By Nicole Fernandes<\/p>\n
TORONTO, May 8 (Reuters) \u2013 The WNBA officially arrived in Canada on Friday with the Toronto Tempo tipping off their inaugural season against the Washington Mystics in front of an electric, sellout home crowd.<\/p>\n
Fans young and old sporting the Tempo\u2019s bordeaux and borealis blue gear brought the \u200benergy all night at Coca-Cola Coliseum, letting out a roaring, prideful cheer after the Toronto Children\u2019s Choir \u200csang the national anthem \u201cO Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many fearless young girls wearing Tempo T-shirts were spotlighted on the jumbotron, keeping the crowd of 8,210 entertained during breaks with their dancing.<\/p>\n
And while there was no shortage of love for Canadian Kia Nurse during player introductions, it was Canadian women\u2019s soccer great Christine Sinclair who drew some of the night\u2019s loudest, longest cheers when shown on the big screen.<\/p>\n
The arrival of \u200cthe \u200bWNBA\u2019s first franchise outside the U.S. marks a new chapter for the league \u2060and Canada, which lacked an avenue \u2060for women to play top-tier, professional basketball on home soil.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a moment 30-year-old Nurse, who grew up just outside Toronto, has been waiting for.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really special and it\u2019s kind of a full-circle moment,\u201d Nurse said last week, adding that she\u2019s \u201cgrateful for the opportunity to be on this stage and to be given this \u200bplatform for growing women\u2019s basketball in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto proved it was ready for the WNBA in 2023, when a preseason exhibition game between the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky drew a sellout crowd of nearly 20,000 to Scotiabank \u2060Arena, home of the NBA\u2019s Toronto Raptors.<\/p>\n
Tempo players felt the excitement \u2060building before they even dribbled a ball, with the city\u2019s passionate fans pledging their \u200bsupport in the weeks leading up to the home opener.<\/p>\n
That usually comes with being \u201cthe new thing in town,\u201d said Tempo \u200bcentre Temi F\u00e1gb\u00e9nl\u00e9, who was with the Golden State Valkyries during their inaugural season last \u200cyear.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s more than just a new thing,\u201d F\u00e1gb\u00e9nl\u00e9 said. \u201cIt\u2019s supporting women\u2019s sports. So many young girls [and] older women as well haven\u2019t seen this in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nurse believes that visibility will benefit the national team, saying one day \u201cyou\u2019ll be able to field an entire (Canadian) Olympic roster from WNBA players because these will be Tempo-influenced players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nurse has also been emphasizing \u2060to her teammates that they\u2019ll have an entire country behind them.<\/p>\n
The Tempo will play two regular-season games each in Montreal and Vancouver this season, embracing their role as \u201cCanada\u2019s team.\u201d Nurse said those visits will help create a sense of \u2060belonging for fans and aspiring athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Sports \u200cis) a place where you belong,\u201d said Nurse. \u201cIt\u2019s a place where you can look \u2060out on the court and see somebody that looks like you and resonate \u200bwith them, \u200cresonate with their story.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to do that across Canada is truly \u200bspecial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like her players, \u2060head coach Sandy Brondello sees the franchise as a testament to the growth of women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n
Having been involved in the WNBA for 27 years now, the two-time champion has enjoyed seeing the evolution of the league, from expansions to sponsorship deals and the overall rising interest in the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
For her, the addition of the Tempo will help continue the momentum, especially in Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are creating history,\u201d Brondello said. \u201cBut we want to make history, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Nicole Fernandes in \u200bToronto; Editing by Tom Hogue)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nicole Fernandes TORONTO, May 8 (Reuters) \u2013 The WNBA officially arrived in Canada on Friday with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-657570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}