September 20, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: What we know about Portland
By The Next
The Rose Garden Report's Sean Highkin joins Natalie Heavren to talk about Portland welcoming a new team
On today’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Natalie Heavren is joined by Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report to discuss everything surrounding the announcement that Portland will be latest city for WNBA expansion.
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They talked about the formal announcement and press conference on Sept. 18, what information still hasn’t been made public and how the city is reacting to the news.
“They kind of just brought out everybody and made it into a celebration of a) This is finally happening, and b) How good of a market it’s going to be, I think, for the league,” Highkin said of the press conference. “Cathy (Engelbert) and Lisa Bhathal Merage, who’s going to be the controlling principal owner of the team, they both called Portland the global epicenter for women’s sports, which I think is kind of hard to argue with, given the combination of, Nike and Adidas are both in the backyard and the Thorns have led the NWSL in attendance pretty much every year that they’ve existed. I just got a lot of relief from everybody that after what happened last fall, this thing finally got done, and it’s actually going to happen now.”
Highkin also touched on what the next 20 months will look like as the new franchise hires key staff.
“I think the coach is probably going to come last,” he said. “They’re probably going to have to hire a team president at some point on the business side, and then a GM. … Obviously they have to have a name, they have to have a logo, they have to have uniforms. I don’t know how exactly that’s going to work, but I think there’s going to be some community involvement in that.”
Tune in to hear more from Heavren and Highkin about the WNBA heading to Portland, and be sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast for all the latest in the world of women’s hoops.
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