Portland Thorns Women

The first professional women's soccer team in Portland was started by the Portland Timbers in 2001, competing alongside teams formed by the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps in the USL W-League's W-1 division. In Portland the team was christened the Portland Rain and played the 2000 season in the Pacific Coast Soccer League (PCSL). The team played the 2001 season in the W-League before returning to the PCSL until 2003 when the team folded. Women's soccer was also well-supported via the University of Portland Pilots.

The Portland Rain were re-founded in 2009 when they joined the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL). On May 2, 2012 the Portland Timbers partnered with the Portland Rain and the Oregon Youth Soccer Association's (OYSA) Girls Olympic Development Program (ODP). This precursor to the NWSL announcement the following November was to facilitate an integrated development structure for Oregon's girls youth soccer to elite women's competition.

The formation of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) was announced on November 21, 2012, with Portland selected as a host for one of the eight teams. At that time it was announced by Portland Timbers' owner Merritt Paulson that the Timbers would own the team. The team name was announced on December 13, 2012 as Portland Thorns FC. Also, a logo was unveiled. Both the name and logo were intended to invoke Portland's nickname of the Rose City.

The team announced Cindy Parlow Cone as its first head coach on December 19, 2012. On January 11, 2013, the league held its player allocation for the national team players, with Portland receiving seven players, including former University of Portland Pilots star Christine Sinclair. The other players assigned to the Thorns were Rachel Buehler, Tobin Heath, Karina LeBlanc, Alex Morgan, Marlene Sandoval, and Luz Saucedo.

"We are thrilled with today's allocation, and I see this group of seven players as a terrific foundation for this club," said Parlow Cone. Seattle Reign FC general manager Amy Carnell reacted to the NWSL allocation and Morgan's placement by saying, "I think generally speaking, I could speak for all the clubs when I say I'm extremely surprised they would place (Christine) Sinclair and (Alex) Morgan in the same city. Two of the best strikers in the world in the same city." Carnell said Seattle Reign FC "were a little surprised" they didn't get Morgan, considering that she had spent the previous spring with the Seattle Sounders Women. This reunited Sinclair and Morgan as club mates since winning the regular season and championship title with the Western New York Flash in Women's Professional Soccer's final season.

Under head coach Parlow Cone, the Thorns played in the new league's inaugural game on April 13, 2013, against host team FC Kansas City, which ended in a 1–1 draw. Sinclair scored the club's first goal on a penalty kick. The team's first home match on April 21 provided the club its first victory, a 2–1 win over Seattle Reign FC. Beyond setting a new league record, the opening day crowd of 16,479 at Jeld-Wen Field eclipsed any single-game attendance from Women's Professional Soccer.

The club finished in a three-way tie atop the league in the regular season standings, but by virtue of goal differential tiebreaker the club claimed the No. 3 seed in the NWSL playoffs. The Thorns beat FC Kansas City 3–2 after extra time in the semi-finals, then beat the Western New York Flash 2–0 in the championship game to become the first NWSL Champions. Parlow Cone resigned as head coach on December 5, 2013, citing personal reasons, particularly the desire to spend more time with her husband, Portland Timbers director of sports science John Cone, who also resigned from his role.

The Thorns kicked off their 2014 season with the announcement of a new head coach, Paul Riley, formerly of the Long Island Fury of the Women's Premier Soccer League. The Thorns broke the club's own NWSL attendance record with 19,123 attending an August 3 game between Portland and new expansion team Houston Dash at newly renamed Providence Park. After finishing third in the regular season, the Thorns qualified for the playoffs but were knocked out in the semi-finals by FC Kansas City.

The Thorns made a number of roster moves in the offseason but struggled during the 2015 Portland Thorns FC season. On June 19, 2015, the Thorns made NWSL history when goalkeeper Michelle Betos headed the equalizing goal for 10-woman Portland in the 95th minute against FC Kansas City, the first goal scored by a goalkeeper in the league. The Thorns also sold out Providence Park for the first time in a match against Seattle Reign FC following the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, again setting the league's attendance record with 21,144. However, the Thorns finished in 6th place of the now 9-team league, missing the playoffs for the first and only time in its history. At the end of the season the team announced that head coach Paul Riley's contract was allowed to expire, though reports in 2021 would reveal that Riley had been investigated for alleged sexual harassment and coercion and quietly terminated.

On October 5, 2015, the Thorns hired Washington Spirit head coach Mark Parsons to replace Riley. In Parsons's first season in charge, the Thorns executed a series of trades — anchored by moving founding forward Alex Morgan and midfielder Kaylyn Kyle to expansion team Orlando Pride — that resulted in the acquisitions of Emily Sonnett, Lindsey Horan, Meghan Klingenberg, Adrianna Franch, Dagný Brynjarsdóttir, Amandine Henry, and Nadia Nadim. The acquisitions would form the core of a team that won the Thorns its first NWSL Shield in 2016 and host its first playoff match, against Western New York Flash led by their former coach Paul Riley. The physical match ended in regulation as a 2–2 draw, and the Thorns lost 4–3 after extra time.

Parsons' Thorns finished second in the regular season in 2017 behind the Courage and defeated former Thorn Alex Morgan and the Orlando Pride on the way to beating the Courage 1–0 in the NWSL Championship at Orlando City Stadium, the Thorns' second title. Despite losing Henry and Nadim for the 2018 season due to financial limits and trading founding midfielder Allie Long to Seattle Reign FC for the rights to Caitlin Foord, the Thorns finished 2018 again in second place behind the Courage. The Thorns defeated the Reign 2–1 in the Cascadian rivalry's first and only playoff encounter, then faced the Courage once again in a rematch of the previous season's final, this time hosted in the Thorns' home stadium of Providence Park. The Thorns, however, lost 3–0 to the Courage, who became the first team to win the NWSL Shield and Championship in the same season.

The Thorns opened the 2019 season with a six-game road schedule due to ongoing renovations and expansion of Providence Park lost only two of their first 15 matches through July, and set another league attendance record with 25,218 attending the newly expanded Providence Park against the Courage in August. Beginning September at the top of the table, the team entered the worst run of form in Parsons' tenure as head coach, losing three of its last five games, including an embarrassing club-worst 6–0 loss to the Courage. The Thorns finished third in the league and were eliminated from the playoffs in a 1–0 defeat to the Chicago Red Stars.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports, the Thorns canceled their preseason tournament in March, followed by the league postponing, then canceling the 2020 NWSL season. The Thorns finished last in the inaugural NWSL Challenge Cup's group stage but upset the top-seeded Courage in the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions Houston Dash in the semifinals. The Thorns also participated in and clinched the 2020 NWSL Fall Series Community Shield with a win on October 11, 2020, over OL Reign.

In late-September, The Athletic published an investigation into North Carolina Courage head coach Paul Riley, alleging that Riley had sexually coerced and verbally abused players on his teams, including during his two-year tenure as Thorns head coach in 2014 and 2015. More than a dozen players from every team Riley had coached since 2010 spoke to the publication and two named players, both former Thorns, went on the record with allegations against him. In the article, Riley denied the allegations. Later that day, the Courage announced that Riley had been fired due to "very serious allegations of misconduct".

The subsequent fallout resulted in the resignation of league commissioner Lisa Baird and dismissal of league counsel Lisa Levine. A number of Portland Thorns players also released a statement calling for Thorns general manager Gavin Wilkinson to be suspended. Wilkinson was then put on administrative leave from the Thorns while remaining manager of the MLS Portland Timbers, and later fired. President of business Mike Golub, separately accused of sexual harassment of Parlow Cone in the report, was also fired, and Paulson stepped down as CEO of both the Thorns and Timbers.

The U.S. Soccer Federation commissioned a league-wide independent investigation into abusive behavior led by Sally Yates. The report, published on October 3, 2022, indicated that the club "interfered with our access to relevant witnesses and raised specious legal arguments in an attempt to impede our use of relevant documents." The report further detailed how both Paulson and Wilkinson advised other clubs to hire Riley after his departure from the Thorns and downplayed the alleged abuses reported by players.

On the pitch, the Thorns won the West Division of the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup and hosted the finals in May 2021, defeating NJ/NY Gotham FC 6–5 in a penalty shoot-out following a 1–1 draw in regulation. The Thorns qualified for and hosted the 2021 Women's International Champions Cup as champions of the 2020 Fall Series, and won the friendly tournament by defeating three-time finalists and defending champions Olympique Lyon 1–0. In the regular season, the Thorns clinched their second NWSL Shield on October 17 but again lost in the semi-finals to Chicago.

Parsons, who had served as head coach since 2016, left the team after the 2021 season to lead the Netherlands women's national team. The Thorns hired retired former club goalkeeper and Canadian international Karina LeBlanc as Gavin Wilkinson's replacement in the Thorns general manager role in November 2021, then hired former Thorn and fellow Canadian international Rhian Wilkinson as Parsons's replacement. The Thorns finished the 2022 regular season in second place behind OL Reign, and defeated Kansas City Current 2–0 in the championship game to become the first NWSL team to win three championships.

On December 1, 2022, Paulson announced that he was selling the Thorns while retaining the Timbers and control of Providence Park. The next day, Rhian Wilkinson resigned as coach after reports that she exchanged messages of romantic feelings with a Thorns player. The team promoted Wilkinson's assistant Mike Norris to the head coaching role in January 2023.

The 2023 regular season ended with the Thorns again finishing in second place, this time behind the San Diego Wave. They lost their first-round playoff game to NJ/NY Gotham FC in extra time.

On January 3, 2024, the sale of the Thorns to RAJ Sports was completed. On March 27, 2024, Sophia Smith was signed by the Thorns to a two-year contract extension that made her the highest paid player in the NWSL, though her salary was not disclosed. On April 18, 2024, following a four-game winless streak to start the season, the Thorns promoted Norris to Technical Director, named Rob Gale interim head coach, and announced a worldwide search for the permanent head coach. On July 19, 2024, the Thorns announced that Gale would be the permanent head coach.

The 2024 regular season was modestly successful, with the Thorns collecting only one point from their first four games, winning the next six games through mid-May, having mixed results through early July, going winless for three months through early October, and then winning two of their last three games to claim sixth place in the NWSL standings and a playoff spot. The sixth-place finish tied (with 2015) their lowest-ever finish in the league.