{"id":643153,"date":"2026-05-02T14:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/643153\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T14:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:19:12","slug":"spark-the-portland-fire-an-activist-league-tips-off-in-a-city-known-for-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/643153\/","title":{"rendered":"Spark the Portland Fire: An activist league tips off in a city known for protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE – The Portland Fire logo at the team\u2019s launch party, Portland, Ore., July 15, 2025. <\/p>\n

Anna Lueck for OPB \/ OPB<\/p>\n

Oregon\u2019s new WNBA team, the Portland Fire<\/a>, will play its first game at the Moda Center on Sunday. It\u2019s a preseason game, meaning it doesn\u2019t count towards the team\u2019s official record, but it will be the first opportunity for fans to see them play in Portland. <\/p>\n

Oregon loves basketball and women\u2019s sports<\/a>, and the state has another connection to its new team: Both the WNBA and Oregon have a history of activism.<\/p>\n

Women athletes had to challenge established rules and norms decades ago for opportunities to play. In 1972, a landmark piece of legislation in the U.S. called Title IX barred sex-based discrimination in education, paving the way for more women\u2019s sports teams at the high school and college levels. <\/p>\n

But the passage of Title IX didn\u2019t magically mean money and resources flowed to women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

Instead, women, non-binary and transgender athletes \u2014 all of whom play in today\u2019s WNBA \u2014 have had to consistently advocate for the right to play their sport within social systems that tend to favor men, according to Roc Rochon, assistant professor of sport leadership and management at Pacific University. In addition, Rochon said all pro athletes in the U.S. play under an economic model that prioritizes profit, sometimes over people\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

Still, Rochon suggests WNBA players are using their platforms to push for change despite building careers within systems not built for their success. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re still pushing forward in the ways that they can be who they are and to express who they are in a public manner \u2014 and also dominate in the sport,\u201d Rochon said of WNBA players. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s something that I know a lot of people can get behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first labor union for professional American women athletes<\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s National Basketball Association started in 1997. After two seasons, players in the league created the first-ever labor union for professional female athletes in the U.S. The first collective bargaining agreement raised minimum salaries, established off-season health coverage and paid maternity leave, and created retirement plans for the players. <\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE – Los Angeles Sparks players cheer from their socially-distanced seating after a play during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Phoenix Mercury, July 25, 2020, in Bradenton, Fla.<\/p>\n

Phelan M. Ebenhack \/ AP<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to spring 2026, the players\u2019 union and the WNBA just agreed to another historic collective bargaining agreement<\/a> that both sides have called \u201ctransformational\u201d. It sets up a revenue-sharing model that looks similar to other sports leagues like the NBA. It will ensure a big pay bump for current players and pave the way for future players to get an increasing amount of the revenue they help generate. <\/p>\n

Courtney M. Cox is an associate professor in the Department of Indigenous Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon, and the author of Double Crossover, a book on gender, media and politics in basketball. Cox said there\u2019s more to the agreement than salary increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can also think about benefits, we can also think about access, we can also think about agency,\u201d Cox said. <\/p>\n

Cox says the agreement signifies the emergence of a union that thinks simultaneously of the present and of what\u2019s to come. She said the WNBPA \u201cwasn\u2019t willing to back down, because they were thinking both ahead, the future of this league, its sustainability, the ability to bring fantastic athletes that deserve world-class professional treatment to the court, but then they\u2019re also thinking in a way that a lot of leagues haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, Cox said the new labor agreement has stronger protections for players who have children. <\/p>\n

Activism bubbled over in 2020 season<\/p>\n

With the world locked down in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the WNBA players were isolated together at the IMG Academy campus in Florida for the season. It\u2019s become known as the WNBA bubble season, referring to the bubble of isolation, and sometimes it\u2019s shortened to \u201cwubble” season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The time together and their shared membership in the players\u2019 union resulted in WNBA athletes organizing around shared causes. <\/p>\n

The WNBA is made up mostly of players of color and has strong LGBTQ+ representation. In 2020, the players\u2019 union told league leadership they would only play in 2020 if slogans protesting police killings of Black people were displayed on the basketball court. Players wore \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d and \u201cSay Her Name\u201d<\/a> shirts while warming up during nationally televised games. <\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE – Chicago Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot, center, and guard Allie Quigley, left, display social awareness messages on their shirts before a WNBA basketball first round playoff game against the Connecticut Sun, Sept. 15, 2020, in Bradenton, Fla.<\/p>\n

Phelan M. Ebenhack \/ AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a league where everyone wears the shirts, we have a league where they move as one,\u201d Cox said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that they all agree all the time. It\u2019s hard enough to get a group chat to agree on a dinner reservation, but the thing about labor organizing is that we\u2019re not always going to agree.\u201d <\/p>\n

What\u2019s important, Cox said, is that players have a voice at the table even if they\u2019re not the superstars of their team. <\/p>\n

On-court activism stretches to off-court politics<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2020, Raphael Warnock was polling at just under 10% for Georgia\u2019s U.S. Senate seat then held by conservative Republican Kelly Loeffler. <\/p>\n

At the time, Loeffler was also co-owner of Georgia\u2019s WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream. On the campaign trail, she criticized her own team for bringing activism into sports by wearing Black Lives Matter shirts and speaking out against police brutality. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Kelly starts to really come at them,\u201d Cox recalled, the players reacted. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Who\u2019s her opponent?\u2019\u201d Cox said players asked. \u201cSo Reverend Raphael Warnock, her opponent in Georgia, they bring him onto a Zoom call. They say, \u2018Hey, we want to figure out what you\u2019re about.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of denouncing Loeffler, the players learned more about why Warnock, a Democrat, was running and what causes he supports, Cox said. And they liked what they heard. <\/p>\n

Players started wearing \u201cVote Warnock\u201d shirts and used media interviews to explain their position. Many things contributed to Warnock winning the election, but he credits WNBA players for building momentum early in his campaign. <\/p>\n

Shortly after Loeffler lost her Senate seat, she also sold her stake in the Atlanta Dream, whose ownership group now includes a former WNBA player. <\/p>\n

Portland welcomes the Fire<\/p>\n

All the athletes on the Portland Fire\u2019s roster are part of the WNBA players\u2019 union. Two of them, Megan Gustafson and Bridget Carleton, are seven-year veterans who were part of the visible activism during the 2020 season. <\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE – Former Las Vegas Aces center Megan Gustafson during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Dallas Wings in Arlington, Texas, July 27, 2025. Gustafson is now a member of the Portland Fire.<\/p>\n

LM Otero \/ AP<\/p>\n

Roc Rochon at Pacific University anticipates that \u2014 whether it\u2019s Gustafson, Carleton or one of the players new to the league \u2014 the Fire will make their views known locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really curious how some of the players, or all of the players, will rally around putting pressure on the local government here in Portland. To try to make it more livable for people,\u201d Rochon said. <\/p>\n

Rochon points to issues around housing, food insecurity, and affordability that persistently affect Oregonians. Fans in Portland are eager to learn more about what causes are important to the players, Rochon said, and what they\u2019ll dive into. <\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE – Former Minnesota Lynx forward Bridget Carleton, left, and Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally battle for a loose ball during the second half of Game 3 of a WNBA basketball playoff semifinals series game, Sept. 26, 2025, in Phoenix. Carleton is now a member of the Portland Fire. <\/p>\n

Ross D. Franklin \/ AP<\/p>\n

Oregon\u2019s senior U.S. Senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, said the state is ready to welcome the Fire. But that\u2019s nothing new for Oregonians, Wyden said, who have consistently supported women athletes and the causes they care about. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really in our DNA,\u201d Wyden told OPB. \u201cPeople say this is a really important thing to our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Portland Fire\u2019s preseason game against the Los Angeles Sparks tips off at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Moda Center. The official season opener against the Chicago Sky is Saturday, May 9, at 6 p.m. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – The Portland Fire logo at the team\u2019s launch party, Portland, Ore., July 15, 2025. Anna Lueck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-643153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}