In 1997, the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) folded after five seasons. The CISL had been founded as a summer indoor soccer league in 1993. Although it had experienced some success in its early years, it barely made it through the 1997 season before folding. The Portland Pride was a charter member of the CISL and with the collapse of the league, the team’s ownership, Portland Professional Soccer, LLC, joined with several other CISL teams to form the Premier Soccer Alliance (PSA). With the new league came a new name as the Pride adopted the name Portland Pythons.
The Pythons performed poorly in the PSA’s first season. The team went 1–6 and failed to make the playoffs. At the end of the season, the PSA expanded into two new cities, but after a merger with the English Indoor Football League failed to materialize, the PSA renamed itself the World Indoor Soccer League (WISL).
The Pythons competed in the WISL in 1999, but folded at the end of the season after rumours of a move to Tacoma, Washington fell through.