{"id":2016,"date":"2026-05-31T15:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2026-05-31T15:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:37:22","slug":"nwsls-thorns-and-wnbas-fire-stage-womens-sports-doubleheader-in-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2016","title":{"rendered":"NWSL\u2019s Thorns and WNBA\u2019s Fire stage women\u2019s sports doubleheader in Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 The Portland Thorns and Fire staged a unique women\u2019s sports doubleheader Saturday in the first collaboration between the NWSL and WNBA teams. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2014\">V\u00e1zquez\u2019s first-half header lifts Mexico past Australia 1-0 in a World Cup warm-up<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Thorns hosted the Utah Royals in a match between the top two teams in the National Women\u2019s Soccer League on Saturday afternoon, before the expansion Fire hosted Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever in the evening. <\/p>\n<p>The teams hyped Saturday\u2019s matches, selling a ticket package to both events for $80. T-shirts were sold that exclaimed \u201cPortland Loves Women\u2019s Sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the Thorns played to a 2-2 draw with the Royals, midfielder Olivia Moultrie was headed straight to the Fire game, where she was hoping to exchange jerseys with Clark. But she ultimately wanted a Fire win, too. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, this city and women\u2019s sports, like, that\u2019s a match made in heaven,\u201d Moultrie said. \u201cHonestly, I think it\u2019s just really cool to be able to support our own team now, with the fire, awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Fire gave Moultrie her wish with a 100-84 victory.<\/p>\n<p>The Thorns and the Fire share the same owners, Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, who operate the teams under the entity Raj Sports. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2012\">US strike on an alleged drug boat kills 3 in the eastern Pacific Ocean in fourth attack this week<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust seeing the support that they show for both of our organizations, it means a lot. I think as just as a woman, you want that support. And just seeing where women\u2019s basketball is going and growing and being able to know that the city\u2019s behind us, it\u2019s really cool,\u201d Fire guard Sarah Ashlee Barker said.<\/p>\n<p>The Thorns, who have played in Portland since 2013 as one of the founding teams of the NWSL, drew 20,053 fans. The Fire announced a sellout crowd of 19,347 at the Moda Center. <\/p>\n<p>The two teams will soon share the nation\u2019s first performance center shared by pair of professional women\u2019s teams in different sports. The $150 million center, a repurposed former Nike facility on 12 acres west of Portland, is set to open Aug. 22. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope in the future that we are always going to feel like we are one city and make sure we have two teams with one organization and one community with that,\u201d Thorns coach Robert Vilahamn said. \u201cSo I\u2019m very much looking forward to the collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2010\">Colombia\u2019s presidential election pits outgoing leader\u2019s ally against pro-Trump candidates<\/a><\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) \u2014 The Portland Thorns and Fire staged a unique women\u2019s sports doubleheader&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NWSL\u2019s Thorns and WNBA\u2019s Fire stage women\u2019s sports doubleheader in Portland - Raleigh Moving News<\/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:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2016\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NWSL\u2019s Thorns and WNBA\u2019s Fire stage women\u2019s sports doubleheader in Portland - Raleigh Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PORTLAND, Ore. 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