DLA Piper advises Portland Thorns FC in its sale to RAJ Sports

DLA Piper advised the Portland Thorns FC of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), one of the world’s most supported women’s soccer clubs, in its sale to RAJ Sports, led by the Bhathal family.

Since the league’s founding in 2012, the Portland Thorns have led the league in attendance for eight seasons, including a new club playoff attendance record last year with 25,218 fans supporting Thorns FC in the 2023 semifinal match at Providence Park. The Thorns are also the league’s most successful club on the pitch, reaching the postseason a league-high nine times, and ultimately winning the NSWL championship a league-record three times in 2013, 2017 and 2022. The club finished as runners-up in 2018 and won the NWSL Shield in 2016 and 2021.

The DLA Piper team was led by partners Richard Rubano and Alex Steinberg (both in New York) and included partners Alex Meiseles, Peter White and Garrett Kennedy (New York), Bill Bartow (Philadelphia), Kurtis Weaver (Boston), Rita Patel (Washington, DC) and Jennifer Dinsmore (Baltimore); and of counsel Lesli Falk (Chicago).

DLA Piper's market-leading international team of media, sport and entertainment lawyers, located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, advises on M&A, finance, borrowing, investment and corporate issues, production and rights acquisitions, exploiting media rights, staging and exploiting live sports and other events, intellectual property protection and enforcement, regulatory and administrative issues, antitrust and competition law, stadium and arena development and on the resolution of disputes.