Inside the $150 Million Performance Center Built for Portland’s Elite Women’s Teams

The Washington Post and The Athletic are walking through the new Kaiser Permanente Performance Center in Hillsboro, Oregon — a hundred-thousand square feet of pro-grade training real estate built at $150 million-plus, serving as the joint home of the NWSL's Portland Thorns and the WNBA expansion Portland Fire. I've toured enough "elite" facilities to tell marble from meat. This one's meat.

The Bones

• 100,000 sq ft. $150M-plus build.
• Two full basketball courts for the Fire.
• Two full soccer pitches for the Thorns — one grass, one turf.
• Designed by Populous, with Sherri Privitera running point as the firm's women's professional sports director.
• 5,000 sq ft weight room. Shared.
• Treatment area, cafeteria, saunas, team lounges. All shared.
• USB-C inside every single locker.

Square footage is square footage. That's not a renovation. That's a statement.

The Macro-Cycle in the Floor Plan

Here's where the architect earns the paycheck. Karina LeBlanc — former Thorns GM, now EVP at Raj Sports (the Bhathal family operation that owns both clubs) — laid the thesis for The Athletic: soccer players and basketball players sharing breakfast tables. Asking each other what's on the playlist. Checking in on the one who's struggling.

That's not "culture talk." That's periodization for people — built into the walls so an athlete grinding through a quiet rough patch can't disappear into a private wing. She's seen. That's the whole job.

What to Watch

Raj Sports announced the plan last February. The Fire was still just "Portland WNBA" — no name, no logo. Expansion draft came April 3, 2026. Canadian forward Bridget Carleton signed three years. She told The Athletic she "knew that we were going to be a priority here" and that the owners "really, really take care of us and the Thorns."

Dawn Staley. Scout Bassett. Sophia Wilson. All on the panel at the Epicenter Women's Global Sports Summit at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. The facility as the backdrop.

First-of-its-kind dual-sport performance center for two women's pro franchises under one roof. The durability of women's sports just got a structural upgrade. The gas tanks of two rosters — and the broader league — just got a new floor to stand on.