It is what we thought it would be: The Portland Fire have returned.
Sometime in the week of June 19th, it was discovered that the WNBA had filed four trademarks for names related to the Portland fire. Ever since, we have had no reason to believe the name had been decided. And it was.
This is not the first time I have had a name spoiled by copyright filings; it is a pretty big announcement killer. Most of my peers have had mixed reactions at best to the name since its announcement, and I don’t blame them: it is an easy out, it doesn’t bring anything new or exciting or refreshing to the WNBA experience, and our state loses hundreds of acres of forestry and property to fires every single summer. It is kind of a bummer!
But it also bridges us to the past, connects us to trailblazers that created women’s professional basketball out of nothing, and it helps connect generations of fans. The launch event, which I will write more about in the near future, brought hundreds if not thousands of fans out to the Moda Center, and I was delighted to see how many of them were 50+, and how many of them were wearing old Portland Fire apparel. It really helped me see the positive side of this decision.
I did hear from a reliable source that the organization looked into the possibilities of many other names, but that the legality of acquiring other options were slim. The source also told me that the organization was very close to selecting the Roses as a team name, and took steps towards filing that choice. Would that have been a better choice?
Along with the name announcement, the team immediately published an updated website and web pages.
It also posted information about its brand colors and logos, all created to try and represent the community and the land it resides in.
What, I wonder, does this decision signal about other decisions coming our way for this franchise? Should we even predict anything from this type of decision?
The choice, to me, signals a couple of things:
Paired with the lack of leadership in place, and the lack of urgency from ownership, I’m wondering if this decision continues to signal a disinterest, or low-level priority, of this team in the ownership group of sports teams. Interim team president Claire Hamill, along with Portland Thorns head coach Rob Gale, both praised the owners as unending supporters and believers in this project, and in women’s sports in Portland, for what it’s worth.
Does this signal a business as usual mindset? Many things have changed since the Fire were in Portland, and many things are different from the state of the NBA and NWSL, where the Fire ownership have other teams. The times and tides are also changing rapidly in the W as the league explodes in popularity. I’m hoping that easy, obvious choices don’t define the start of this franchise, because forward thinking, deep attention to current trends, and sensitivity to the moment are all things I would hope a new, smart leadership group would bring to a new franchise, especially in a historically underserved space like women’s sports.
There are many things left for this small group to do before real team-making begins. They need to:
Hire a full-time president
Hire a General Manager to manage the basketball operations
Hire a coach to start developing an on-court identity
Hire a staff
These things will have to come in that order, and they need to happen ASAP. Toronto’s team, the Tempo, already have a general manager and a deeper staff, and have a large head start of preparing to acquire players in the same off-season that the Fire will have to do the same. I don’t love being so far behind a competitor on an even playing field.
Finally, the last thing that I want every fan to understand and learn more about (I hope to write much, much more about this), is that the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which dictates player salaries along with many other critical rules between the owners of the teams and the players on the teams, is being worked on and debated as I type this. With the league expanding in teams and in popularity, this is the most important CBA ever, and one of the most important in any American sport ever. The time is now for these players to get their fair share of a very popular league that is making tons more money than it was just a couple seasons ago, and the rapid growth is going to make it even harder to negotiate. This will deeply affect the Portland Fire in their first season, and it is not impossible that we start our first season of local fandom in a lock-out, where the players and owners can’t agree on a final deal, and the league starts missing games next season. No one is assuming that will happen, as of now, but no one is denying its possibility.
Let’s hope that the Fire, the league, and the Player’s Association, can all get the ball rolling immediately, and that they can all succeed in growing this sport, and providing for local communities, in Portland and abroad.