Sandy Brondello has pretty much won and done it all in her coaching career, but building a team without any players is a first.
The Australian was appointed the inaugural coach of the WNBA’s newest franchise Toronto Tempo last October, but with no collective bargaining agreement in place has been unable to sign a single player.
She is currently leading the Opals at the FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Türkiye as marathon talks between the league and the WNBA Players Association stretched into a third day, on Friday Australian time, surpassing the March 10 deadline.
“As a new team, in a new country, we’re going to try and make as big a splash as we can but the CBA has been hurting us because we’ve got no players,” Brondello told ESPN.
“In a normal season, we’d have most of our players already, we would have had the expansion draft, done free agency and we’d just be waiting on the college draft.
“We’ve got to stay optimistic that something is going to happen and the CBA can be negotiated so both parties are happy with where we’re at.
“I don’t stress about it, it’s out of my hands, all I can do is prepare and I think we’ve prepared well as a staff.”
Involved since its formative years, Brondello has seen the growth and evolution of the WNBA and understands what the current generation of athletes are fighting for. Her first involvement with the WNBA was as a player in the league’s third season in 1998. The following year she played in the inaugural All-Star game.
Her coaching journey began in 2005 with the San Antonio Stars as an assistant then head coach, she went on to spend three seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks as an assistant then was appointed head coach of the Phoenix Mercury in 2014, winning a title in her first year.
After eight years with Phoenix, Brondello moved to New York and took the Liberty to their historic first-ever title in 2024 before departing last year.
She returned home to Australia in November and did a national tour of the WNBL watching her Opals representatives in action, ahead of a World Cup year, while also casting her recruiting eye over Aussies and imports playing in the league.
In recent months, from her home in Phoenix, Arizona, Brondello has been laying foundations and assembling a staff. As soon as a deal is reached, the tempo will be full speed for Toronto as they assemble a roster without losing another precious minute.
“I’ve done things in reverse, all my staff are in place and everything is ready to go. I’m really excited to work with these people and that’s one of the reasons why I decided on Toronto because I wanted to be part of building something from scratch,” she said.
“We’ve done a lot of strategising with our front office, analytics, mock scenarios, so it’s been fun.
“I’ve travelled more than I have in the past, watching college players and players that we could potentially draft and I’ve enjoyed it all.
“So, we’ve strategised and prepared as much as we can, but we’re ready for as soon as the CBA gets done. We’ll hit the ground running and that starts with the expansion draft, free agency and then the college draft.
“There’s going to be a lot to do in a short period of time once I get back from qualifiers, but let’s first get the CBA done.”
Already qualified for September’s FIBA World Cup after winning the 2025 Asia Cup, Australia is 2-0 in its qualifying tournament in Istanbul with wins over Argentina on Wednesday and Japan overnight.
Meanwhile at the Qualifying Tournament in France, Brondello’s husband Olaf Lange is coaching Germany who will host the World Cup.