Vancouver is a basketball city; it always has been. Public basketball courts litter the parks and are scattered in the city’s farthest corners. The instantly recognizable Vancouver Grizzlies logo remains a fixture in Vancouverites’ wardrobes, despite the team not having played here in nearly three decades.<\/p>\n
For the past 25 years, the question has remained: “Will Vancouver ever have a professional basketball team again?”<\/p>\n
In recent summers, the city has been given glimpses of an exciting possibility and, for the first time in a long time, a push for a professional team is finally underway.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 15, 2025, nearly 16,000 eager fans packed into Rogers Arena in downtown Vancouver to experience the first-ever regular-season Women’s National Basketball Association game in Canada. The game was, by all accounts, a success.<\/p>\n
Two playoff-bound teams went head-to-head for 40 minutes, featuring both exciting young talent \u2014 like Seattle’s then-19-year-old Dominique Malonga, known for casually throwing down two-handed jams in layup lines and games \u2014 and all-time greats \u2014 like Nneka Ogwumike, the WNBA’s fourth-all-time leading scorer. The game came down to the final shot: a missed, potentially game-tying floater. The electric atmosphere of the contest provided everything a marketing team could wish for when trying to captivate a new audience.<\/p>\n
At the time, however, plans to pursue the city’s first-ever WNBA franchise were already in motion, though the group would not be revealed until the following autumn.<\/p>\n
“When I went to the very first WNBA game last August, Seattle playing Atlanta, the crowd was just chanting, ‘We want the Grizzlies,'” said Bill Bakk.<\/p>\n
Bakk, who was involved in the original pitch for the Grizzlies in the early 1990s as a consultant at Deloitte, saw the opportunity for a WNBA push and decided to take action.<\/p>\n
In June 2025, Bakk began assembling a group of like-minded, Vancouver-based basketball aficionados and businesspeople who saw the city as a potential future home for a WNBA franchise. The group brought together people with unique ties to Vancouver’s basketball community and who shared a collective goal.<\/p>\n
Julie Smulders, the founder of She’s Got Next<\/a> and David Nelson, the chair of Nelson International, both suited up for the T-Birds during their time at UBC. Kevin Hanson served as the head coach of UBC men’s basketball for 25 years, and his wife, Theresa Hanson, is the former athletic director at Simon Fraser University. Jodi Evans is the current vice-chair at Deloitte and represented Canada in women’s basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n The group agreed that now was the time to pursue a competitive bid for Vancouver’s first-ever WNBA team. By fall 2026, their theory had been proven correct.<\/p>\n Last year, the Vancouver Goldeneyes, in their inaugural season, had the second-best Professional Women’s Hockey League attendance average, drawing over 11,000 spectators per game. This summer, two WNBA games were played in Vancouver, both featuring Canada’s first WNBA franchise, the Toronto Tempo. The first game, played on Friday, Aug. 21, against the WNBA’s other expansion franchise \u2014 the Portland Fire \u2014 saw 12,000 fans in attendance. Just two days later, the next game saw 16,000 fans fill Rogers Arena.<\/p>\n Bakk also said that despite the lack of heavy marketing, the exhibition National Basketball Association games held in Vancouver since the departure of the Grizzlies have drawn large crowds. He sees the staying power of the local fanbase over the past three decades as one of the main reasons Vancouver could be a prime location for a new team.<\/p>\n “Every one of them [NBA games] had north of 17,000 people, maybe 18,000, and really there wasn’t a lot of marketing, quite frankly, on either the WNBA or the NBA games, which said to me that they’re [fans] all out there. They want the game.”<\/p>\n Currently, the group remains in an exploratory phase. The WNBA has made no official announcements about expanding beyond its planned expansion into Philadelphia in 2030. However, the expectation is that the league will continue to grow, and Bakk and his group want to be prepared to put forth the next winning bid.<\/p>\n “We didn’t get the opportunity to bid on a WNBA franchise last May when the three were awarded [Toronto, Portland, and San Francisco], but nevertheless we were in their [the league’s] minds. They just didn’t see anybody putting their hand up to say, ‘I’m there.’ I’m pretty confident they’re [the league] very much in tune with what the city’s all about as a basketball community,” said Bakk.<\/p>\n The attendance figures are there, and the funding can be found, but a WNBA team’s success in Vancouver would go beyond quantifiable aspects of success. Carlie Paxton and Jessica Hanson both grew up playing basketball in Vancouver when resources for young female basketball players were far more limited than they are today. Now, as adults, both are making an effort to give back to the community and help foster the next generation of Vancouver-born hoopers.<\/p>\n Jess (daughter of Kevin and Theresa) grew up playing basketball at War Memorial Gym and watching her father coach the UBC men’s basketball team. Eventually, Jess worked her way into the starting point guard and team captain roles for the Birds. She finished her senior season averaging 14 points and four assists a game. After wrapping up her stellar playing career at UBC, Hanson continued her professional career abroad, playing in Ireland, Germany, Portugal, and most recently, Australia this past summer. Now, Hanson has returned to Point Grey as an assistant coach with the UBC women’s basketball team.<\/p>\n Paxton also grew up playing basketball in Vancouver and had a successful playing career at the University of Alberta. Paxton remains involved in the Vancouver basketball scene as the head coach of the Little Flower Academy girls’ basketball team and founded playHER Basketball in 2019. playHER runs a series of camps for girls in grades 8 to 12 in Vancouver who play basketball. The camp is specifically for girls, is led by women, and focuses on topics that typical camps often overlook, notably athlete performance and women’s health education.<\/p>\n Paxton’s father was a basketball coach during her childhood, and she picked up the sport because of him. At the time, infrastructure for young girls hoping to play basketball was incredibly limited.<\/p>\n Hanson faced similarly limited options. When it came to watching and participating in women’s basketball, the opportunities were few and far between.<\/p>\n Hanson recalled that girls once had very few club teams to choose from, with the provincial team being one of the only competitive pathways. Now, there are far more clubs in high school.<\/p>\n For both Paxton and Hanson, the value of a potential WNBA franchise in the city is hard to overstate. Having a local team to root for means the world to young sports fans. I grew up in San Francisco and have Steph Curry and the Warriors to thank for my interest in basketball. And, in a city with such a strong basketball culture, not having a professional women’s basketball team seems like a longstanding missed opportunity.<\/p>\n When the Grizzlies last played in Vancouver, Hanson was a young child \u2014 she even has a photo of herself being held by star player Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Paxton remembers the team\u2019s impact even more directly. After winning a scholarship program run by the Grizzlies, she got to sit courtside at a Grizzlies game.<\/p>\n “Hearing the players, the banter back and forth, and watching the coaches, and just seeing it at a floor level was very eye-opening.”<\/p>\n At the moment, there’s no guarantee of a WNBA team in Vancouver, but the message remains clear: people in Vancouver care about women’s sports.<\/p>\n The hankering for live sports is there (just look at the attendance numbers), and Vancouverites’ willingness to show up for professional sports, regardless of gender, is apparent. What should hoop-heads do in the meantime as they wait and cross their fingers for a franchise? Hanson and Paxton both had the same thought: go watch and support university basketball programs.<\/p>\n “I think there’s a great level of basketball out here, particularly at UBC. I’m a little bit biased, but bring the family out to games. It’s smart basketball with lots of energy,” said Hanson.<\/p>\n Ultimately, however, the prospect of a WNBA team isn’t simply about attendance numbers and ticket sales; it’s about what it could do for young girls and aspiring basketball players across the Greater Vancouver area.<\/p>\n Ontario native and current Portland Fire forward Bridget Carleton put it best in an interview with the CBC, right before playing a game in Vancouver.<\/p>\n “I would never have imagined this when I was a kid growing up in Canada. We didn’t see it on TV. The fact that I’m 29 now, playing in Canada in a WNBA game, is just crazy. That kids have this to look up to in Canada, it’s just really cool.”<\/p>\n Paxton had similar thoughts. She believes a Vancouver franchise could strengthen the pathway from grassroots basketball to university and professional competition, while creating more leadership opportunities for women.<\/p>\n Whatever Bakk and his team manage to put together when they get the opportunity to pitch to the league will certainly be compelling. The attendance numbers they have to present and the money they raise may be what ultimately convinces the WNBA that a team would fit here.<\/p>\n But the real value of a team would be in what those numbers cannot measure. What representation means for young girls and athletes is felt beyond numbers.<\/p>\n Extended Byline<\/p>\n Sofia Campanholo<\/a> was this story’s backfield editor. London Clark<\/a> was the copy editor.<\/p>\n Apply for erasure<\/a>Send a tip<\/a>Report an error<\/a><\/p>\n Have something to say?Write an op-ed<\/a>Write a letter<\/a>Request coverage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vancouver is a basketball city; it always has been. 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