The Caitlin Clark Effect? WNBA Awards Expansion Team To Portland

The WNBA is coming to Portland.

The league announced on Wednesday that Portland, Ore., will be home to the WNBA’s 15th franchise. The team will begin play in 2026. 

“As the WNBA builds on a season of unprecedented growth, bringing a team back to Portland is another important step forward,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a press release. “Portland has been an epicenter of the women’s sports movement and is home to a passionate community of basketball fans.”

The city has had a WNBA team before, the Portland Fire, but it folded in 2002 after just three seasons. That’s when the league moved from central ownership to individual ownership of teams. The new team will be owned and operated by RAJ Sports, which is also the majority owner of the NWSL’s Portland Thorns.

“I don’t think we ever have a bias as to whether there was a team there before or not,” Engelbert said, “but certainly I think Portland has proven they’ll show up for women’s sports and definitely for women’s basketball, so we’re excited to be coming back to the market.”

Portland will be home to the third new franchise as part of the league’s most recent expansion. The Golden State Valkyries will play their inaugural season in 2025, followed by a team in Toronto in 2026.

Engelbert said the WNBA is “on track” to add a 16th franchise in either 2027 or 2028.

The WNBA Has Seen Unprecedented Growth In 2024

The 2024 WNBA season has seen record numbers for both in-person attendance and viewership this season. Even shows covering the sport have seen astronomical growth. ESPN’s WNBA Countdown experienced a 113% increase from 2023, with over half a million viewers regularly tuning in to the pregame show. 

According to Bloomberg, the league is also setting records for ticket sales, merchandise sales, social media engagement, League Pass subscriptions (up 335%), and app downloads. In June, the WNBA’s online merchandise store already set a single-season sales record, with sales up 756% compared to last year.

The WNBA is putting up record numbers in 2024.

(Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

Of course, the WNBA has veteran stars, like A’Ja Wilson and Diana Taurasi, who deserve their fair share of the credit. But it’s hard to ignore the impact of Caitlin Clark in her rookie season.

After drafting Clark No. 1 overall, the Indiana Fever broke the WNBA record for home attendance in a season. According to a recent social media post from the team, more than 300,000 fans attended games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in 2024. To put their explosive growth in perspective, the Fever averaged 4,067 fans per game in 2023. In 2024, that number skyrocketed to 17,000 fans per game.

RELATED: Caitlin Clark Breaks WNBA Rookie Scoring Record In Final Home Game of Regular Season

On June 16, Indiana’s game against the Chicago Sky (featuring a rivalry between Clark and fellow rookie Angel Reese) drew an average viewership of 2.252 million on CBS Sports, making it the league’s most-watched game on any network in 23 years.

Caitlin Clark has broken multiple WNBA records in her rookie season.

(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

So, yeah, the Caitlin Clark effect is real. And it’s paying off for the WNBA — in the form of ticket sales, merchandise, a massive TV rights deal and now, room for expansion.

The WNBA playoffs are set to begin Sept. 22. Last season, the WNBA postseason on ESPN platforms averaged 470,000 viewers — making it the most-watched playoffs in 16 years. Riding the momentum of Clark and the league’s success so far in 2024, it’s almost certain 2024 will shatter that record.