Championship teams aren't built on game day, they're created and honed on practice courts and conditioning facilities.
Portland's WNBA team is setting up shop, and while we're still waiting on the official team name and colors, one thing is crystal clear: this franchise is serious about competing from day one. The surest sign of that is the Portland WNBA new practice facility the ownership group broke ground on this year.
In this post, we're breaking down everything we know about Portland's new practice facility, from what it means for player development to how it positions our team to compete with the current powerhouses of the WNBA.
Portland WNBA New Practice Facility: The Basics
A lot of the articles we’ve seen about the new practice facility are feel-good press releases. Let’s be clear, there’s a lot to feel good about related to this new facility, but we want to use our post to talk about what the new facility means for the team, the city, and the future of the WNBA as a whole.
This new practice facility was a $150 million investment in one thing: future championships. Most WNBA teams are still fighting for gym time with NBA teams or using outdated spaces built decades ago. It's wild that in 2025, when the WNBA is breaking attendance records, teams are still dealing with scheduling conflicts just to get court time.
Portland said "not happening," and here's what that $150 million actually bought them:
Two full-size basketball courts in a 17,000-square-foot practice gym
Our team will not be left begging for court time. Portland's players can run full scrimmages while coaches work with individuals on the second court. That's the flexibility that turns good teams into great ones.
Hyperbaric therapy and red-light therapy recovery systems
Most WNBA teams are still using ice baths and hoping for the best. Portland's players will recover like NFL athletes. Faster recovery means more intense practices and fewer injuries.
Full-time chef and nutritionist
Historically, some WNBA players have had to resort to grabbing whatever they can between practice and their second job. Portland's players get meals explicitly designed for peak performance.
Dedicated dressing rooms designed for female athletes in a spa-like setting
WNBA players have been changing in facilities designed for 6'8" men for decades. When stars like Kelsey Plum and Breanna Stewart are deciding between Portland and another team in free agency, guess which locker room experience they’ll remember?
Elite training core integrating sports science and medicine
While other teams patch together training programs, Portland built a whole system. It's the difference between having a good trainer and having a whole sports science department.
When we wrote about the Valkyries looking completely outmatched in their debut, it wasn't just about talent, it was about preparation and infrastructure. With this new facility, Portland just eliminated every excuse for not being ready from day one.
The Portland Factor
Other cities talk about supporting women's sports. Portland puts $150 million where its mouth is.
Look around the WNBA, and plenty of owners bought teams as side projects. Then you have the Bhathal family, who looked at women's sports and said, "This is where we're building our empire."
Portland has been proving that investing in women’s sports works for over a decade. The Thorns have won two NWSL championships and regularly sell out Providence Park. The Sports Bra is so popular you need reservations just to watch a game. Portland isn't a city experimenting with women's sports, we’ve already got a formula that works.
The symbolism here is also just perfect: The new facility is being built in a repurposed Nike campus in Hillsboro. Nike, the company that spent decades marketing men's basketball while women's sports fought for scraps, just had their old offices transformed into a world-class training facility exclusively for female athletes. If that’s not poetic justice, I don’t know what is.
Portland WNBA Practice Facility: The Thorns Partnership
The new practice facility is for Portland’s WNBA team, but it’s also for the Thorns soccer team. We’ve seen a lot of posts about how inspiring it is to see two women’s teams sharing a facility. Again, we want to take a different tack — what does the partnership with the Thorns do for Portland?
First, the business case for sharing a facility with the Thorns is bulletproof. Most sports facilities sit empty half the year. Portland just solved that problem. The Thorns train during the WNBA off-season, and the WNBA team trains during the NWSL off-season. That's 12 months of facility usage instead of six. Basic math says that's how you justify a $150 million investment.
Shared resources also mean both teams get NFL-level amenities without NFL-level costs. One chef serves both teams. One sports science department handles all the athletes. One facility maintenance crew keeps everything running. The overhead gets split, but the quality stays premium.
But those aren’t the only advantages of this partnership — we’re excited about the potential for cross-training opportunities.
Soccer players are some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world, and basketball players need that endurance to compete in a league as physical as the W. Basketball players have incredible lateral movement and jumping ability that soccer players can use. Having both sports in the same building creates training opportunities neither team could get alone.
The marketing angle is genius too. Portland has 15,000+ Thorns season ticket holders who already understand women's professional sports. They don't need to be convinced that female athletes are worth watching, they just need to be introduced to basketball.
What This Means for 2026 and Beyond
Most expansion teams take 2-3 years to really be solid competitors in the league. The Valkyries are probably going to struggle this season, and Toronto will likely face the same reality in 2026. That's just how expansion works in professional sports.
But this new practice facility might just give Portland the leg up it needs to avoid some of those early-year struggles.
When top free agents choose between contracts, they're not just looking at money, they're looking at where they can maximize their careers. Portland just built the best training environment in women's basketball, which is a recruiting advantage no other team has.
The development piece is huge too. Young players drafted by Portland will improve faster because they'll have access to recovery technology, nutrition programs, and training methods that most WNBA teams can't offer.
The coaching staff angle is equally important. Top-tier coaches want resources to do their jobs properly. Portland can now attract assistant coaches and specialists who might otherwise stay in established markets.
Obviously, we know that facilities don’t win games… but they can definitely create an environment where winning teams are made.
Zooming Out: How Portland is Changing the Game for Women’s Sports
What’s my favorite thing about the new training facility? Portland just forced every other WNBA owner to have an uncomfortable conversation about their facilities.
The new Portland WNBA facility sets a new standard for what women’s sports infrastructure should look like. Cities that want to attract WNBA expansion teams or keep their current ones happy now know the price of admission… and it’s higher than “leftover gym space.”
With the success of the Thorns and the Sports Bra phenomenon, Portland is proving that investing in women’s pro sports isn’t just good PR, it’s good business, and we’re hoping other cities take note and follow our lead.
Tl;dr, the long-term impact of this investment extends beyond Portland. When young female athletes see world-class facilities designed specifically for them, it changes their perception of what's possible in women's sports. That's how you grow a league and develop the next generation of superstars.
What the Portland WNBA New Training Facility Means for Fans
Let’s bring it all home! What does this new training facility mean for fans? Basically, it means… get excited for the debut season. When you snag tickets for those early games, you’re not going to have to watch an expansion team struggle through every single growing pain. Instead, you’re getting front-row seats to the start of something special.
This facility opens in early 2026, just in time for the inaugural season. By then, we'll finally know the team name (coming in the next few months, we hope), and Portland will have the best training environment in women's basketball ready to go.
If you're already on the season ticket waitlist, you're locked in for what could be the most competitive expansion team in WNBA history. If you're not, a $26 deposit at WNBA.com/portland gets you in line.
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