It's Official: The Portland Fire are Back
Portland's new WNBA expansion team officially announced on Tuesday that they're returning to familiar branding.
Ten months after the WNBA awarded an expansion team to Portland, the new team finally has a name. And, as we reported last month, it's a return to the Portland Fire, the name Portland's first WNBA franchise had for three seasons from 2000 to 2002.
Karina LeBlanc, the former Thorns player and general manager who currently serves in an executive role for RAJ Sports, made the announcement this morning on Good Morning America.
"As a city that has long championed women’s sports, Portland is ready to reclaim its place in the WNBA and reignite its connection to the game on the worldstage,” Clare Hamill, the team's interim president, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are thrilled to complete the journey of bringing professional women’s basketball back to the Rose City, while honoring the legacy of the original franchise to blaze a new, bold path forward.”
There are three primary logos: a rose with a flame and a pink-red fade, a stylized "P" that mimics the shape of the peak of Mt. Hood, and a wordmark inspired by Portland's bridges.
The Fire will hold a launch celebration this afternoon at 3 p.m. at Moda Center that will be open to the public.
The official launch of the name and logo is just the beginning of the work the Fire have to do in a short window between now and their inaugural season next year. Hamill came on board last month as interim president after the team parted ways with their first president, Inky Son, three months after hiring her. They are still in the midst of a search for a general manager that people familiar with the process say has not been going smoothly, with several candidates they've pursued turning the job down.
In Tuesday's release, owner Lisa Bhathal Merage said the team has sold over 11,000 season-ticket deposits for their first season at Moda Center in 2026.
Comments ()