{"id":35154,"date":"2026-05-31T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/nwsls-thorns-and-wnbas-fire-stage-womens-sports-doubleheader-held-in-portland\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T08:00:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T08:00:31","slug":"nwsls-thorns-and-wnbas-fire-stage-womens-sports-doubleheader-held-in-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/nwsls-thorns-and-wnbas-fire-stage-womens-sports-doubleheader-held-in-portland\/","title":{"rendered":"NWSL’s Thorns and WNBA’s Fire Stage Women’s Sports Doubleheader Held in Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"


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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 The Portland Thorns and Fire hosted a unique women’s sports doubleheader Saturday in the first collaboration between an NWSL and WNBA team. <\/p>\n

On Saturday afternoon, the Thorns hosted the Utah Royals in a game between the top two teams in the National Women’s Soccer League, and before the expansion game, the Fire hosted Caitlin Clark. and indiana fever<\/span> In the evening. <\/p>\n

Both teams hyped Saturday’s game, with ticket packages for both events on sale for $80. T-shirts were sold that screamed “Portland loves women’s sports.”<\/p>\n

After the thorns Ended in a 2-2 tie with the Royals<\/span>midfielder Olivia Moultrie went straight to the fire game hoping to swap jerseys with Clarke. But in the end, she also wanted to win with fire. <\/p>\n

“Obviously, this city and women’s sports are a match made in heaven,” Moultrie said. “Honestly, I think it’s really great to be able to support our team right now. It’s great.”<\/p>\n

The Fire got Moultrie’s wish with a 100-84 victory.<\/p>\n

The Thorns and Fire share the same owners, Lisa Baatar Merage and Alex Baatar, who operate the teams under an entity called Large Sports. <\/p>\n

“Just to see the support they have for both of our organizations, it means a lot. As a fellow woman, I want that support. And just to see where women’s basketball is going and growing, and just to know that the city is supporting us, it’s really amazing,” said fire warden Sarah Ashley Barker.<\/p>\n

The Thorns, who have played in Portland since 2013 as one of the NWSL’s founding teams, drew 20,053 fans. The Fire announced a capacity crowd of 19,347 at the Moda Center. <\/p>\n

Both teams will soon share the nation’s first performance center Shared by pairs of women’s professional teams<\/span> in various sports. The $150 million center, a repurposed former Nike facility on 12 acres west of Portland, is scheduled to open on August 22nd. <\/p>\n

“Hopefully in the future we can always feel like we’re one city and have two teams with one organization and one community,” Thorns coach Robert Villahamn said. \u201cSo I\u2019m really looking forward to the collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-Basketball<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 The Portland Thorns and Fire hosted a unique women’s sports doubleheader Saturday in the first collaboration between an NWSL and WNBA team. On Saturday afternoon, the Thorns hosted the Utah Royals in a game between the top two teams in the National Women’s Soccer League, and before the expansion game, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"\nNWSL's Thorns and WNBA's Fire Stage Women's Sports Doubleheader Held in Portland - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/nwsls-thorns-and-wnbas-fire-stage-womens-sports-doubleheader-held-in-portland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NWSL's Thorns and WNBA's Fire Stage Women's Sports Doubleheader Held in Portland - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News & Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PORTLAND, Ore. 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