{"id":303671,"date":"2025-11-20T18:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/303671\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T18:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:19:08","slug":"get-ready-to-join-the-wnbas-growing-fan-base-with-the-toronto-tempo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/303671\/","title":{"rendered":"Get ready to join the WNBA\u2019s growing fan base with the Toronto Tempo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Toronto Tempo are the WNBA\u2019s 14th franchise team and the first outside the United States.Cole Burston\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The debut of Canada\u2019s next hottest team is just around the corner.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 23, the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association will hold its 2026 draft lottery, the first step to determining who will play in the league\u2019s upcoming season, which will feature the Toronto Tempo.<\/p>\n

To make sure you\u2019re up to date with everything about the WNBA\u2019s first Canadian team, from what gear to snag, to what happened last season, The Globe has created your need-to-know guide.<\/p>\n

First up, who are the Toronto Tempo?<\/p>\n

Named for the \u201cspeed\u201d and \u201cpace\u201d of the city, the Toronto Tempo are the WNBA\u2019s 14th franchise team and the first outside the United States.<\/p>\n

Canada showed an early desire for a WNBA team when the expansion was announced in 2023, selling out the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto for an exhibition game that year. Canada then repeated the feat to watch the Atlanta Dream and Seattle Storm play at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver in 2025. <\/p>\n

Fans originally missed out on the first expansion team to San Francisco in 2023 after Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), owners of the Raptors, Maple Leafs, Argonauts and Toronto FC, pulled out their bid.<\/p>\n

Kilmer Sports Ventures, a division of Kilmer Group, put a bid in for the second expansion team in 2024 and successfully won. As luck has it, chairman Larry Tanenbaum, also happens to be the chairman of MLSE. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Toronto Tempo will call the Coca-Cola Coliseum at Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto its home for local games, but is also expected to play at Scotiabank Arena and across Canada.Supplied\/THE CANADIAN PRESS<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s been happening in the WNBA?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re new to the WNBA, now is the time to jump in as the organization has seen a boom in popularity in the last few years \u2013 cue the \u201cCaitlyn Clark effect<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendance at games jumped 48 per cent year over year to 2.4 million fans in 2024, according to Forbes. It broke that record in 2025 with 3.2 million fans. The league\u2019s teams were each valued on average to be worth more than US$272-million in 2024. Much of this has been attributed to the rise in popularity of women\u2019s basketball thanks to collegiate stars turned professionals like Clark (whose NCAA season 3-point record beat that of NBA MVP Steph Curry), Angel Reese and recently crowned Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers.<\/p>\n

Did the Toronto Tempo really snag one of the best coaches in the business?<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Tempo officially announced it had hired Sandy Brondello<\/a> as its inaugural head coach. <\/p>\n

A former Olympic player for Australia and WNBA All-Star, Brondello is a great catch for the Tempo and an experienced, not to mention winning, coach with her teams making the playoffs each season.<\/p>\n

Brondello led the New York Liberty to victory in 2024. She also led the Australian Olympic team to a bronze model at the Paris 2024 Games.<\/p>\n

In 2014, she led the Phoenix Mercury to become WNBA champions and was named coach of the year.<\/p>\n

Brondello is ready to take the Tempo to the top, saying in a press conference, \u201cthat really excites me, the challenge that we have ahead of us. And to do it in another country really excites me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who else is leading the organization?Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

General manager Monica Wright Rogers, left, and Teresa Resch, president of the Toronto Tempo at a WNBA Toronto Tempo team announcement in Toronto in February.Cole Burston\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Since announcing the new franchise, a powerhouse of women have taken the lead within the Tempo. <\/p>\n

At the head of the organization as president is Teresa Resch, previously a senior leader at the Raptors for 11 seasons. Resch also worked at the NBA League Office with the International Basketball Operations department.<\/p>\n

In February, the Tempo announced Monica Wright Rogers as its general manager. Rogers is a WNBA champion, playing for the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm before playing internationally. After working as a collegiate coach and NBA executive, Rogers became assistant general manager of the Phoenix Mercury in 2023.<\/p>\n

Toronto Tempo\u2019s Monica Wright Rogers is taking on the basketball world with a fresh set of nails<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kilmer Group remains the majority stakeholder. But the Tempo has also attracted big names in the franchise\u2019s ownership, including tennis legend Serena Williams, tech executive Sukhinder Singh Cassidy and entrepreneur Lilly Singh. <\/p>\n

In addition, Sephora Canada is one of the founding partners and its official beauty partner. <\/p>\n

Is the WNBA facing any challenges?<\/p>\n

Despite the boom in interest, the league is still facing struggles in gender parity and fairness when it comes to salaries and officiating.<\/p>\n

Since the 2025 season wrapped in October, with the Las Vegas Aces taking this year\u2019s crown, the league has returned to salary negotiations for 2026 with the WNBA Players Association union.<\/p>\n

While gaps in gender parity have been happening across other sports, the WNBA came under fire in 2024 when first overall draft Clark\u2019s annual salary with the Indian Fever was only about US$78,000. Meanwhile, the NBA\u2019s first overall pick that year, Zaccharie Risacher, signed with the Atlanta Hawks for about US$14.3-million. <\/p>\n

Geoff Molson joins Toronto Tempo\u2019s ownership group, team announces two regular-season games in Montreal<\/a><\/p>\n

In an interview last month, the Minnesota Lynx\u2019s Napheesa Collier, who is also the players association vice-president, criticized the league, and particularly WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, for downplaying salaries. Collier also called out the league for a \u201clack of accountability\u201d when it comes to officiating, noting discrepancies in calls this season led to coaches being suspended and players being fined for speaking out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates,\u201d Collier said of the league\u2019s officiating, adding it amounted to \u201cself-sabotage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league and players association have not yet reached a deal on salaries or officiating.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still in. When can I see the Tempo in action?<\/p>\n

Regular season games don\u2019t tip off until May, but fans can start getting excited this month.<\/p>\n

The WNBA draft lottery, which will determine the order teams have to follow to select new players for the 2026 season, airs on Nov. 23 on ESPN. The draft itself will be held on April 13, following the end of the NCAA women\u2019s collegiate basketball season. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s when the Tempo will select its first line up.<\/p>\n

Tennis legend Serena Williams joining ownership group of WNBA\u2019s Toronto Tempo<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dallas Wings, Minnesota Lynx, Seattle Storm, Washington Mystics, and Chicago Sky \u2013 which all failed to make the 2025 playoffs \u2013 are expected to participate in the lottery.<\/p>\n

In the lead up to the season, fans can get their hands on Tempo merchandise through the team\u2019s official partnerships with the Peace Collective and Round 21.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Tempo will call the Coca-Cola Coliseum at Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto its home for local games, but is also expected to play at Scotiabank Arena and across Canada, including two games in Montreal.<\/p>\n

Single ticket sales have not yet been announced, but season ticket memberships are now available for deposit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The Toronto Tempo are the WNBA\u2019s 14th franchise team and the first outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[157809,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-303671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-lc-g","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}