025. She had multiple coaching options. She chose Portland. That alone tells you something about where this franchise is headed.
The facilities are a genuine competitive advantage. In February 2025, RAJ Sports announced a first-of-its-kind joint practice facility between the Fire and the Thorns in Hillsboro. The initial phase costs $75 million, with the overall cost reaching $150 million for the multi-phase project. A 63,000-square-foot training facility designed specifically for women athletes will be ready in time for the 2026 season. In a league that just fought hard for better housing and facilities in the new CBA, Portland is already living that future.
Fan demand? Already answered. Portland fans have secured more than 15,000 season tickets ahead of the season — before the team had signed a single player. Portland is cementing itself as a hub for women's sports; the Portland Thorns are consistently among the top attendance figures in the NWSL. This city has shown it will show up for women's sports, over and over.
The Toronto Tempo are something genuinely unprecedented in the 30-year history of the WNBA — the league's first franchise outside of the United States. That's not just a geographic milestone. It's a statement about where women's basketball is going: global, growing, and impossible to ignore.
The head coach is as qualified as anyone in the business. Sandy Brondello is a two-time WNBA champion (2014, 2024) and WNBA Coach of the Year, joining the Tempo following a decade of success as head coach of the New York Liberty and the Phoenix Mercury. She guided her teams to four WNBA Finals appearances and became one of only two coaches in league history to capture championships with multiple franchises.
"To build a team from the ground up, that really excited me. This is the place I wanted to be."
— Sandy Brondello, Toronto Tempo Head Coach
The Tempo's vision is audaciously national. Rather than planting a flag in one city, the team will play two regular-season games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver and two at Bell Centre in Montreal, in addition to their base at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. That makes four different venues across Canada hosting Tempo home games during the inaugural season. The Raptors took years to become "Canada's team." The Tempo are starting there on Day One.
The support for women's basketball in Canada was already evident. When the Atlanta Dream and Seattle Storm played at Vancouver's Rogers Arena last August, nearly 16,000 fans turned out and Seattle guard Skylar Diggins described the crowd as "electric." Those were someone else's teams. When the Tempo arrive in Vancouver in August, they'll have a team of their own.
The Tempo sold out their inaugural season ticket memberships in December 2025. The demand is real. The infrastructure is in place. Now they just need to win.
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