Soccerwire.com was the first to break the news five days ago about new details concerning the new professional women's league. In the article the teams set to start the season are the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Western New York Flash and Sky Blue FC (N.J.), Kansas City, Portland, Ore., Seattle and Washington, D.C. The first four are all members of the previous league and the last four cities which did not have a previous WPS team.

Grant Wahl has also confirmed that Portland will indeed have a team per his twitter account:

Source in Portland confirms they'll have 1 of the teams in new North American women's soccer league.

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) November 21, 2012

I wonder how many University of Portland players may return to Portland or if Abby Wambach decides to stay in Portland due to the fact she just bought a house here. I am seeking confirmation PTFC will be running the team or if it will be completely separate from the Timbers (which I think is highly unlikely). The other good news in this is that Portland was chosen over Los Angeles and the main reason was due to geographical reasons. LA apparently would have had to travel way too much to compete in the league, for more information see this great article from the Goat Parade.

UPDATE: When asked via direct message on Twitter whether the Portland Timbers would be in charge of the new Portland women's league team. Merritt Paulson responded with a simple: "Yes."