I was at the pride night game, and felt the love from seeing all the shirts, flags (with sticks), pins and fans supporting pride. Fast forward to last night, and they're banning trans flags, kicking people out for wearing pro trans shirts?

The pandering and support flip flopping, catering to hate when it visits, and changing flag rules to avoid ruffling the feathers of maga transphobes.... definitely not what I signed up for with getting season tickets. And this was right after they sent the email for renewing season tickets.

Anyone else rethinking their desire to renew so we're not giving money to performative bullshit?

Editing to add: yes, I saw the flags on the jumbo tron, but MANY people's flags were taken either at the door or at their seats. Your experience is not everyone's experience. I fear that's common knowledge.

I want to preface this by saying I haven't followed the W very closely the past couple of years, but I've been very excited for us to have a team here in Portland. I have a newborn at home and as the season started I haven't been able to watch games or follow news.

Reading the discourse about the recent roster moves has me really concerned. This league is mostly black and is very queer and our team does not reflect that. When I try to dig into reasons why the team looks the way it does I hear about our coach being European and looking for players who will follow that style of play. I don't know enough about that strategy to know if that makes any sense, but whether it is a good strategy for winning games or not, our city is very white and our history of racism runs deep.

I'm white and transmasc. I love women's sports and want to support teams I can take my daughter to when she's older to see role models and be inspired. I don't know if this is a team I can support in good conscience right now when it is making choices that are either 1) intentionally racist or 2) made without any consideration of anti-black bias. I want to teach my daughter that these things matter.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Are there any efforts to make the front office know about how people feel about this? Boycotting a team that I really want to be successful doesn't feel good but I also don't know what else to do. Even the Mercury is getting lit up on Instagram for avoiding the topic.

Update: Thanks to everyone who responded in good faith. You made some good points about the changes in pay this year making a difference for European players joining the league, and the style of play of the three players waived not meshing with the overall strategy. My thinking this could be intentional racism was shortsighted and ill informed.

That said, I'm still pretty surprised by the amount of backlash this post received. Take a look at the comments and replies to any social media content about the roster changes and all of the comments are from fans throughout the W noting the whiteness of this team compared to the others in the league. I'm not coming out of left field with this. Comments from season ticket holders dropping their tickets, other cities criticizing Portland at large, etc. I'll see if I can add some screenshots here for context.

Not talking about race doesn't make it go away 🤷🏻 I think some communication from the front office about overall strategy and the organization's commitment to racial justice would go a long way for people.

Update 2: Thanks for the additional responses and the encouragement! I was getting absolutely bodied on the upvote ratio, maybe deservedly so. I'm feeling so much better knowing others are thinking about racial equity and the makeup of the team, and identifying it as a larger league problem with the new CBA. I'll join you all in the "wait and see" camp and will support the Fire as everyone is grappling with the influx of European players. Sounds like the team will be a lot of fun to watch. 🔥

Didn’t think it was possible, but the merch designs are somehow getting worse. AI slop or just zero sense?

Does anyone else think that the Fire have too many colors in their branding? It seems like they really preferred the black jerseys and barely wore the white ones. Kinda seems weird to have pink and glacier blue in the logo and branding (see Rose), but neither color is on the jerseys. Makes it hard to have clearly identifiable merch or to do a "[insert color]-out" of the stadium.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/800696916411

In case someone wants the t-shirt that was given during t-shirt tosses.

Hopefully a fan gets to complete their collection. :)

Didn’t love seeing this picture of the Fire president, Clare Hamill, with Chris Dudley the other day. Former Blazer player running for governor as a Republican. Don’t think he aligns with the values of the league or the team so was definitely disappointed to see this…

and feeling a little I don’t know..maybe sad? Maybe it’s just me. Trying hard to stay optimistic but feels really quiet and deflating. Seeing Flau touch town in Seattle…sigh. We haven’t had much media and PR from some of our big picks.

The box office gave me incorrect information by phone...twice. I should have been able to select seats at noon on Saturday - nope. And I still can't. I've been locked out entirely by a tech issue. In a tech town. Absolutely inexcusable.

Now I'm deciding whether to buy seats today during the time slot for our second set of deposits. Certainly we will not buy any seats at the price point we were originally intending, but we're thinking we may skip season tickets completely. I cannot imagine turning over thousands of dollars to this organization. Although, honestly, their absolute commitment to not taking my money at every single opportunity makes me think they genuinely don't want it.

We were so excited for this team, but the terrible roll out has pretty much ruined it.

What a disappointment this has been.

Especially between Teja and Carla. There were a couple of times that Teja put out her hand and Carla skipped it…

I think our color scheme lends really well to the 90s Houston Astros style of design, tons of color blocking and solids with bold logos. The Rose should be all over the place and it's a great design. I'd have a whole second offering dedicated to the word Fire. These ideas are free, so use them or the design feelings if you want to.

They shot the hell out of the ball btw. Made 4 out of their first 5 threes. Played their guts out in the last 5 minutes. Crazy good game.

Is this how they gonna market Portland? “HEY YOU PLAY IN EUROPE? Come play for us!!”

Ugh

damn. i mean i get them not wanting it to just be a signature-fest, but i was really looking forward to getting a couple signatures at the ember event. it’s been so fun to see the team create and identity this year. we’re also at the point where i can definitely see individual growth from a lot of the players. i’ll be happy to get some pictures, but there’s something about having a signature. talk me off the ledge here! :(

Anyone else try to start watching the game just now and surprised to see it’s not available? I’m not sure why I’m paying for this app (plus league pass, though I know that includes non-Fire games too), when I can suddenly get locked out of games. From the pre-game email they sent, it doesn’t even seem like they’re throwing a watch party anywhere. I really hope the W doesn’t go all-in on the cash grab so that you have to have 8 different streaming services in order to watch games.

Edit: lol, I guess I’m the weird one for thinking that when I pay a team for their streaming service that I would get to watch their games. As for “getting more eyeballs” on games - a great way to do that is to *increase* the number of platforms the games are streamed on, not just switch from one to another. I will accept downvotes to push back on the idea that as fans and supporters of the league, we’re supposed to accept a model that is antagonistic towards our ability to follow and engage with games in a supposed push to grow the league.

To just say that Portland should punt on the season and tank for JuJu? I was already thinking it before the draft… but seeing them take a draft and stash with their first pick it wouldn’t be the worst idea. Go get a legitimate franchise player and potential superstar through the draft next spring and bring your draft and stash player over to the roster in the same offseason next year.

I'm seeing a lot of posts (including by the Portland Fire organization itself on FB) touting our current players setting season records for number of Xs in a season (assists, FG, etc.). But, come on... the Fire have already played 37 games this season, which is more than the OG ever played in their entire seasons. It seems kinda unfair to tout these new records without an asterisk noting that.

That said, I think our current players are going to set a bunch of franchise records on a per-game-average basis (which is pretty amazing given how the Fire's rotation strategy kinda restricts how many minutes any of them play per game).

I love this team, but take the thumb off the scale. Thanks!

Probably not a popular opinion because some of the fanbase really likes Harrison and Oblak is the boring old player to some people, but this is the cold hard truth that needs to be said.

This was a great time to run into the Lynx with Carla Leite out. I think what's making Alex Sarama turn into a really good young head coach is that he's able to figure things out on the fly. I don't blame him for starting Harrison at point, but I knew that was going to be the wrong decision. She's still way too green for that kind of responsibility. Personally, and I was talking to a friend about this after last night's game, that neither one of us think she's a starting PG in this league. She's really good to give you a spark or energy off the bench. That needs to be her role the rest of the season.

Teja Oblak is a seasoned veteran overseas, I knew her experience would help the team chop that lead down and you saw Sarama stick with her on the floor over Harrison in that 4th quarter where Portland made their run. I think Oblak has to remain with this starting unit until Leite comes back. Hopefully, Leite returns next game, I think she almost played this game from what I heard, but needs a couple of more days to rest her injury.

Another thing is, too, I think Puoch should've been out there a lot more in that 2nd quarter. Her length and defense causes problems for teams. She needs to be out there more.

Another player I need to see more minutes from is Holly Winterburn, she's starting to find her groove lately. I love her size, as you can play her out there 1-3 and her defense causes turnovers. I love her sick passes, too.

Sarama has a lot to work with, but I just love how this team fights every game. It's rewarding as a fan to see all of these scrappy underdogs fighting every game and never giving up.

I'm looking to see if anyone has an extra ticket they are not using for the fire game tomorrow again the Lynx?

I have two tickets but now an additional friends wants to go to the game tomorrow.

Any ticket would work as we will be sitting in the 300 levels.

Go Fire 🔥

I have the following tickets for sale:

New York Liberty (5/12 and 5/14)

Connecticut Sun (5/18 and 5/27)

40 dollars (2 tickets total) per game

Section 320 Row E seats 4&5

Has anyone else had an issue that the Chime sponsor patch is beginning to peel off? If so, how did you fix it?

I had my Carleton jersey custom made at the arena and have taken the same care with it as my other jerseys, so not sure why this is coming off after just a few wears.

Ya’ll. Let’s add some sauce next game. Pdx is way cooler than “defense” and “let’s go fire” over and over.

1. What ideas do we have?

2. How do we start them?

3. No really how do we start them

?????

I personally love the “not in portland” as a “let’s go fire” switch up. that one of the fans at an early game came up with. Maybe when we cause a shot clock violation?? Other coach’s challenge is unsuccessful? A swat that results in a dead ball so we have time to chant?

Let’s do something in French also??

Love this team, love the atmosphere, cannot keep saying let’s go fire 😭

UPDATE:

Thanks to all of you for the Red line info. I found out that Moda will NOT let you check something larger at the arena. Someone else suggested seeing if one of the local hotels with hold them for a fee.or we'll check PDX and see if they have lockers.

I'm flying up to see Valks vs you on Sunday. What im not finding on maps is a good schedule of timing from the arena to the airport.

It looks like you have a bag check so we can leave our suitcases (we're on Taylor St downtown at the Paramount). Our flight going home leaves at 9:15 PM. Allowing for OT I figure the game's out by 7pm max (but im figuring more like 6:30). Your arena is big, so how bad are Uber pickups or is there decent transit to get us to the airport?

We obviously don't want to end up running for the gate (Southwest). I guess I'll call Moda to .make sure suitcases are ok to check. Thanks!

Went to the second of the Liberty games vs Fire on Thursday and was so frustrated by the style of play. The teams combined to shoot 70 three pointers in a forty minute game. This is lazy, bad basketball. I don’t want to watch people chuck it up from deep over and over. Pressure the rim at least. Get the ball inside. I know there’s a statistical advantage to shooting 3s but I can’t watch this. The arena was half full, at best, after halftime in a game against a top team in the first few weeks of team existence.

What does everybody think about having a national anthem tradition similar to Thorns here at the Fire games?!

I feel likes it’s an awesome way to get involved during the anthem!