This may not be how everyone feels, but I'm glad that it seems like she'll be away from the Thorns for a few years. Would love to have her back as a position coach at some point, but a little time apart might do both sides some good.
Nah, biiiiig same for me. Think that letting the Thorns find its legs in this new era without Sinc will be good, considering how entwined she's been since its inception. We can honor her legacy without continuing to live in the shadow of it. Would hope she returns in some capacity, but I don't hate the timing of the NSL starting and her taking some time to help it (and specifically, Vancouver Rise), thrive.
Great I can see her playing for three more years as a player coach in that league. She is still an athlete and a soccer genius but no longer has the speed for this league. She will give a lot of credibility to the new Canadian league and I doubt they will have the budget to bring in big names probably not even names like Buchanan, Lawrence, and Leon unless players like that were willing to work for less to get the league going.
It would be great to see a Canadian league happen like Mexicos which is still a work in progress.
"Vancouver Rise FC is a professional women's soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia that will compete in the Northern Super League, in the top flight of the Canadian soccer league system. Owned by Vancouver Whitecaps co-owner Greg Kerfoot, the club is led by Sinead King, and is managed by Stephanie Labbé. Its colours are teal, black, and gold, while its crest depicts the North Shore Mountains. Its home games will be played at a "smaller and more intimate" stadium – Swangard Stadium in Burnaby is one of the venues currently being considered by the club.
"Alongside the Calgary Wild, the Rise were one of the first two clubs to join the Northern Super League, and are a spiritual successor to the Whitecaps' former women's team. The club was co-developed with the league itself, in an effort to retain female players from the Whitecaps' academy team, and provide equity between the organization's men's and women's programs. It will play its first season in 2025, as one of the league's six charter members.
"The Rise intend to play their home games at a "smaller and more intimate" stadium that would facilitate an average attendance of over 5,000.[25][30][31] Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, the historic home ground of the Vancouver Whitecaps' predecessors, is one of the venues currently being considered.[30][31] Though a tenancy at Metro Vancouver's primary rectangular sports stadium, the 54,500-capacity BC Place, has been ruled out by the club,[25] it intends to occasionally play matches there."
Both northern and super.
Had to look it up; Burnaby isn't a tiny burb, comprising a quarter-million BCians.
Glad that she’s going to be involved in some way, shape, or form. Was wondering if she’d take a job in the Portland Front Office or Staff, but a role close to home makes some sense along with an elaborate end of career celebration here.
I’m thinking formally retiring her number and maybe a statue of her likeness near an entrance. She’s been a wonderful ambassador for the game and the Thorns even if she’s regressed play wise
If, like myself, you don't have a sub to the PBJ, I've included the text of the interview (thank you, quick Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C) :)
By Demi Lawrence – Staff Reporter, Portland Business Journal
Aug 27, 2024
Updated Aug 27, 2024 3:51pm PDT
In January, the Portland Thorns welcomed RAJ Sports, the team's new ownership group.
Led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, the group assumed controlling ownership over Portland’s National Women's Soccer League team from Peregrine Sports after a sexual harassment scandal forced former ownership to sell. Peregrine still owns the Thorns' MLS counterpart, the Timbers.
Merage and Bhathal are the children of Raj and Marta Bhathal, who co-own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. As the team’s controlling owner, Merage now sits on the NWSL Board of Governors while Bhathal acts as an alternate governor.
In this exclusive and edited interview, the Business Journal and Merage talked about the Thorns’ upcoming new practice facility, RAJ Sports’ decision to bring on Portland-connected investors and why she wants to be part of making Portland a major women’s sports hub.
--How long was the process of purchasing the team, and what drew you to the Thorns in specific?
(Our family) has been in sports for about a decade, so a lot of deals cross over our desk. And for the Thorns, it was January 2023 that we first saw the deck, and we were like, "Oh, this is interesting." But then we started feeling more that there was going to be this rise in women's sports, too. My day job is with Revitate, which is our family investment platform focused on real estate, sports and consumer products, and my job is chief impact officer, so I'm all about the social impact of things as well.
But it wasn't until last September that I went up for a game, and it was really the fans and supporters that did us in. Providence Park is amazing, the fans and supporters in Portland are incredible and you just don't see that everywhere. So I went to a game, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is it." And I took a video, and I went home the next day and had dinner with my parents.
I showed my parents the video, first it was my mom, and she was like, "Oh my gosh, there's fans up there in that corner?" I'm like, "Yes, look at that." And then I gave a video to my dad, who is originally from India. And although he was the only one not to have an arranged marriage within his brothers and sisters, a group of eight, he still grew up in an era at the time in India where women literally walked like 10 feet behind the men, even though he's not that way at all. But he looked at it, and he said, "As an older Indian gentleman, I really believe in women's sports," and that was what did it for us.
--RAJ Sports’ has said its primary focus is to advance plans for a new “first-class, purpose-built, women’s soccer-specific training facility.” Why is that a priority, and how is that coming along? When can we expect it to be open, and where will it be located?
Things are coming along. I don't have anything that I can really share yet, but we're working on it. Our goal is that within 2025 it will be open, so we're working on it.
At the end of the day, these are professional athletes, and we came from the world of men's sports with the Sacramento Kings, where in Sacramento, we built a new arena, we built a beautiful training center. Why do women not have that? It should be equal, it should be the same, and it's something that we really believe in investing in. [Merage declined to comment on where the practice facility will be located.]
--What went into the decision to add investors to the club?
I think it's really important that we have a connection to the Portland community. As you know, our family is based in Southern California, and I think it's one of the things that has been really important to us. We were connected with Tim Boyle, and he's been so warm and welcoming, and he really knows so many people in the community. It just allows us to come into the community and make sure that we are listening in the community the right way.
--I'm glad you brought up Southern California, because I was curious what the plan is for ownership here in Portland. Are you going to be splitting time between Southern California and Portland?
I've been up in Portland a lot, but our home is still down here in Newport Beach. We have other businesses down here, I'm here, my family's here, my husband and all of his family's here. So we don't have plans to move up to Portland, but the good news is it's only a two-hour flight away. We kind of joke that with traffic, it takes two hours to drive to LA right now, so it's not that big a difference.
--What are your thoughts on the new NWSL player agreement that will end the draft, expand parental leave, child care benefits and mental health services, allow players to approve trades and double minimum salaries by 2030?
It’s a unique place to be as a governor in a growth league like the NWSL, because at the end of the day, we want our players to be paid more. That really is the goal. There’s still such a discrepancy between male athletes and female athletes, but the key metric is viewership. We need to make sure people are watching the games. We need to make sure that there's a tune in, because the media contracts are what directly relates to players having bigger salaries, and that's true in every league.
--Have there been any ideas thrown around on how to increase that viewership?
There's lots of work being done. I also chair the marketing and commercial committee for the league, so it is a multi-pronged approach. Sponsorships, for example, are important not only from a revenue perspective, but also with regard to...media buying commercials and just general support for the league.
And then, of course, there's the advertising component, and one thing that we're talking about right now is, how do we capitalize on the fact that the USA won the gold medal, and 19 athletes that are gold medal winners in the NWSL and 56 overall that played in the league that were Olympians? I mean, that's a really big indicator for the league, and clearly puts the NWSL as the leading league in the world.
--What are some things you’ve learned from the Thorns’ front office, coaching staff and players since purchasing the club? What are their main concerns for the club and how is RAJ Sports working to meet those?
The Timbers organization was a shared front business office, so the first thing we did is we hired Alexis Lee as our president, and we're currently building out the staff. So far this year, we've hired 15 people, and our goal is to get to 25 by the end of the year, and that's been a big undertaking. We've worked with Peregrine on a shared services model, where certain components will roll over as we're ready. They were doing everything from ticketing, marketing, IT, HR, you name it, and we've been slowly bringing that on board ourselves.
--Are there any plans in place for RAJ Sports to get integrated into downtown Portland as the Thorns’ new owners?
Social impact and community involvement is something that's really important to our family and part of our DNA. The path to doing that is something we're still figuring out. That's where people like Tim Boyle have come in and been very helpful.
We also will be establishing a Thorns foundation. I don't have a timeline nailed down yet, because it's tied into the hiring of these 25 people, but that's something that's high on my list of priorities, and that will be part of how we give back and get involved in the community.
I would love to see Portland really cement itself as the epicenter of women's professional sports. I think that the fans of the Thorns were really early adopters and saw the potential of women's sports and really moved the needle for what you see in this world today. When we are recruiting other players for the Thorns, everybody wants to play in Providence Park, it is just a game changer.
Thanks for this. Some revealing insights and lots of evidence the Bhathals "get it" on several levels.
"Why you still startin' Sinc?" perhaps the big missing piece.
Portland Business Journal shortens to PBJ. Thought I'd note that.
As to what they did with the Kings, the G1C arena redevelopment replaced 2/3 of a dead shopping mall and while further development was badly hindered by covid and some really awful property owners, it's still occurring. In sum a net positive, not some sports palace in a farflung suburb surrounded by 10k asphalt parking spaces empty 98% of the year.
Bumping the below query/thread from previous Thorns post in hopes of response;
ABell4
Aug 25
STF reporters...it would be lovely if y'all could start asking the club/coach some hard questions when you have the chance. Y'all are the only voice the fans have (and kinda the only accountability for the club), and there are lots of questions surrounding this club right now...
And, of course, thank you!
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FDChief
Aug 25
The Vox/Peregrine-STF was pretty paranoid about losing access. I was repeatedly rapped on the knuckles for pissing off players or management by writing that their last match/deal/draft had been less that perfect.
But Peregrine was shitty like that, and Vox was all about "access journalism".
Now? My thought is, why not? This is a fan blog. It should reflect the fans' viewpoints. We all question Sinclair starting at CF; what harm in asking why?
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Stefan (formerly Beck&Bauer)
Aug 25
Phuoc, Sam, Melina- would one of you mind answering this question? please? Are you restricted in some way from asking critical questions of the team/staff?
The same dynamic still exists: the STF reporters here might lose their journalists' access if they're seen as "hostile" for asking questions we all want answered. But what level of tough questioning counts as "hostile"? I have no idea what current conditions are like at the club, but the dynamic is undoubtedly there at some level. MP has a notoriously thin skin, so I suspect things are at least somewhat better now than before the club's sale, but no one, the current club included, wants to deal with someone they consider an a**hole.
This dynamic isn't unique to sports - it applies anywhere where journos need to keep their connections open. Trump, for instance, gives interviews on Fox News far more than mainstream outlets because he considers the latter hostile, while he can count on Fox to pitch softball questions. (Harris, meanwhile, hasn't yet sat down for a real interview with *anyone*, though apparently she's about to. But it's with CNN, which could well pitch her softballs too. We'll see.)
Thanks, Dave- I get that, but I'm hoping to hear from one of the STF reporters, to at least let us know what those conditions and restrictions are, or at least their perceptions of the same.
I could envision ways for concerns to be raised without them being considered "hostile" for asking
(i.e. "_____________, many of the fans at our STF site have raised concerns about ____(X)______ issue. Is there anything you can tell me about whether you agree there is reason for concern, why/why not, and if so, what can you say that we can relay to the fans on our site about the club's plans to address this?" etc.)
Ahma keep asking until they answer... I know Phuoc, at least, reads the comments
Well, this should be an embarrassment to SOMEbody.
"A new record in Carolina: Vicky Bruce scored the first goal in Super League history, leading Carolina Ascent FC to a historic 1-0 win over DC Power FC. A sold-out crowd of 10,553 set a new record for a professional women's soccer match in the Carolinas."
Can this be true? I mean, with the Courage in residence?
"CARY, N.C. (Oct. 9, 2023) – The North Carolina Courage set a new club and WakeMed Soccer Park single-game attendance record Saturday night, welcoming 10,434 fans through the gates for the first regular season sellout in club history.
"The standing room only crowd for the 2023 regular season home finale against the San Diego Wave surpassed the previous Courage record of 10,227 for the 2019 NWSL Final and the venue’s 10,346 for the NCAA Men’s Soccer semifinals on December 9, 2022.
"The crowd was the second to crack the club’s all-time top five this season, also bringing 7,070 fans out to the May 6 match against the Portland Thorns. Setting an attendance record in the final home date of the 2023 season was a culmination of a season of growth, both on and off the field, for the club and a big momentum builder headed into the 2023 playoffs and 2024 campaign."
City are playing in a pre-season friendly tournament in Australia, and just advanced at the expense of Leicester City. Penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw. Both sides' starting 11s were rotated a fair bit, and none of teh Japanese players started (Yui Hasegawa is a lock in any City 11 in games that matter). Usual starting 'keeper Khiara Keating was in goal. At the half, Hasegawa, Aoba Fujino, and JWNT #1 'keeper Ayaka Yamashita came on. Fujino would have had the winning assist, but Midiema's header came off the crossbar (yes: Aoba Fujino on the wing feeding Viv Miedema at the 9. Oh. My. God.). Yasmashita had three notable saves and then stopped two PKs in the shootout. Fujino made one of the PKs.
Good start for the new Cityzens from Japan. There's HUGE competition for Fujino to get a starting role, but I think she's better than Chloe Kelly and has a higher ceiling. She needs to be more consistent, though. Unfortunately for Yamashita, I don't think any level of brilliance in goal is going to see her displace Keating in the usual staring 11, though. Keating was one of the big stars of last season, is a better distributor (Ayaka-chan's the better pure shot stopper, but not by a lot), and VERY importantly when you're talking British teams, she's a domestic player. Puzzling decision for Yamashita to go to City, frankly...
She sounds pretty chuffed having Spaanstra on board. Let's see how well they meld on the field (guessing as a pair and especially adding someone else speedy like Linnehan/Turner, things open up in the scoring department).
yes, saw that goal- unlucky break for Murphy who did all she could, I wish soccer would change the way they define own goals- unless there's an element of negligence there (I mean,m it's not like Murphy caught the ball and walked into her own goal or anything :-) )
it doesn't seem fair to the keeper or the offensive player who created the chance.
I think hockey has it right: there are officiallly "own goals" (I just learned this) - but the goals are awarded to the last offensive player to touch the puck. Win-win.
Murphy didn't do anything wrong, just got unlucky. Still a great (if lucky) header by Adames, and she deserved to be credited for a dramatic goal there.
Not sure what you're complaining about here; the soccer definition of own goal? It was certainly an unlucky break, as almost all own goals are.
Adames's shot bounced off the post and was maybe a yard from the goal line when it bounced off Murphy, and she wasn't able to control it. No Seattle player was in the 6-yard box except Adames at the far corner and moving away. The ball would not have crossed the line if Murphy hadn't touched it.
I do agree that it's unfair that the attacker gets no credit. Maybe Adames should get the assist, although without Murphy's error this was simply a miss off the post.
The current definition is that it's credited as a goal for the attacker if the ball's path from when they last touched it, through however many deflections, is toward the goal the whole time; if at any point the ball is headed away from the goal, then it's an own-goal. Hence Adames's shot rebounding off the post meant that it wasn't credited to her. Similarly, Yazmeen Ryan's "goal" for the Thorns in the 2022 NWSL Final isn't credited to her because AD Franch slapped Ryan's cross away from goal, but slapped it right into a teammate and it rebounded into the goal.
Either soccer's definition or hockey's gets it wrong some of the time. For instance, some defender placed a really nice bullet header into the upper 90 on behalf of the Timbers many years back. THAT was an own-goal by anyone's definition, since the defender could have simply let the ball go (there were no Timbers anywhere close) and the ball would have bounced harmlessly out of bounds. Under the hockey definition, that would have been credited - unfairly IMO - to the Timber who crossed the ball in. Soccer's crediting of an own-goal got it right in this case.
I guess the question is this: do you want mistakes in crediting goals to go to the defenders or the attackers? Hockey says attackers, soccer says defenders. I think I agree with you that I'd like to see soccer use the hockey definition, mainly because I think attackers in soccer deserve, but don't get, credit for goals far more often than defenders would avoid credit for own-goals they truly deserve. But I can see it both ways, and I can live with soccer's definition.
BTW, both definitions have the huge benefit of being completely objective. If we tried some middle ground, where someone(s) somewhere decided whether a given goal should be an attacker's goal or an own-goal, there would be endless bickering about the decisions. Maybe that's good for fan engagement, but I'd rather avoid another source of arguments!
One of our NTRP's from the summer looks to have signed with Club America. Does that mean we get a transfer fee? Everything I've seen about it says she's coming from the Thorns, but I don't see anything official...
I'm guessing that she was on a very short-term contract with the Thorns. So as soon as the NTRP period was over, she was out of contract - hence no transfer fee.
This applies to Asman, Sheva, McKenzie, and Weaver. In other words, if we don't hear anything by the 31st.....they're all free agents. This is also why I was banging on about the Weaver extension earlier in the year- I assume she's staying, but they're really taking it down to the wire if they plan to trigger the club option.
(And, fwiw, Spaanstra still needs an extension. The other FAs --Becky, Kling, Hubly, Sinc, Provenzano, Bixby, and Kozal-- are all varying degrees of either "not going anywhere," might retire," or "unimportant," but Spaanstra is *technically* a FA as well)
It is a club option, that's kinda my point. I wonder whether they've been negotiating an extension and that's why they haven't picked it up yet because otherwise it would/should be a no-brainer.
It would be a far greater crime of course, Morgan is practically an OG Thorn by now considering all the roster churn since 2020. More to the point, huge team and fan favorite who runs defenders absolutely ragged.
Good! It clearly wasn't working out for Dias here, and it was in everyone's best interest for her to move on. If we get $100k in the deal, all the better, and well done KK.
It's good when they recognize something wasn't a good fit and then they move to change it. Definitely appreciate the urgency there. Just hope it's all done humanely...bc from the outside, the revolving doors thing doesn't always look great.
I think Ana will do well at Tigres. She was sort of third in a spot where Soph plays most minutes. It was always going to be hard for her to get time unless it was out of position. Really hoping the thorns strengthen the midfield or defense this year . They didn’t make that moves in position of need . If they have big names though I could see them waiting for next season.
Sinclair isn't fast enough to get back on defense, or if she's defending she can't keep up with a transition attack. Either way, the players around her have to try to cover for her. It's not always midfielders, but most often it is.
A different issue is passes to Sinclair. If the passer leads her, she often can't reach the ball; and often it's the passer who is seen as "putting too much weight" on the pass.
The other players do their best to make it all work, but it's suboptimal, to say the least.
I don't want to harp on this, or to say the midfield has zero problems otherwise, but it seems unfair to judge until they get a chance to sort themselves out in a better onfield environment.
I'm going to (mostly?) shut up on this topic for a while. If there are others who see some merit in my observations I hope they'll keep the convo going.
Just for clarity's sake...by "until they get a chance to sort themselves out in a better onfield environment", do you just mean you wanna wait until we have an actual experienced coach before you fully make judgements on the roster we have?
No, I just meant getting to play regularly without Sinclair on the field. Having to constantly improvise adjustments to cover for her doesn't seem like either a good way to build a midfield or a useful test of the midfield players we have.
Hopefully we won't have to wait for a new HC for that to happen.
The midfield needs help. Jesse, Olivia, Sam, and Hina are good but I feel like all of them but Sam tend to occupy the same space positionally and there's a skill drop off after that core group
Agreed, they need more in the midfield. Someone that is good at defending but can set up play. The truth is our midfield isn’t exactly hard to bypass and it’s not like they are setting up or running all that much play either. We need a different type of midfielder . Also, hopefully one that lets Hina be Hina. Right now I feel like a lot of what makes her Hina can’t be showed because she’s having to defend so much
Ohhhh, yeah she was one of the few that stood out on the FA list, honestly! A good domestic pickup for FB who probably becomes a starter with Muller, if so. She's a really good FB last I remembered, what they doin?! She's from IL also. Hope KK is paying attention...
Could this also mean that she is choosing not to re-sign? Or are these purely clubs not choosing to to re-sign?
Hmm...?
https://x.com/VancouverRiseFC/status/1828573467513614434
PLEASE tell me she's going home to play.
This may not be how everyone feels, but I'm glad that it seems like she'll be away from the Thorns for a few years. Would love to have her back as a position coach at some point, but a little time apart might do both sides some good.
Agreed. Thorns can't find their next era until the previous era concludes.
Also, it would be good for her soul to play at home, her original home, in front of adoring fans who will come out to see the living legend.
Nah, biiiiig same for me. Think that letting the Thorns find its legs in this new era without Sinc will be good, considering how entwined she's been since its inception. We can honor her legacy without continuing to live in the shadow of it. Would hope she returns in some capacity, but I don't hate the timing of the NSL starting and her taking some time to help it (and specifically, Vancouver Rise), thrive.
Great I can see her playing for three more years as a player coach in that league. She is still an athlete and a soccer genius but no longer has the speed for this league. She will give a lot of credibility to the new Canadian league and I doubt they will have the budget to bring in big names probably not even names like Buchanan, Lawrence, and Leon unless players like that were willing to work for less to get the league going.
It would be great to see a Canadian league happen like Mexicos which is still a work in progress.
Hoo dat?
"Vancouver Rise FC is a professional women's soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia that will compete in the Northern Super League, in the top flight of the Canadian soccer league system. Owned by Vancouver Whitecaps co-owner Greg Kerfoot, the club is led by Sinead King, and is managed by Stephanie Labbé. Its colours are teal, black, and gold, while its crest depicts the North Shore Mountains. Its home games will be played at a "smaller and more intimate" stadium – Swangard Stadium in Burnaby is one of the venues currently being considered by the club.
"Alongside the Calgary Wild, the Rise were one of the first two clubs to join the Northern Super League, and are a spiritual successor to the Whitecaps' former women's team. The club was co-developed with the league itself, in an effort to retain female players from the Whitecaps' academy team, and provide equity between the organization's men's and women's programs. It will play its first season in 2025, as one of the league's six charter members.
"The Rise intend to play their home games at a "smaller and more intimate" stadium that would facilitate an average attendance of over 5,000.[25][30][31] Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, the historic home ground of the Vancouver Whitecaps' predecessors, is one of the venues currently being considered.[30][31] Though a tenancy at Metro Vancouver's primary rectangular sports stadium, the 54,500-capacity BC Place, has been ruled out by the club,[25] it intends to occasionally play matches there."
Both northern and super.
Had to look it up; Burnaby isn't a tiny burb, comprising a quarter-million BCians.
Burnaby is also Christine Sinclair's hometown.
Yeah, with it being Sinc's hometown it makes total sense that she'd be involved.
Glad that she’s going to be involved in some way, shape, or form. Was wondering if she’d take a job in the Portland Front Office or Staff, but a role close to home makes some sense along with an elaborate end of career celebration here.
Re: the celebration—I thought that’s what we’ve been doing for the last two years.
I’m thinking formally retiring her number and maybe a statue of her likeness near an entrance. She’s been a wonderful ambassador for the game and the Thorns even if she’s regressed play wise
Intriguing...
Here's a new interview with Lisa Bhathal Merage with the Portland Business Journal:
https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2024/08/27/thorns-owner-bhathal-merage-practice-womens-sports.html?csrc=6398&taid=66ce4c8b7ee58400019a0e37&utm_campaign=trueAnthemTrendingContent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
If, like myself, you don't have a sub to the PBJ, I've included the text of the interview (thank you, quick Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C) :)
By Demi Lawrence – Staff Reporter, Portland Business Journal
Aug 27, 2024
Updated Aug 27, 2024 3:51pm PDT
In January, the Portland Thorns welcomed RAJ Sports, the team's new ownership group.
Led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, the group assumed controlling ownership over Portland’s National Women's Soccer League team from Peregrine Sports after a sexual harassment scandal forced former ownership to sell. Peregrine still owns the Thorns' MLS counterpart, the Timbers.
Merage and Bhathal are the children of Raj and Marta Bhathal, who co-own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. As the team’s controlling owner, Merage now sits on the NWSL Board of Governors while Bhathal acts as an alternate governor.
In this exclusive and edited interview, the Business Journal and Merage talked about the Thorns’ upcoming new practice facility, RAJ Sports’ decision to bring on Portland-connected investors and why she wants to be part of making Portland a major women’s sports hub.
--How long was the process of purchasing the team, and what drew you to the Thorns in specific?
(Our family) has been in sports for about a decade, so a lot of deals cross over our desk. And for the Thorns, it was January 2023 that we first saw the deck, and we were like, "Oh, this is interesting." But then we started feeling more that there was going to be this rise in women's sports, too. My day job is with Revitate, which is our family investment platform focused on real estate, sports and consumer products, and my job is chief impact officer, so I'm all about the social impact of things as well.
But it wasn't until last September that I went up for a game, and it was really the fans and supporters that did us in. Providence Park is amazing, the fans and supporters in Portland are incredible and you just don't see that everywhere. So I went to a game, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is it." And I took a video, and I went home the next day and had dinner with my parents.
I showed my parents the video, first it was my mom, and she was like, "Oh my gosh, there's fans up there in that corner?" I'm like, "Yes, look at that." And then I gave a video to my dad, who is originally from India. And although he was the only one not to have an arranged marriage within his brothers and sisters, a group of eight, he still grew up in an era at the time in India where women literally walked like 10 feet behind the men, even though he's not that way at all. But he looked at it, and he said, "As an older Indian gentleman, I really believe in women's sports," and that was what did it for us.
--RAJ Sports’ has said its primary focus is to advance plans for a new “first-class, purpose-built, women’s soccer-specific training facility.” Why is that a priority, and how is that coming along? When can we expect it to be open, and where will it be located?
Things are coming along. I don't have anything that I can really share yet, but we're working on it. Our goal is that within 2025 it will be open, so we're working on it.
At the end of the day, these are professional athletes, and we came from the world of men's sports with the Sacramento Kings, where in Sacramento, we built a new arena, we built a beautiful training center. Why do women not have that? It should be equal, it should be the same, and it's something that we really believe in investing in. [Merage declined to comment on where the practice facility will be located.]
--What went into the decision to add investors to the club?
I think it's really important that we have a connection to the Portland community. As you know, our family is based in Southern California, and I think it's one of the things that has been really important to us. We were connected with Tim Boyle, and he's been so warm and welcoming, and he really knows so many people in the community. It just allows us to come into the community and make sure that we are listening in the community the right way.
--I'm glad you brought up Southern California, because I was curious what the plan is for ownership here in Portland. Are you going to be splitting time between Southern California and Portland?
I've been up in Portland a lot, but our home is still down here in Newport Beach. We have other businesses down here, I'm here, my family's here, my husband and all of his family's here. So we don't have plans to move up to Portland, but the good news is it's only a two-hour flight away. We kind of joke that with traffic, it takes two hours to drive to LA right now, so it's not that big a difference.
--What are your thoughts on the new NWSL player agreement that will end the draft, expand parental leave, child care benefits and mental health services, allow players to approve trades and double minimum salaries by 2030?
It’s a unique place to be as a governor in a growth league like the NWSL, because at the end of the day, we want our players to be paid more. That really is the goal. There’s still such a discrepancy between male athletes and female athletes, but the key metric is viewership. We need to make sure people are watching the games. We need to make sure that there's a tune in, because the media contracts are what directly relates to players having bigger salaries, and that's true in every league.
--Have there been any ideas thrown around on how to increase that viewership?
There's lots of work being done. I also chair the marketing and commercial committee for the league, so it is a multi-pronged approach. Sponsorships, for example, are important not only from a revenue perspective, but also with regard to...media buying commercials and just general support for the league.
And then, of course, there's the advertising component, and one thing that we're talking about right now is, how do we capitalize on the fact that the USA won the gold medal, and 19 athletes that are gold medal winners in the NWSL and 56 overall that played in the league that were Olympians? I mean, that's a really big indicator for the league, and clearly puts the NWSL as the leading league in the world.
--What are some things you’ve learned from the Thorns’ front office, coaching staff and players since purchasing the club? What are their main concerns for the club and how is RAJ Sports working to meet those?
The Timbers organization was a shared front business office, so the first thing we did is we hired Alexis Lee as our president, and we're currently building out the staff. So far this year, we've hired 15 people, and our goal is to get to 25 by the end of the year, and that's been a big undertaking. We've worked with Peregrine on a shared services model, where certain components will roll over as we're ready. They were doing everything from ticketing, marketing, IT, HR, you name it, and we've been slowly bringing that on board ourselves.
--Are there any plans in place for RAJ Sports to get integrated into downtown Portland as the Thorns’ new owners?
Social impact and community involvement is something that's really important to our family and part of our DNA. The path to doing that is something we're still figuring out. That's where people like Tim Boyle have come in and been very helpful.
We also will be establishing a Thorns foundation. I don't have a timeline nailed down yet, because it's tied into the hiring of these 25 people, but that's something that's high on my list of priorities, and that will be part of how we give back and get involved in the community.
I would love to see Portland really cement itself as the epicenter of women's professional sports. I think that the fans of the Thorns were really early adopters and saw the potential of women's sports and really moved the needle for what you see in this world today. When we are recruiting other players for the Thorns, everybody wants to play in Providence Park, it is just a game changer.
Thanks for this. Some revealing insights and lots of evidence the Bhathals "get it" on several levels.
"Why you still startin' Sinc?" perhaps the big missing piece.
Portland Business Journal shortens to PBJ. Thought I'd note that.
As to what they did with the Kings, the G1C arena redevelopment replaced 2/3 of a dead shopping mall and while further development was badly hindered by covid and some really awful property owners, it's still occurring. In sum a net positive, not some sports palace in a farflung suburb surrounded by 10k asphalt parking spaces empty 98% of the year.
Bumping the below query/thread from previous Thorns post in hopes of response;
ABell4
Aug 25
STF reporters...it would be lovely if y'all could start asking the club/coach some hard questions when you have the chance. Y'all are the only voice the fans have (and kinda the only accountability for the club), and there are lots of questions surrounding this club right now...
And, of course, thank you!
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FDChief
Aug 25
The Vox/Peregrine-STF was pretty paranoid about losing access. I was repeatedly rapped on the knuckles for pissing off players or management by writing that their last match/deal/draft had been less that perfect.
But Peregrine was shitty like that, and Vox was all about "access journalism".
Now? My thought is, why not? This is a fan blog. It should reflect the fans' viewpoints. We all question Sinclair starting at CF; what harm in asking why?
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Stefan (formerly Beck&Bauer)
Aug 25
Phuoc, Sam, Melina- would one of you mind answering this question? please? Are you restricted in some way from asking critical questions of the team/staff?
The same dynamic still exists: the STF reporters here might lose their journalists' access if they're seen as "hostile" for asking questions we all want answered. But what level of tough questioning counts as "hostile"? I have no idea what current conditions are like at the club, but the dynamic is undoubtedly there at some level. MP has a notoriously thin skin, so I suspect things are at least somewhat better now than before the club's sale, but no one, the current club included, wants to deal with someone they consider an a**hole.
This dynamic isn't unique to sports - it applies anywhere where journos need to keep their connections open. Trump, for instance, gives interviews on Fox News far more than mainstream outlets because he considers the latter hostile, while he can count on Fox to pitch softball questions. (Harris, meanwhile, hasn't yet sat down for a real interview with *anyone*, though apparently she's about to. But it's with CNN, which could well pitch her softballs too. We'll see.)
Thanks, Dave- I get that, but I'm hoping to hear from one of the STF reporters, to at least let us know what those conditions and restrictions are, or at least their perceptions of the same.
I could envision ways for concerns to be raised without them being considered "hostile" for asking
(i.e. "_____________, many of the fans at our STF site have raised concerns about ____(X)______ issue. Is there anything you can tell me about whether you agree there is reason for concern, why/why not, and if so, what can you say that we can relay to the fans on our site about the club's plans to address this?" etc.)
Ahma keep asking until they answer... I know Phuoc, at least, reads the comments
Wow! 100K seems VERY high.
Reminded of this classic bit from Futurama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVgrPOmlG00
Peso?
That would seem pretty low..
Well, this should be an embarrassment to SOMEbody.
"A new record in Carolina: Vicky Bruce scored the first goal in Super League history, leading Carolina Ascent FC to a historic 1-0 win over DC Power FC. A sold-out crowd of 10,553 set a new record for a professional women's soccer match in the Carolinas."
Can this be true? I mean, with the Courage in residence?
"CARY, N.C. (Oct. 9, 2023) – The North Carolina Courage set a new club and WakeMed Soccer Park single-game attendance record Saturday night, welcoming 10,434 fans through the gates for the first regular season sellout in club history.
"The standing room only crowd for the 2023 regular season home finale against the San Diego Wave surpassed the previous Courage record of 10,227 for the 2019 NWSL Final and the venue’s 10,346 for the NCAA Men’s Soccer semifinals on December 9, 2022.
"The crowd was the second to crack the club’s all-time top five this season, also bringing 7,070 fans out to the May 6 match against the Portland Thorns. Setting an attendance record in the final home date of the 2023 season was a culmination of a season of growth, both on and off the field, for the club and a big momentum builder headed into the 2023 playoffs and 2024 campaign."
Okay, then.
Nadeshiko update! Well...the ManCity Nadeshiko, anyway.
City are playing in a pre-season friendly tournament in Australia, and just advanced at the expense of Leicester City. Penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw. Both sides' starting 11s were rotated a fair bit, and none of teh Japanese players started (Yui Hasegawa is a lock in any City 11 in games that matter). Usual starting 'keeper Khiara Keating was in goal. At the half, Hasegawa, Aoba Fujino, and JWNT #1 'keeper Ayaka Yamashita came on. Fujino would have had the winning assist, but Midiema's header came off the crossbar (yes: Aoba Fujino on the wing feeding Viv Miedema at the 9. Oh. My. God.). Yasmashita had three notable saves and then stopped two PKs in the shootout. Fujino made one of the PKs.
Good start for the new Cityzens from Japan. There's HUGE competition for Fujino to get a starting role, but I think she's better than Chloe Kelly and has a higher ceiling. She needs to be more consistent, though. Unfortunately for Yamashita, I don't think any level of brilliance in goal is going to see her displace Keating in the usual staring 11, though. Keating was one of the big stars of last season, is a better distributor (Ayaka-chan's the better pure shot stopper, but not by a lot), and VERY importantly when you're talking British teams, she's a domestic player. Puzzling decision for Yamashita to go to City, frankly...
Soph and Sam Presser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2fYce2mrUw
Bonus points to Soph for her Gilmore Girls reference.
She sounds pretty chuffed having Spaanstra on board. Let's see how well they meld on the field (guessing as a pair and especially adding someone else speedy like Linnehan/Turner, things open up in the scoring department).
Week 17 Recap (no Thorns edition) featuring:
- The Spirit's suffocating statement win against KC
- Is Utah....kinda good?
- Bay FC's underperforming stars
- Houston's disaster of a season by the numbers
https://www.theeaststandnwsl.com/post/nwsl-week-17-recap-the-spirit-make-a-shield-statement-and-are-utah-kinda-good
How did it go uncommented-upon that Casey Murphy conceded an own-goal in the 97th to give Seattle a win?
It was already a rough day and no one wants to talk about Seattle winning lol
yes, saw that goal- unlucky break for Murphy who did all she could, I wish soccer would change the way they define own goals- unless there's an element of negligence there (I mean,m it's not like Murphy caught the ball and walked into her own goal or anything :-) )
it doesn't seem fair to the keeper or the offensive player who created the chance.
I think hockey has it right: there are officiallly "own goals" (I just learned this) - but the goals are awarded to the last offensive player to touch the puck. Win-win.
Murphy didn't do anything wrong, just got unlucky. Still a great (if lucky) header by Adames, and she deserved to be credited for a dramatic goal there.
Soccer statisticians are fuddy-duddies.
Not sure what you're complaining about here; the soccer definition of own goal? It was certainly an unlucky break, as almost all own goals are.
Adames's shot bounced off the post and was maybe a yard from the goal line when it bounced off Murphy, and she wasn't able to control it. No Seattle player was in the 6-yard box except Adames at the far corner and moving away. The ball would not have crossed the line if Murphy hadn't touched it.
I do agree that it's unfair that the attacker gets no credit. Maybe Adames should get the assist, although without Murphy's error this was simply a miss off the post.
The current definition is that it's credited as a goal for the attacker if the ball's path from when they last touched it, through however many deflections, is toward the goal the whole time; if at any point the ball is headed away from the goal, then it's an own-goal. Hence Adames's shot rebounding off the post meant that it wasn't credited to her. Similarly, Yazmeen Ryan's "goal" for the Thorns in the 2022 NWSL Final isn't credited to her because AD Franch slapped Ryan's cross away from goal, but slapped it right into a teammate and it rebounded into the goal.
Either soccer's definition or hockey's gets it wrong some of the time. For instance, some defender placed a really nice bullet header into the upper 90 on behalf of the Timbers many years back. THAT was an own-goal by anyone's definition, since the defender could have simply let the ball go (there were no Timbers anywhere close) and the ball would have bounced harmlessly out of bounds. Under the hockey definition, that would have been credited - unfairly IMO - to the Timber who crossed the ball in. Soccer's crediting of an own-goal got it right in this case.
I guess the question is this: do you want mistakes in crediting goals to go to the defenders or the attackers? Hockey says attackers, soccer says defenders. I think I agree with you that I'd like to see soccer use the hockey definition, mainly because I think attackers in soccer deserve, but don't get, credit for goals far more often than defenders would avoid credit for own-goals they truly deserve. But I can see it both ways, and I can live with soccer's definition.
BTW, both definitions have the huge benefit of being completely objective. If we tried some middle ground, where someone(s) somewhere decided whether a given goal should be an attacker's goal or an own-goal, there would be endless bickering about the decisions. Maybe that's good for fan engagement, but I'd rather avoid another source of arguments!
Random, but interesting:
https://x.com/AmericaFemenil/status/1829274173874557151
One of our NTRP's from the summer looks to have signed with Club America. Does that mean we get a transfer fee? Everything I've seen about it says she's coming from the Thorns, but I don't see anything official...
I'm guessing that she was on a very short-term contract with the Thorns. So as soon as the NTRP period was over, she was out of contract - hence no transfer fee.
https://x.com/tayvincent6/status/1829208283569369467
This applies to Asman, Sheva, McKenzie, and Weaver. In other words, if we don't hear anything by the 31st.....they're all free agents. This is also why I was banging on about the Weaver extension earlier in the year- I assume she's staying, but they're really taking it down to the wire if they plan to trigger the club option.
(And, fwiw, Spaanstra still needs an extension. The other FAs --Becky, Kling, Hubly, Sinc, Provenzano, Bixby, and Kozal-- are all varying degrees of either "not going anywhere," might retire," or "unimportant," but Spaanstra is *technically* a FA as well)
I believe that Stumptown Footy reported that Weaver’s was a club option. I remember being surprised that she agreed to it.
It is a club option, that's kinda my point. I wonder whether they've been negotiating an extension and that's why they haven't picked it up yet because otherwise it would/should be a no-brainer.
Yeah would be a major fail to let a club option for Weaver lapse (if no extension is agreed upon), thus allowing her to become a free agent.
Y'all got a day or so left! (And get Spaanstra a contract, plzzz)
If she lets Weaver go when they have her cost controlled for one more year, it would be beyond stupid.
Kind of like Kuikka?
It would be a far greater crime of course, Morgan is practically an OG Thorn by now considering all the roster churn since 2020. More to the point, huge team and fan favorite who runs defenders absolutely ragged.
Unfortunately deals that should've been simple have been bungled in the past, to our detriment...
Good! It clearly wasn't working out for Dias here, and it was in everyone's best interest for her to move on. If we get $100k in the deal, all the better, and well done KK.
Best of luck to her at Tigres.
That was a positive move by KK. Probably makes up for some of the swings and misses with regards to transfer fee usage.
It's good when they recognize something wasn't a good fit and then they move to change it. Definitely appreciate the urgency there. Just hope it's all done humanely...bc from the outside, the revolving doors thing doesn't always look great.
I think Ana will do well at Tigres. She was sort of third in a spot where Soph plays most minutes. It was always going to be hard for her to get time unless it was out of position. Really hoping the thorns strengthen the midfield or defense this year . They didn’t make that moves in position of need . If they have big names though I could see them waiting for next season.
Often the midfield consists of three players trying to cover four positions. I don't see how we can judge them while that continues.
Interesting, can you expand on that? Where do you see the a place where we lack that the midfield has to make up for
Sinclair isn't fast enough to get back on defense, or if she's defending she can't keep up with a transition attack. Either way, the players around her have to try to cover for her. It's not always midfielders, but most often it is.
A different issue is passes to Sinclair. If the passer leads her, she often can't reach the ball; and often it's the passer who is seen as "putting too much weight" on the pass.
The other players do their best to make it all work, but it's suboptimal, to say the least.
I don't want to harp on this, or to say the midfield has zero problems otherwise, but it seems unfair to judge until they get a chance to sort themselves out in a better onfield environment.
I'm going to (mostly?) shut up on this topic for a while. If there are others who see some merit in my observations I hope they'll keep the convo going.
Just for clarity's sake...by "until they get a chance to sort themselves out in a better onfield environment", do you just mean you wanna wait until we have an actual experienced coach before you fully make judgements on the roster we have?
No, I just meant getting to play regularly without Sinclair on the field. Having to constantly improvise adjustments to cover for her doesn't seem like either a good way to build a midfield or a useful test of the midfield players we have.
Hopefully we won't have to wait for a new HC for that to happen.
The midfield needs help. Jesse, Olivia, Sam, and Hina are good but I feel like all of them but Sam tend to occupy the same space positionally and there's a skill drop off after that core group
Agreed, they need more in the midfield. Someone that is good at defending but can set up play. The truth is our midfield isn’t exactly hard to bypass and it’s not like they are setting up or running all that much play either. We need a different type of midfielder . Also, hopefully one that lets Hina be Hina. Right now I feel like a lot of what makes her Hina can’t be showed because she’s having to defend so much
* setting up or making runs all that much either.
Ohhhh, yeah she was one of the few that stood out on the FA list, honestly! A good domestic pickup for FB who probably becomes a starter with Muller, if so. She's a really good FB last I remembered, what they doin?! She's from IL also. Hope KK is paying attention...
Could this also mean that she is choosing not to re-sign? Or are these purely clubs not choosing to to re-sign?