The Bhathal household has had a busy 12 months, final January and in September. Now, the household is investing additional within the two groups, asserting plans to construct a $75 million dual-team coaching facility that can accommodate each groups.
In a from the Thorns on Thursday, the group outlined plans for the formidable complicated, which can be designed particularly for feminine athletes. The efficiency middle will embrace two full-sized soccer pitches, a apply gymnasium with two full-sized basketball courts, a power coaching facility, dressing rooms for every group with “spa like” facilities, eating room with a chef and nutritionist, rooms for gamers’ households and extra.
The Bhathals plan to spend $150 million or extra on the venture, which is about to happen throughout a number of phases; the primary of those phases would be the coaching facility. Lengthy-term, the Bhathals plan to show the campus into a middle for girls’s sports activities efficiency and restoration, per the discharge.
The power can be created with RAJ Sports activities, the sports activities funding wing of the Bhathal household’s funding agency, RAJ Capital. RAJ Sports activities additionally within the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and minor league baseball’s Sacramento River Cats. The agency is operated by brother-sister duo Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage; Bhathal Merage is the controlling proprietor and governor of each groups, whereas Bhathal is an alternate governor.
“Once we acquired the Portland Thorns and the Portland WNBA franchise our household dedicated to investing into the Thorns, the WNBA franchise, and the Portland metro area” Bhathal Merage stated within the press launch. “Constructing an progressive coaching facility that gives the very best atmosphere for our athletes throughout skilled soccer {and professional} basketball can be a recreation changer for girls’s sports activities.”
In constructing the power, RAJ Sports activities will repurpose a former Nike workplace complicated west of Portland, which it says is a part of its “dedication to sustainability.”
Portland’s WNBA franchise will be part of the league alongside , with each group starting play in 2026. The Portland group doesn’t but have a reputation or branding.