Alex Bhathal and his sister Lisa Bhathal Merage have some rules they follow ahead of each Portland Fire game they attend. For Alex, it means wearing a lucky red shirt—a switch from his usual black attire, which was correlated with two team losses. And for Lisa, she sits in seat 11 of her designated row.
The pre-game rituals of the owners of the first-year WNBA franchise are a product of their father, a businessman and sports investor who emigrated from India to the U.S. in 1960.
Lisa remembers one of the superstitions their father would espouse: “If your left eye twitches, it means that money is coming your way.”
The siblings have certainly seen recent success through their family investment firm RAJ Sports. After buying the Portland Thorns in the growing NWSL in early 2024 for a reported $63 million, the siblings are expanding their roots in the city. In September of that year, RAJ Sports purchased the Portland Fire for $125 million to secure control of the newly announced expansion franchise, which began play in the 2026 season.
The team now has a valuation of $380 million and has the fourth-highest attendance of the WNBA’s 15 franchises, averaging about 14,500 fans per game in its inaugural season. Last month, RAJ Sports opened the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center, the $150 million joint training facility for the Thorns and the Fire.
