Inside the WNBA Practice Facility That Feels More Like a Luxury Wellness Retreat Than a Locker Room

7 min readIt's not supposed to be revolutionary. It's not even supposed to be remarkable. But the Kaiser Permanente Performance Center in Hillsboro, Oregon, shared by first-year WNBA expansion team the Portland Fire and the three-time NWSL champion Portland Thorns, is setting a new standard for what infrastructure in women's sports can look like. At the new practice facility, space for self-care and personal expression hold equal importance to the courts, fields, and weights—an understanding that to feel confident and perform at their best, women athletes deserve to be treated as whole people, not just players.I toured the facility last week with the team at RAJ Sports, the owners of the Fire and Thorns who put up $150 million to completely renovate an old Nike office building for their athletes (the ribbon cutting was in August). Pulling up to the outside of the building, it’s all business and no frills, meant to represent the hard exterior of an athlete. Inside, however, the interior spaces are both a figurative and literal representation of caring for them from the inside out.That care is visible in the tall ceilings, neutral color palette and large windows that let in beams of natural light. Fire center Megan DiLeo describes the facility as "peaceful." "You don't really see that in a lot of locker rooms—you see a lot of bold graphics and basketball everywhere," she says. "But it feels like you are stepping into a spa, honestly."The big, intentional, performance-forward choices are what initially stood out the most: the shared 17,000-square-foot gym with two full basketball courts, two full-size outdoor soccer pitches, a yoga and pilates studio, custom Nike weight racks. Rows of treatment tables and resort-like contrast therapy tubs. Locker rooms with extra-wide cabinets and personalized nameplates.Portland FireIt feels like that should be the bare minimum for professional athletes, but the reality is that many women's teams are still practicing wherever they can find room—the Thorns trained for years at Providence Park downtown, and the Fire were bouncing between Portland State University, the Moda Center, and borrowed corners of the Nike campus before this building existed. A locker to call their own is something many players coming to Portland have never had before in their pro careers.But the smaller details are what the ownership group seems most proud of. The entryway displays pieces from local artists to immediately welcome players into the city of Portland's culture. The conference room tables overlooking the basketball practice courts move up and down to accommodate tall bodies. In the nursing room, you'll find the same rocking chair that Thorns star Sophia Wilson has in her daughter Gigi's nursery—and strollers, high chairs, and portable cribs are kept on site, so the moms using the building barely have to bring anything but their families.One of the most proprietary examples lies in the Fire’s Lashify Lounge, a first-of-its-kind, player-exclusive glam and prep room that turns freshening up in the locker room post-practice into a cozy self-care moment. It's part of the Fire's multi-year partnership with DIY lash extension brand Lashify, a marquee jersey partner that also hosts multiple brand activations and giveaways at Moda Center home games."Partnering with the Portland Fire isn’t just about putting our name on a jersey, it’s about reframing how we invest in female athletes,” says Lashify founder and CEO Sahara Lotti. “Traditional sports spaces were built by men, for men. By helping build a dedicated facility tailored specifically to what women need, we are creating an environment where these athletes can train, perform, and thrive on their own terms.”Five vanity seats line one wall, situated in front of generously lit mirrors that extend to the ceiling. Early on, the players mentioned that they'd love to be able to keep their toiletries in the shower space rather than carry them back and forth from their lockers, so individual cubbies were installed opposite the glam space, personalized with each player's name in a script font. Behind each shower door is something of a mini entryway with a bench, to give the athletes a private, dry space to change or do self-care treatments. Many players don't always want to wet their hair when they shower after practice, so the shower heads now include detachable wands to make that process easier. At the end of the row of showers is a dry sauna with red light therapy."It was just very thoughtful, putting it all together," says Fire guard Sarah Ashlee Barker. "If we have somewhere to go after practice, I have my own space to get ready, and it's female-oriented, and it's for women. That's a huge difference [from] a locker room that's not for women."The Portland Fire's Desert Island Beauty ProductsSarah Ashlee Barker: "Mascara. I put mascara on even if I'm just going anywhere, honestly. I just love wearing mascara."Megan DiLeo: "Eyebrow brush. I think that's essential for me. I love my eyebrows. They don't take much maintenance, but just making sure the hairs stay in the right spot."Nika Mühl: "It's two things: It's mascara, number one, and then a good lip liner. Always got to have it."Directly across from the glam room is the multipurpose player lounge, which features a snack station, private phone booths, an oversized sectional sofa, and two TVs mounted on the wall. The Lashify Lounge “is a place I actually want to hang out and come on my off day and sip some coffee,” says DiLeo, who covets the couch for her own living room. "It really has been the first time where I've actually wanted to just relax and stay in the locker room space. I think that's so important for us, especially with all the craziness of our jobs and the mental obstacles that we deal with. Just to have a place to decompress is really important, and that's what I feel there."The lounge also serves as an extension of the glam room. Fire point guard Nika Mühl, who was acquired in the expansion draft earlier this year but only recently arrived in Portland after taking time to recover from a torn ACL, had her makeup done there before her first media day. “It's really a privilege to have a space of our own," Mühl says. "It's been an incredible couple weeks of using it. I'm just very grateful for the people that built it [and] for the people that work there every single day for us."Portland FireWhile the facility is officially open for business, there’s still some light construction going on, which the staff tries to accomplish when players aren’t in the building. Athletes make suggestions for big and small upgrades on the daily, and that’s not likely to stop when the initial work does. Both teams have also taken it upon themselves to make their own rules—where you can eat, where you can use your phone—to make each space uniquely theirs.The Fire and Thorns have separate wings of the building, but they share the dining area and gym. So far, the vibes are pure girlhood. Barker, who happened to be wearing a Thorns jersey for our interview, says the two teams hosted friendly gatherings to get to know each other before moving into the facility. “They've come to our games, we go to their games. It’s just been really, really cool and special,” she says. “We see them at lunch, we see them in the weight room sometimes. We're always passing each other, and everyone's so nice, and just obviously so grateful that we're even in that position with each other.”Sharing space with the Thorns, who are likely to make a record 10th consecutive NWSL playoff appearance this year, has also served as motivation for the Fire, a team still finding their footing in their first season. “The legacy that the Thorns have already had, just how much success they've had in the past, and then the season that they're having right now—for us, we look up to that,” Barker says. “We want to get to that one day. We want to have the success that they have. So it's very inspiring.”“It's really a privilege to have a space of our own.” —Nika Mühl The new performance center is meant to be a place athletes want to hang out, a place that makes them feel beautiful and confident when they step out on the court to do their thing. For Barker, her confidence comes from knowing exactly who she is and staying grounded in her faith. For DiLeo, it's as simple as a slicked-back high ponytail: "It feels badass,” she says. “I love it. I think it just makes me feel like the athlete I am today.” For Mühl, it changes day to day—sometimes it's the people around her, sometimes it's what she's wearing, sometimes it's just how she wakes up. "And then when I don't feel confident, just fake it a little bit,” she says with a grin. “Fake it till you make it."Whatever it takes, they have a space of their own to make it happen. And that’s not supposed to be revolutionary. But as I clocked thoughtful detail after thoughtful detail, it started to feel that way anyway. For women who've spent their careers making do in spaces that felt like an afterthought, confidence they don’t have to fake may be the most remarkable thing of all.Amanda Lucci is the director of special projects at Women’s Health, where she works on multi-platform brand initiatives and social media strategy. She also leads the sports and athletes vertical, traveling to cover the Paris Olympics, Women’s World Cup, WNBA Finals, and NCAA Final Four for WH. She has nearly 15 years of experience writing, editing, and managing social media for national and international publications and is also a NASM-certified personal trainer. A proud native of Pittsburgh, PA, she is a graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Follow her on Instagram @alucci.