How the Trail Blazers' Moda Center Renovation Plans Impact the Fire

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With the future of the Moda Center continuing to be the subject of a heated public battle between the Trail Blazers and the city of Portland, a unique arrangement that began this year has also come into focus.

The Fire, Portland's brand-new WNBA expansion team currently playing its inaugural season, are one of seven WNBA franchises (soon to be eight when the Connecticut Sun move to Houston next season) that play in the same arena as the NBA team in their city.

They are the only one of those teams, however, that don't also share ownership with the NBA team that plays in the same building.

The Fire are owned by the Bhathal family's investment firm, RAJ Sports, which also owns the NWSL's Portland Thorns and has a significant minority stake in the Sacramento Kings. The Blazers are owned by the Tom Dundon-led Rip City Rising group. The two groups have nothing to do with each other outside of both owning professional basketball teams that play at Moda Center.

In a different world, the Bhathals would own both teams, and the Fire would be a much more prominent part of the public case for taxpayers to fund these renovations to the city-owned arena.

But the WNBA team, and their ownership group, still figures into these plans in a major way and their role and importance hasn't received much attention.

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