HILLSBOROUGH, Ore. — Walking through the brand new training center of the Portland Thorns and the Portland Fire is a practice in seeing double.The 100,000-square-foot facility, which cost more than $150 million, houses two full-sized basketball courts for the WNBA expansion team, and two full-sized soccer fields — one grass, one turf — for the three-time NWSL champion Thorns.There are two team lounges, one for each team, outfitted with plush couches, throw pillows and blankets, and plenty of the athletes’ preferred snacks, from Cheez-Its to peanut butter and jelly-filled dates. Two locker rooms with ample shelf space for each player (plus a little extra for goalkeepers) and a USB-C outlet inside each locker so players can charge their devices while they train. Two meeting rooms for teams and operations staff. Two saunas pierced with sleek, recessed lighting.But the common spaces at the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center are just as intentional.The treatment area, 5,000-square-foot weight room, and cafeteria are shared by both teams. That is where professional soccer player-turned-women’s sports executive Karina LeBlanc believes the real transformation can happen.Soccer and basketball players might sit with each other at breakfast, LeBlanc imagined, and “be like, ‘Hey, what you listening to? Where’d you go last night?’” posited LeBlanc, the former Thorns general manager who is now the executive vice president of strategic growth and development at Raj Sports, the investment firm run by the Bhathal family, which owns both teams.“It’s also for an athlete who’s struggling. Who is being seen by somebody who cares about them, who may have gone through something similar.”The basketball facilities inside the center (Raj Sports)That is the revolutionary mathematics of this first-of-its kind, dual-sport training ground. From the grand schemes to the minute details, every surface, light, furniture arrangement, and amenity feels intentionally designed for the modern-day, high-performing professional female athlete. That it houses a storied NWSL side and an expansion WNBA team is a fitting expression of the possibilities in women’s sports that have long thrived in Portland.Raj Sports announced its plans for the performance center last February. At that time, the Fire were known only as Portland WNBA, a placeholder for the eventual team name that would honor the city’s first WNBA team of the same name that existed from 2000 to 2002. And they certainly hadn’t made their first signing in Canadian forward Bridget Carleton in the expansion draft, which took place more than a year later on April 3, 2026.On Thursday, Carleton sat alongside LeBlanc, South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley, Paralympian Scout Bassett, and Thorns striker Sophia Wilson on a panel at the Epicenter Women’s Global Sports Summit. The convening of high-level operators across women’s sports took place at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., and culminated in the formal unveiling of the performance center.“I knew that we were going to be a priority here,” Carleton told The Athletic, which weighed into her decision to sign a three-year contract with the Fire. “Our owners really, really take care of us and the Thorns.”