The Portland Fire opened their inaugural season on Saturday and set a “WNBA record for an expansion team’s season opener” with 19,335 at Moda Center. That “surpasses the mark” set by the Golden State Valkyries last season of 18,064 (Portland OREGONIAN, 5/9). The concourse was “flooded with Portlanders of all stripes, reveling in their diversity as much as their love of basketball.” The in-game atmosphere was “curated almost flawlessly by the Fire.” The attendance numbers are “no surprise to those who’ve experienced the city’s passion for women’s sports firsthand.” Saturday was about “establishing a unique identity and foothold in a place it would embrace them.” Portland has been the “subject of many a narrative in the past decade about its purported decay.” There was a “sort of catharsis to Saturday’s first WNBA game in 24 years, which can’t be ignored” (Portland OREGONIAN, 5/9).
The sellout Portland crowd makes “good on the promise that the Rose City shows up for women’s sports in ways that are special.” The Fire are “helping to show what happens when you invest in this little, proud but imperfect city” (Portland OREGONIAN, 5/9). In Portland, Ryan Clarke wrote about the moment for Portland sports under the header, “Through growing pains and with major support, the Portland Fire’s WNBA comeback is here” (Portland OREGONIAN, 5/9).
