History
In May 2023, the WNBA held a preseason exhibition game between the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto; the sellout crowd and accompanying enthusiasm led to speculation on whether the city could host a women's team alongside the existing men's Toronto Raptors. [4]
On May 10, 2024, reports emerged that the WNBA and Kilmer Group were negotiating for a Toronto-based expansion franchise. [5] [6] The WNBA officially announced the creation of the franchise on May 23. [7] [8] The team will become the 14th in the WNBA and the first to be based outside the United States. The team will be owned by Kilmer Sports Ventures, led by Toronto-based billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, who paid an expansion fee of $50 million USD for the franchise. [9] Tanenbaum is a minority owner and chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), which owns fellow professional Toronto sports teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors among others. [6] Tanenbaum originally pursued the WNBA venture through MLSE, though other members of the board turned it down. [5] CBC News reported a source stating the WNBA expansion franchise is expected to play at Coca-Cola Coliseum, an 8,500-seat arena at Exhibition Place that has hosted most Toronto Marlies AHL games since 2005. [5] [8] [10]
When approving the team, the WNBA board of governors voted 13–0 and the NBA board of governors voted 29–1, with only the New York Knicks voting against the expansion; at the time, the Knicks were in the process of suing the Toronto Raptors due to "alleged theft of proprietary information". [7]
Early stage team members included Teresa Resch, who was named president of the franchise, [11] Patrick Lee (chief financial officer), Lisa Ferkul (chief revenue officer), and Whitney Bell (chief marketing officer). [12]
On December 4, 2024, the "Toronto Tempo" nickname was accidentally posted to the dropdown menu of the WNBA website; later that day, the Tempo logo was leaked on SportsLogos.net courtesy of an anonymous WNBA source. [13] [14] The next day, the Tempo name, logo, and colour scheme were officially unveiled by the team. [1]
In January 2025, the team announced its first founding partner Sephora. [15]
In February 2025, Monica Wright Rogers was hired as the first general manager for the Toronto Tempo. [16] In May 2025, Eli Horowitz was hired as the assistant general manager and Senior Vice President of Basketball Strategy. [17]
On March 3, 2025, Serena Williams, an American former professional tennis player, world No. 1, and 73-time Open Era champion, was officially announced as a new joint-owner of the team. [18] In May 2025, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy and Lilly Singh joined the ownership group for the Tempo. [19] [20]
In April 2025, the Tempo announced their founding partnership with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. [21]
In August 2025, the team announced that during the 2026 season it would play two regular season games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. [22]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
