PORTLAND, Ore. – On Nov. 4 current Portland Bangers Football Club owner Alan Miller and former NFL punter Jon Ryan announced their new co-owned team, the Cherry Bombs Football Club. The announcement was made inside the Lloyd Center, taking over an empty storefront.
The Cherry Bombs will be Portland’s first women’s soccer team in the USL W, a league specifically made for players who are not recruited into professional sports right away. The franchise is expected to kick off in May of 2026, according to their website.
Miller and Ryan are partnering with COLLiDE, the marketing agency backing the Portland Bangers FC and the Portland Pickles. At the announcement party, questions still lingered regarding the mascot, an official opening date and where the team will be playing. The team is also still underway, with tryouts officially opening on Nov. 4 and a roster announcement scheduled for March 2026.
“Obviously, we have a wonderful community behind us, and being able to introduce this team, to kind of welcome the ladies in for the next year of sports,” Courtney Schmidt, the team’s general manager, said. “I played college soccer myself, so this is a really sweet, full circle moment to be able to bring this team to Portland, and kind of bridge that gap between collegiate and professional play.”
The empty storefront where the event took place was filled with attendees donning jerseys of teams from all over the world. Sarah Blackthorne and Julie Clarenbach said she was excited about the team, she said they would take as many women’s soccer teams in the city as possible.
“We love women’s soccer, and so we wanted to support the new pre-professional team,” Blackthorne said. “We’ll take all the women’s soccer they’ll give up. It’s true.”
The two also said they only pay attention to women’s sports, especially soccer. Blackthorne pointed to a need for fair wages and more female representation in other sports like the Women’s National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.
“I think we need to focus more on the care and the pay of the athletes versus just getting more teams to watch,” Blackthorne said. “I think I’m excited to see opportunities for younger players who aren’t necessarily on the pro route, getting taken seriously.”
The Cherry Bombs’ logo and aesthetic are heavily influenced by the Pacific Northwest’s riot grrrl movement, with heavy nods to bands like The Runaway and Bikini Kill in their announcement video.
“So a lot of what we’ve included in the word mark is taken from the DIY style collage posters, random letter marks, sharpie scrawls, cutout photos,” Brand Engineer Kayla Knapp said. “So if you take a look, you’ll see a lot of interesting Easter eggs, too, especially if you’re familiar with that movement.”
Regardless of the team’s influence from the 90s feminist movements, many of the fans present were men. Randall Harris, a seasoned women’s soccer fan, came to support the new team despite being a “pretty psychotic Thorns fan.”
The packed room was filled with live music, food, a tattoo booth, merchandise and season tickets for 2026. Although the initial games may seem far, the support from attendees was heard from the entrance to the Lloyd center.
