Portland is upping its game, as the Thorns and Fire unveiled their $150 million training facility on Saturday. The opening marks a first for women’s sports.
The first-ever dual women’s sports complex houses two soccer pitches and two basketball courts. Additional features include dining areas, a strength and performance center, dedicated family spaces, and more.
“We’re creating more than something that’s just for both teams,” Fire and Thorns Governor Lisa Bhathal Merage told Just Women’s Sports. “We are creating a complete women’s sports ecosystem.”
The Thorns and Fire are the only jointly-owned NWSL and WNBA teams. The arrangement allows RAJ Sports to create an elite environment for both squads.
“Our athletes are so multifaceted,” Bhathal Merage said. “They love music and art and food and culture and fashion, and we’ve been very intentional when we built out our Kaiser Permanente Performance Center.”
Gotham FC is getting a home of its own, as the 2025 NWSL champion announced plans for a first-ever dedicated training center this week.
Designed by SHoP Architects, the 27,000-square-foot $35 million project takes over the New York Red Bulls’ former New Jersey grounds, featuring three grass pitches plus a full-size indoor field for year-round access.
Additional highlights include a 3,000-square-foot gym, hydrotherapy and recovery rooms, player lounge, and dining area.
“We are building an environment that allows our athletes to perform, recover, and develop at the highest level every day,” said President of Soccer Operations Yael Averbuch West in a statement. “This facility represents a major step in aligning our infrastructure with our sporting ambitions.”
Gotham currently splits resources between two borrowed sites. The setup forces players to commute between indoor and outdoor facilities.
“It’s always been honestly one of the things that we were probably behind other clubs,” head coach Juan Carlos Amorós told The Athletic.
“We’ve been really good on the pitch… But I think the players always felt that we could go another level with regards to the facilities.”
The WSL champions are upping the ante, as title-winner Manchester City unveiled its new £10 million women's team facility this week at the City Football Academy.
The 17,000-square-foot space features locker rooms, gyms, and medical and rehab areas, plus deeper integration into Man City's larger ecosystem.
"This building is about so much more than bricks and mortar," said managing director Charlotte O'Neill.
"It is about creating an environment where our players can thrive, where standards are set at the very highest level, and where the current squad has everything it needs to continue to compete for and win silverware."
Man City Women have primarily played at Joie Stadium for the last 10 years, at times sharing resources with the youth men's side prior to the new construction. The 7,000-capacity stadium remains on-site alongside the new first-team facility.
"This new facility marks the next logical step in our long-term commitment to Manchester City Women," said club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
The facility represents one of the largest investments in a dedicated women's football environment. Club captain Alex Greenwood called it the best space for a women's team specifically, surpassing even her time at eight-time European champions OL Lyonnes.
The women's team moved into the facility weeks ago and sat together in the new lounge space to watch Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Brighton, which confirmed Manchester City as 2025/26 WSL champions.
The Indiana Fever unveiled plans for a new $78 million, 108,000-square-foot training facility, marking a major investment as the franchise continues to build around its young core — including WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark.
The organization shared a first look at the three-story performance center ahead of its planned 2027 debut. Located in downtown Indianapolis and connected to Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the site will serve as a year-round hub for performance, recovery, lifestyle, and team operations.
In a statement, team president Kelly Krauskopf pointed to the project's broader impact.
"This will set a new standard for women’s sports and continue to position Indianapolis at the center of that momentum,” Krauskopf said.
The move reflects Indiana's current direction. The Indiana Fever enter the 2026 season with just a handful of players under contract. This includes Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Makayla Timpson, while the team navigates a pivotal WNBA free agency period.
Clark took to her Instagram stories to weigh in on the news.
"Find me here," she wrote, reposting the team's announcement.
The guard's response offered a glimpse into how the franchise views the investment. As Clark enters her third WNBA season, she remains central to Indiana's long-term plans. Despite injuries, she helped lead the team's 2025 turnaround that included both a playoff appearance and record-setting attendance.
New WNBA CBA Ups the Stakes for Indiana Fever Practice Facility
The facility also comes at a key moment for the league. A new WNBA CBA and rising salaries have increased expectations around resources and player support, with teams investing more heavily in player-focused infrastructure improvements.
For Indiana, timing matters. As the Fever continue shaping their roster via free agency and retaining homegrown talent like Caitlin Clark, the off-court move adds another layer to the organization's comeback story.
The WNBA and WNBPA remain in a negotiations deadlock, with New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart telling reporters that the two parties will not reach a CBA resolution before Friday night's extended deadline expires.
"We are not coming to an agreement by tomorrow, I can tell you that," Stewart said Thursday from Unrivaled 3×3's Miami campus. "We're just going to continue to negotiate in good faith."
The WNBA will now enter into a status quo period under the old CBA, in which negotiations will continue beyond the formal deadline.
Last month, the WNBPA voted to give union leadership permission to strike should that become necessary, but players view a total work stoppage as a last resort.
"[A strike is] not something that we're going to do right this second, but we have that in our back pocket," Stewart clarified.
The league and its players remain far apart on revenue sharing, among other issues, as the union pushes for more equitable gross distribution while the WNBA looks to offset expenses with a net sharing mechanism.
Though things are still up in the air, the union does seem to be taking precautions, announcing the launch of WNBPA Player Hubs on Thursday — resources for players "when team facilities are off-limits."
Described as "training facilities offering WNBA players continued access to courts, weight rooms, and recovery spaces throughout the offseason," the global network of university gyms and other performance centers will help athletes stay fit "regardless of league operation."
The Stars are investing in the future, with the Chicago NWSL team announcing on Tuesday that it's planning to build a club-owned training and performance center on a 10-acre site in suburban Bannockburn, Illinois.
"This facility will set the standard in women's professional soccer by providing the infrastructure our players need to develop to their highest level of performance," said executive chairperson Laura Ricketts in a club statement. "This new facility isn't just an investment in the Stars, it's an investment in the future of women's soccer."
Set to break ground in this spring, the Chicago Stars' private training ground will include two full pitches, a goalkeeper pitch, and a 45,000 square foot performance center as the founding NWSL club doubles down on its new identity after finishing the 2025 season in last place.
Along with a brand overhaul, the Stars announced last year that the club will relocate from Bridgeview's SeatGeek Stadium to Northwestern University's Martin Stadium in 2026.
"Providing our players with a private facility will be pivotal in their development and performance," said incoming head coach Martin Sjögren. "The environment will eliminate distractions to maximize the energy and focus our athletes are able to dedicate to their craft. This includes a focus on the whole person — optimizing both mental and physical health to drive results and help us continue to draw top level talent to Chicago."
The business of women's sports is booming, as Forbes confirmed this week in their Most Valuable Women's Sports Teams of 2025 rankings.
The publication reported that 25 women's sports organizations now boast valuations in the nine figures, with an estimated collective worth of $5.6 billion.
The WNBA's New York Liberty tops the list with an estimated value of $400 million, with women's basketball producing the inaugural rankings' five most valuable teams as the Indiana Fever, Seattle Storm, Las Vegas Aces, and Phoenix Mercury also punched at or above the $300 million mark.
Notably, all 12 long-established WNBA teams feature in the Top 25, with only 2025 expansion side Golden State still building into the top echelon of women's sports valuations — though the Valkyries seem a likely future addition to the list considering their record-breaking debut season.
Soccer standouts comprised the other 13 Most Valuable Women's Sports Teams of 2025, with eight NWSL franchises and five European football clubs scoring spots on the Forbes list.
No. 6 Angel City FC and No. 7 Kansas City Current lead the NWSL at $280 million and $275 million, respectively, while No. 8 Arsenal just edged Liga F side No. 7 Barcelona and fellow WSL club No. 8 Chelsea FC to top Europe's contingent with a valuation of $260 million.
Purpose-built arena and training facilities ultimately gave US teams a valuation edge, as many European clubs remain financially tied to their men's counterparts.
All in all, women's sports valuations reflect potential as much as they do current reality, as investors cash in on one of the sector's fastest-growing markets.
The LA Sparks are in for a major upgrade, announcing plans for a dedicated $150 million training facility in what the WNBA team is calling "the largest investment to date in the history of women's sports for a single team."
The 55,000-square-foot development in El Segundo will feature two regulation basketball courts, a weight room, training areas, recovery rooms, a yoga studio, hydrotherapy, and a spa, as well as other amenities.
"We're building a place where Sparks players can be at their best on and off the court," said Sparks governor Eric Holoman in the team's Wednesday press release.
With both surging revenues and a looming new CBA shaping WNBA teams' every move, state-of-the-art facilities have become a must-have for organizations looking to attract top talent for next season — and beyond.
LA is just the latest team to enter the facility arms race, joining the Chicago Sky, Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, New York Liberty, and 2026 expansion side Portland Fire.
The Seattle Storm, Phoenix Mercury, and Las Vegas Aces have all recently debuted their own splashy dedicated training centers.
The LA Sparks are anticipating a 2027 opening for their new facility, rushing toward the finish line following several years of short-term contracts with third-party practice centers.
Incoming 2026 NWSL expansion team Boston Legacy FC is making big moves, with two key Monday announcements shoring up the club's place in the larger New England sports ecosystem.
Buying into the Legacy on Monday was Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston, with the 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year investing in the club after playing high school ball at Massachusetts's Worcester Academy.
"I'm proud to join the ownership group of the Boston Legacy. This city helped raise me, and the support I felt here shaped so much of who I am," the three-time WNBA All-Star said in a club statement. "And yes... Boston repping Boston just felt right!"
With her investment, Boston joins a growing roster of current and former WNBA stars buying into the NWSL, including Angel City investor Candace Parker, Bay FC advisor Sabrina Ionescu, and Gotham FC minority owner Sue Bird.
Along with their famous new investor, the Legacy also revealed plans on Monday to construct a privately funded, $27 million purpose-built team performance center in nearby Brockton, Massachusetts.
Slated to open prior to the 2026 preseason, the center boasts a fully outfitted 30,000 square-foot training building, a bubble dome for year-round practice, and six fields of various surfaces — some of which will be available to youth teams in the community.
"Competing at the highest level demands an environment that elevates every aspect of performance — and this new facility is a major step forward in how we support our players every single day," said Legacy controlling owner Jennifer Epstein.
A couple of those incoming players were announced earlier this month, as the Legacy welcomed Bundesliga free agent and midfielder Annie Karich as the team's first signee before inking French Première Ligue forward Aïssata Traoré — the first-ever NWSL player from Mali — late last week.
The Tampa Bay Sun became the latest team to announce plans for a purpose-built women's soccer stadium this week, with the 2025 USL Super League champs looking to construct a 15,000-seat venue on the Ybor Harbor waterfront.
"We believe in the power of sport to inspire, unite, and drive meaningful change," said Sun majority owner Darryl Shaw in the club's Tuesday announcement. "By anchoring this historic neighborhood with a vibrant home for women's professional soccer, we're investing in our city's future and honoring the community that makes it thrive."
The state-of-the-art stadium for the top-flight USL club is the star of the proposal, though the 33-acre mixed-use development project also incorporates retail and residential spaces, as well as hotels, restaurants, and offices to house the United Soccer League headquarters.
While the new development has yet to announce a construction timeline or overall cost, the project comes as the USL Super League moves into its second season following a successful inaugural year.
"We're accelerating the growth of women's soccer while creating lasting benefits for Tampa Bay," said USL CEO Alec Papadakis. "The stadium development will be a place where fans and community come together and celebrate our sport."
"Tampa is a city of champions — and now we're dreaming even bigger," remarked Tampa mayor Jane Castor. "The stadium would deliver a place that captures our city's energy, inspires the next generation, and stands as a national symbol of what happens when cities invest boldly in women's sports and inclusive economic growth."