Portland has embraced its new WNBA team, a fact that is unsurprising given the city's long history of supporting women's sports. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
The expansion Fire rank fourth in the league with an average attendance of about 14,500 fans per game. The only teams drawing more are the Golden State Valkyries, the New York Liberty, and the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever.
The Fire have dubbed the Moda Center the "Fire Pit" on game days and lean into the motif with pyrotechnics in game introductions.
"I think we've just been so fortunate, to be honest, all year to have such an amazing atmosphere here at the Fire Pit," Fire coach Alex Sarama said. "So that's on the fan base, that's because of this local community and just turning up and supporting the team as they do."
Portland has long supported women's sports. For many years, the University of Portland's soccer team had the top attendance in college soccer, spurred by national championships in 2002 and 2005 and star players like Christine Sinclair and Megan Rapinoe.
The Portland Thorns were among the founding teams of the National Women's Soccer League in 2013 and have regularly been one of the top drawing clubs in the league.
And then there's the Sports Bra, the nation's first women's sports bar, which opened in 2022.