HILLSBORO, Ore. — Walking through the Portland Thorns and Portland Fire’s new training facility is practice seeing double.
The 100,000-square-foot facility, costing more than $150 million, houses two full-size basketball courts for an expansion WNBA team and two full-size soccer fields — one grass, one turf — for the three-time NWSL champion Thorns.
There are two team lounges, one for each team, equipped with plush couches, throw pillows and blankets, and plenty of the athletes’ favorite snacks, from Cheez-Its to peanut butter and jelly-filled dates. Two changing rooms with enough space for each player (plus a bit more for the goalkeepers) and a USB-C socket inside each locker so players can charge their devices while training. Two meeting rooms for teams and operational staff. Two saunas imbued with elegant built-in lighting.
But the common spaces at the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center are just as intentional.
The treatment area, 5,000 square foot weight room and cafeteria are shared by both teams. That’s where professional soccer player turned women’s athletic director Karina LeBlanc believes real transformation can happen.
Football and basketball players could sit with each other at breakfast, LeBlanc envisioned, and “be like, ‘Hey, what are you listening to? Where did you go last night?'” said LeBlanc, the former Thorns general manager who is now executive vice president of strategic growth and development at Raj Sports, an investment firm run by the Bhathal family team.
“It’s also for the athlete who is struggling. Being seen by someone who cares about them, who may have been through something similar.”
Basketball facilities inside the center (Raj Sports)
That’s the revolutionary math of this first-of-its-kind, dual-sport training ground. From the grandiose schemes to the smallest details, every surface, light, furniture arrangement and amenities are purposefully designed for the modern high-performance professional athlete. That it houses a legendary NWSL side and an expanded WNBA team is a fitting expression of the possibilities in women’s sports that have long thrived in Portland.
Raj Sports announced its plans for a performance center last February. At the time, the Flames were known only as the Portland WNBA, a venue for an eventual team name that would honor the city’s first WNBA team of the same name that existed from 2000 to 2002. And they certainly didn’t make their the first signing of Canadian forward Bridget Carleton in the expansion draftwhich took place more than a year later on April 3, 2026.
Carleton sat alongside LeBlanc, South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley, Paralympian Scout Bassett and Thorns forward Sophia Wilson on a panel at the Epicenter Women’s Global Sports Summit on Thursday. A gathering of high-level operators in women’s sports was held at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., and culminated in the formal unveiling of the performance center.
“I knew we were going to be a priority here,” Carleton said The Athleticwhich influenced her decision to sign a three-year contract with the Fire. “Our owners really, really take care of us and the Thorns.”
Player feedback informed that care. The performance center was designed by global architecture firm Populous, and its professional athletic director Sherri Privitera was an active listener. Through conversations with athletes, she learned that some wash their hair only once a week and that they avoid getting their hair wet in the shower outside of those washing days. Installing handheld shower heads, says Privitera, was a simple solution.
Convenience is a far cry from the feel of a professional sports team’s training facility, but that’s how Carleton described her team’s new headquarters in Hillsboro, about 15 miles from the Fire’s home arena at Moda Center and about 11 miles from the Thorns’ Providence Park. The matte black paint that covers the exterior of the building, once Nike’s office complex, also does not convey a pleasant atmosphere. But the interior tells a different story.
The light cream-colored wallpaper gives the impression of wood, like maple, and the living room furniture follows the story of similarly neutral colors. The dimly lit wellness room’s carpet and ceiling feature the same woodland pattern that brings the majestic firs of the Pacific Northwest into the space. Athletes can receive massages in private rooms or meditate outdoors.
That contrast is exactly what Lisa Bhathal Merage wanted.
Fire team president Clare Hamill said the owner had a strong hand in the vision for the feel of the facility. “There’s this design philosophy that’s been used, which has this outer shell that’s quite strong, like a woman,” Hamill said. “She’s strong on the outside, but a little softer on the inside.”
The interior is intentionally softer (Raj Sports)
Carleton added, “You walk in and you see it’s made for women and made by women. It’s a really amazing feeling.”
The woman will also supervise the athletes’ medical care. Dr. Jacqueline Brady is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine and is the team physician for the Thorns and Fire. Her office is located in the treatment area of the performance center, which allows her to meet not only with the athletes, but also with their teams’ training and operations staff.
“It’s really important to foster autonomy and foster the athlete’s ownership of the process and really understand all the pressures,” said Brady, who played basketball at Vanderbilt before going to medical school. “What I think they’re worried about doesn’t always match what they’re actually worried about. Sometimes I think they’re horrified by the surgery I’m offering, but really it’s a milieu like, well, who’s rehabbing me? What’s happening to them? Will the team be on the way and what?
“All these things come into play, so having a facility like this, where all those people who can interpret those important and motivating factors can bring that information into this collaborative approach to fostering athlete autonomy, to really try to block out all the outside factors and focus on (the question of) do you trust your body in this moment?”
A spirit of collaboration is woven into some of the performance center’s designs. One of Brady’s favorite features is the retractable wall that can divide the training room into two separate spaces.
“If you need more space when you’re the Thorns, and you have x-number of trialists coming through, and the Flames haven’t started their season yet, put up a wall. Use the whole space and it’s flexible,” she said. “Or if you want to kind of collaborate with physical therapists to develop the best ACL rehabilitation protocol, that pretty easily becomes one space.”
Brady is also excited about the Alter Ga, a treadmill with a belt attached. The athlete steps into it like a pair of shorts, and the machine carries some of their weight when they run. A lighter load may allow some athletes to accelerate the “return to running” part of their recovery plans after injury or surgery, Brady said.
The new WNBA collective bargaining agreement signed in 2026 mandates certain facility standards starting in 2028, but the Fire’s space already exceeds those requirements. In recent years, the facility race has especially picked up steam in the WNBA, ever since the Las Vegas Aces debuted with their own stand-alone facility 2023. The Seattle Storm and Phoenix Mercury followed in 2024, followed by Golden State in 2025. The NWSL’s Kansas City Current led the way with CPKC Stadium, the league’s first purpose-built venue to set a new bar for other clubs.
Multiple WNBA teams have projects under construction, but Portland — even as an expansion team — is ahead of the curve in opening up its own space. The organization had a goal of getting its first team into the building, and the Flames will spend the final month of their WNBA season in a brand new facility.
A year into its new existence, Portland already has a recruiting tool in free agency. What prospect wouldn’t see hot and cold recovery pools, state-of-the-art Nike and Life Fitness equipment, and dedicated family rooms with baby changing tables and feel inspired?
Fitness in the training center (Raj Sports)
“The Kaiser Permanente Performance Center represents the type of long-term investment we believe is necessary to build a world-class sports organization,” Alex Bhathal said in a statement following the facility’s unveiling.
“We had the opportunity to think beyond what exists today and build on what professional sports leads, creating a lasting home for our athletes, teams and community in Portland that we believe can serve as a blueprint for the next generation of performance facilities.”
Carleton doesn’t expect to pick up any soccer tips from her NWSL counterparts, though she expects her European teammates can kick the ball around, but there’s still plenty to work on. Mental preparation, recovery strategies and how to interact with the community are sure to be topics of conversation in the dining hall. Thorns manager Robert Villahamn told Hamill earlier this week that he can’t wait to walk down the hall and discuss coaching tactics with Fire head coach Alex Sarama.
“Two incredible women’s brands under one ownership group in a city that is crazy about women’s sports,” said Hamill. “It’s different than anyone else can do, and we kind of like that.”
The photos in the article were produced and provided by RAJ Sports.
