Rocked by scandal, Portland Thorns aim to reclaim former glory under new ownership

The Aug. 10 match between the Portland Thorns and the Seattle Reign looked like countless other NWSL matches at Providence Park in downtown Portland over the years. The stadium's North End, home to Thorns supporters group Rose City Riveters, kept up a steady beat of chants and songs. The Pride flags and Cascadia banners were draped over the railing. A crowd of 21,811 fans enjoyed a 4-2 victory over their longtime rivals.

Compared to the 2022 and 2023 seasons, there were some flags missing, however. There were no "Sell The Team" signs, nor were there any "You Knew" banners, a reference to the abuse scandal that rocked the team -- and the NWSL as a whole -- starting back in 2021. The reason for this was simple: A change in ownership in early 2024 meant that Merritt Paulson -- who long caught the ire of fans -- was out, and RAJ Sports, headed by the Bhathal family, was in.

For fans, attending games the past two seasons has meant no more inner turmoil in terms of supporting the team once owned by Paulson, who they held responsible for much of the scandal.

"The joy is back," said Gabby Rosas, the former president of the 107IST, the organizational arm of the Rose City Riveters, as well as the Portland Timbers' counterpart, the Timbers Army. "I know I feel more comfortable in the stadium, in the stands. I don't feel conflicted about it. I think the new ownership is not even really on my thought list when I'm getting ready for a match, unlike for a few years there."

The joy might have returned to Thorns game days, but that doesn't mean there haven't been growing pains. Decoupling the Thorns from the Timbers organization -- which had been the driving force behind the NWSL team since its debut in 2013 -- has been a bumpy process at times. And it's still not over.

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Rebuilding trust in Portland

The Thorns' new ownership group, led by the brother-sister duo of Alex Bhathal and Lisa Bhathal Merage, has attempted to steer the Thorns into a new era. That has meant a clear separation of the club from Paulson's organization and crafting their own approach in moving the Thorns forward.

"For me, I consider it incredibly fun, challenging," Merage told ESPN about taking over the Thorns. "It's about problem solving. It's about making a difference. It's about influencing and shaping the future. I like to say shaping the future of women's sports for generations to come. So, it comes with everything, but that's what makes it so fun. We're very lucky to be in this line of work."

Alex Bhathal added: "We love business and we love sports, so there's nothing better than to be the custodians of this community asset, and it's been a thrilling ride, a lot of fun, a lot of challenges to overcome, but we're just getting started and really excited about where we can elevate the club to on a global stage."

While there have been numerous challenges, the biggest ones have been about rebuilding trust with fans and sponsors. Portland was one of the teams at the epicenter of the Yates Report, which detailed systemic abuse at multiple NWSL teams. Former Thorns manager Paul Riley, who coached the team in 2014 and 2015, was named in the report as having allegedly engaged in sexual coercion of players, with the organization's leaders -- including Paulson -- keeping the manner of his departure quiet and helping him find new employment within the league.

A report from the Oregonian also detailed a toxic workplace culture at the Timbers-Thorns organization as it related to its treatment of women employees. Later, ESPN reported that Paulson had given North Carolina Courage owner Steve Malik a warning that Riley shouldn't apply for the then-vacant U.S. women's national team job, extending the wall of silence about Riley's behavior. Longtime Thorns executives Gavin Wilkinson and Mike Golub were later fired.

In 2022, Paulson announced he was stepping down as CEO from both the Thorns and the Timbers, and later said he would sell the NWSL side. That sale was completed on Jan. 3, 2024.

Bhathal and Merage said they spent the first year of their ownership on a "listening tour" in which they engaged with fans and other stakeholders. There were connections to the business community and fan base that needed to be reestablished. There was an organization that needed to be staffed.

Along the way, RAJ Sports also secured a WNBA expansion franchise, dubbed the Fire, that will be based in Portland.

"Our primary focus and goal and vision is to cement Portland as the global epicenter for women's sports," Bhathal said.

As it relates to the Thorns, that has meant knowing when to push through with ideas and when to back off. Tina Ettlin, a current 107IST board member, recalled how in one early meeting, the new ownership asked, "How are we going to light the beam?" -- a reference to the postwin ritual of the NBA's Sacramento Kings who count Alex Bhathal as one of their owners. That suggestion did not go over well with the Riveters and was eventually discarded.

"We're like, 'Did you not buy the team because of what you saw in the Riveters?' So, we were a little bit confused by that and a little bit off-put by that," Ettlin said.

Some endeavors from new ownership have been more successful than others. At the height of the scandal under Paulson, sponsors began abandoning the Thorns. Among those were Alaska Airlines, which ended its jersey sponsorship in 2023, after previously redirecting its funds to the NWSL Players Association Emergency Trust and local youth sports. Cheesemaker Tillamook also withdrew its support.

But Alaska Airlines and Tillamook have since come back into the Thorns' sponsorship fold. Both companies had previously been Timbers sponsors too. Tillamook has since returned, signing on as the Timbers' front-of-jersey sponsor, but Alaska has not. The Thorns, meanwhile, locked up security camera company Ring as their new jersey sponsor, which Merage said has helped bring sponsorship revenue up over 600% year over year.

Not all broken ties have been mended, though. Union Wine was one sponsor that didn't return, citing a wait-and-see approach with the new ownership. "Our commitment to this community runs deep," said Union Wine owner and founder Ryan Harms in a statement to ESPN. "We believe the Thorns are an important part of Oregon sports culture, and we're hopeful that the new leadership will take the steps necessary to rebuild and strengthen trust with fans and partners alike. If that happens, we'd certainly be open to exploring what a future partnership could look like."

It helps that, with new owners, the organization has something of a clean slate.

"We are just approaching everything brand new, and establishing who we are, what our mission is, what we're about, and really leaning into that," Thorns CEO Alexis Lee said in relation to sponsorships. "And everybody has been very open to those conversations and quite actually excited about it."

That doesn't mean the relationship with Paulson is now nonexistent, though. According to Lee, no staff came over from Peregrine Sports, the Paulson-led entity that previously owned the Thorns. The two entities have been completely separate on the business side since the start of this year, Merage said.

At present, the Thorns employ 20 employees on the soccer operations side and 35 on the business side, with more to come. But the Thorns remain a subtenant at Providence Park, which is operated by Peregrine Sports and, by extension, Paulson.

"We still text with Merritt pretty regularly," Bhathal said. "We cheer on the Timbers. He cheers on the Thorns. It's all good."

Facility gains, attendance challenges

RAJ Sports has also jumped headlong into building new infrastructure for the Thorns, who lacked their own practice space in the Paulson years, often having to train at the artificial turf of Providence Park. RAJ Sports broke ground on a new training facility back in May, one that will be shared between the Thorns and the Fire and will be designed for women athletes.

Construction is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2026 NWSL season and has involved consultation with other NWSL teams that have built similar facilities, including the Kansas City Current. Thorns players like Morgan Weaver and Sophia Wilson, who just gave birth to her first child, have also had a say in what amenities the facility will have.

"I think that what we learned was to allow flexibility for growth because it seemed like [Kansas City] built it and they were already starting to bust out the seams," said Merage. "So we're like, how does that come into play for ours? And then also just how they approach the female athlete. So, there were learnings with that as well."

When asked if the Thorns would ever consider constructing their own stadium, Bhathal said that the team's current venue is "representative of Portland being a soccer city, and it allows for the community to really support both the Timbers and the Thorns, and we are very happy in Providence Park."

Attendance has proven to be a bigger challenge. During the 2022 season, when the Thorns' organizational reputation hit rock bottom, per game average attendance was 15,543 and a wave of fans opted not to renew their season tickets. Once Paulson announced in December 2022 that he would sell the team, 2023 attendance ticked up to 18,918. It was about the same (18,725) in 2024 but has since moved downward to 17,479 so far this season. Lee noted that mark still leads the league, though attendance is down this year across the league.

"Although we are in the top of our area, there's always more opportunities to sell in that particular space," Lee said. "We are very affordable. We want to remain affordable. We're going to continue to evaluate what the product mix looks like, how are we meeting the needs of our marketplace and just the ever-changing demands of that as well."

To meet those demands, Lee said they are looking at modifying kickoff times, the better to cater to families. Earlier this year, the Thorns held the "World's Largest Baby Shower," in a bid to not only honor Wilson and Thorns midfielder Olivia Wade-Katoa, but also to donate diapers to families in the community.

"What we're trying to do is meet our audiences of where they're at, also understanding where the economy is, and just trying to test how do we meet you where you're at in whatever price point you're at," Lee said.

Even the presence of new owners can't entirely repair the damage done during the scandal years. Chris Bright, a local tech entrepreneur who at one time tried to put together a consortium of microinvestors to buy the team, had canceled his season tickets at the height of the scandal, and while he has attended some games this year, he hasn't yet renewed them.

"It's just more about me not getting around to it," Bright said. It shows the problem that the new Thorns organization still faces in winning fans and sponsors back to the same level of engagement after it has lost them once already.

A Thorns rebuild on the field too

As much as off-field matters continue to be a work in progress, so too is what's happening on the field.

The Thorns have been without Wilson and Weaver because of pregnancy and a right knee injury, respectively. That, along with the retirements of club legends Christine Sinclair, Meghan Klingenberg and Becky Sauerbrunn, might explain in part the drop in attendance.

But on the field, the Thorns are staying afloat despite those absences -- they are currently in seventh place, but just two points behind third-place Orlando.

There has been some upheaval on the soccer operations side, with Jeff Agoos replacing Karina LeBlanc as general manager at the start of 2025, while Rob Gale replaced Mike Norris as manager after the start of the 2024 campaign. This is Agoos' first foray into woman's soccer after previously working for the New York Red Bulls and MLS league office.

Agoos admits that there's been a bit of a learning curve, but insists that while the loss of former league MVP Wilson was a huge blow, it forced the team to diversify its attack.

"We wanted to make sure that we were going to be younger and more aggressive," Agoos said. "We wanted to make sure we rebalanced our team and that we had different areas that were capable of scoring from a lot of different places. Sophia was essentially the main protagonist for us last year, whereas we've got goals coming from a lot of different players this year."

Agoos added he's trying to reset the club's culture, even as the club won a championship as recently as 2022.

"We want to make sure that you have the courage to do the right thing at the right moment, even when people aren't looking," he said. "And so being a good pro, both on and off the field, whether it's staff or whether it's for players, is critically important."

While the vibe from fans overall is positive, there is a sense that the Thorns have fallen from what was once a lofty perch. As the league expands -- two new teams, in Boston and Denver, debut in 2026, taking the league to 16 teams -- there's no guarantee that the organization will make it back. There has been a scarcity of top signings that make fans sit up and take notice.

"I think part of the frustration is how do we get back to being No. 1," Rosas said. "Not just in the standings, but how do we get back to being the club that international players want to come to? The top tier players want to be at? How do we get back to being this beacon for women's soccer, not only in NWSL, but for around the world?"

That the Fire, who will launch in the WNBA next year, are now part of the RAJ Sports portfolio isn't viewed entirely as a positive to some fans either. The constant advertising for the Fire at Providence Park leaves some fans feeling wary.

"The frustration is it feels like their focus has really pivoted to [the WNBA]," Rosas said. "I know that that's a tall order, that's a huge project, but I also feel like there's still a lot of work to do on the Thorns side as well.

"I think they now are calling themselves the epicenter of women's sports. And it's like, what does that mean? I just feel like the Thorns are getting pulled into this identity that isn't the Thorns. It's like you're trying to spread something out to encompass a lot more than what it needs to. We're in a playoff run; we should be focusing on the Thorns."

In response to those concerns, Lee said that while the Fire is an "exciting new addition" to the organization, it hasn't changed the level of commitment of investment that the ownership has in the Thorns.

"Our success is intertwined, and the Thorns remain a top priority," Lee said.

Both Bhathal and Merage acknowledge that there is more work to be done. With a home venue with a 26,000-seat capacity, there is certainly room to grow in terms of attendance. But ownership is intent on playing the long game. Bhathal said women's sports franchises will be billion dollar businesses "in short order."

"We consider ourselves growth stage investors," Bhathal said. "So, when we came in, it was post the venture stage. I would say it's into the growth stage, and it's nowhere near maturity. There's so much opportunity ahead. So, it was the right time for us where we feel that there's a proof of concept, it's working."