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“Everyone Watches Women’s Sports,” according to the popular Togethxr-brand T-shirt. But that can’t actually mean everyone, since plenty of people don’t watch sports at all. For many Portlanders, Moda Center is the place they go for big pop concerts and to bemoan confusing freeway interchanges. Sports—played by any gender—do not figure.
But certainly, many more Portlanders are indeed watching women’s sports, now that we have our own Portland Fire franchise redux. After a 24-year absence, the Portland Fire brought professional women’s basketball back to the Rose City for its first regular season game May 9, in front of a sellout crowd. In fact, the 19,335 fans set a WNBA record for attendance at an expansion team’s first game, beating Golden State Valkyries’ debut last year.
We missed that game—and the next week’s when the Fire beat the New York Liberty on a buzzer-beater—and instead caught the one where the Liberty clapped back and beat the Fire by 18. (At least Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and Portlandia fame was in the crowd.) The Portland Fire created plenty of spectacle on May 14 outside of game play, though, to create this fan guide for the WNBA curious. The team is brand new, so it is just developing its culture, but here are some fledgling traditions they’ve got going on so far.
1. Courtside ticketholders might get fresh roses.
After the Fire beat the Liberty in spectacular fashion May 12, the players gave single, long-stemmed red roses to fans sitting close to the action. Nyadiew Puoch, a forward from Australia, is seen giving high fives and hugging fans to celebrate the victory in a video that made the rounds on social media. It’s a nod, of course, to the team playing in the Rose City, a reference also clear in the team’s rose-on-fire logo. Flower lovers also might want to check out the June 11 game versus Las Vegas—the team will celebrate National Rose Day with “several activations honoring the community.” (We don’t know what that means, either. The Portland Fire’s communications department was unavailable for an interview for this story.)
2. There will be fire.
Upon entering the arena, fans will notice dry ice machines way up in the rafters periodically spraying and making for a slightly hazy atmosphere, especially at the 300 level. Where there’s smoke there’s fire, as they say, and once the lights dim for the player introductions, there’s a lot of it.
There’s a contraption near each backboard that shoots a fan of five flames, plus a candlestick-style flame closer to center court and some surprise fireworks, a few times, inspiring a surprised fan sitting nearby to yell, “Oh, shit!” There was so much fire, in fact, that fans can feel the warmth even at the 200 level.
3. No Portland Fire merch yet? No problem.
A stroll through the concourse during the game proves that fans need not be decked out in Portland Fire merch yet to fit into the crowd. Some fans wore the aforementioned Togethxr shirts and a few already had Fire merch; many others went with Blazers gear since the team colors are, handily, the same. Since it was a New York Liberty game, green Oregon Ducks hoodies or Sabrina Ionescu jerseys worked in a pinch. (Liberty guard Ionescu was a star player at the University of Oregon, graduating with her master’s in 2020.) Fans hoping to find vintage 2000-2002 Portland Fire jerseys might have a tough road ahead, though; see page 13.
4. Meet the Firewerks dance team.
Keeping that pun enthusiasm going—the crowd is called the “Fire Pit,” a team slogan is “legacy reignited,” for example—the in-house dance team is called the Firewerks. The dancers are there for performances and fan engagement; at the May 14 game, the Firewerks were spotted at the player walk-ons before the game began and then for the T-shirt toss to the crowd in the second half. The coach is Jasmine Shannon, a dancer and choreographer who spent three seasons as an NBA dancer and has danced with Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and others.
5. Ticket prices vary, but it’s not super cheap.
Tickets for the Portland Fire versus Atlanta Dream home games this weekend, for example, range from a face value of $31 for nosebleeds to $941 for courtside on Ticketmaster. But ticket prices for professional basketball games are volatile, especially on the secondary market like StubHub. Factors such as day of the week, opponent, and the team’s winning or losing streak can send prices soaring or plummeting. Portland Trail Blazers tickets got down to $2 in the winter of 2024, during a grim stretch of the Damian Lillard wilderness years (“Deal Blazers,” WW, Feb. 21, 2024).
6. The team has an Official Eyelash Partner.
The marquee jersey sponsor of the Portland Fire—meaning the company name splashed across the front of uniforms—is DIY lash extension purveyor Lashify.
“Lashify shares our vision of building confidence in women across our team and throughout our Portland community,” said Portland Fire interim president Clare Hamill, in a press release. “This partnership celebrates the many ways confidence shows up in sports. We’re proud to partner with a company that believes in empowering women on and off the court.”
No false eyelashes were for sale on the concourse, but there was a “Lashify Fan Fit Photos” backdrop banner for people to showcase their game day looks.
7. It’s an unabashedly femme environment.
For sports fans used to the men’s basketball landscape, there is something quietly profound about having an “Official Eyelash Partner,” and the whole experience of being at a WNBA game. Little things really hit, like watching male sweat-moppers tidy up the court on hands and knees after the female players fall, or hearing the national anthem belted out gorgeously by local trans musician Atläs before the game, or being able to talk about our eyelashes if we want to.
“Portland has always been a basketball city,” writes general manager Vanja Černivec in a pamphlet for prospective season ticketholders. “Now, we’re a WNBA city again. And with your support, we’re going to build something powerful, inclusive and uniquely ours.”
