The 2025 WNBA season is set to tip off in one week. Between the new-look Las Vegas Aces’ title chances and the rise of the league’s next generation of superstars in Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, there are no shortage of intriguing storylines.
North of the border, this also means that the WNBA’s long-overdue debut in Canada is only one year away. This is a guide of everything you need to know about what the next year will look like for the Toronto Tempo as they prepare for the first season of professional women’s basketball in Canada.
With the name, logo, facility, ownership group, and majority of the front office in place, soon it will come time to actually build the team that we will see competing on the floor at Coca-Cola coliseum in May 2026. This is the responsibility of WNBA champion and former Phoenix Mercury assistant general manager Monica Wright Rogers, who was announced as the Tempo’s first general manager in February.
There are several important roster-construction junctures to be aware of over the next year, including one with significant ramifications both for the new teams and league-wide.
Transformational time for the league
The Tempo’s beginning comes at a historic time for the WNBA, one that has seen viewership and revenue skyrocket on the verge of a new collective bargaining agreement, putting Toronto in a unique position for an expansion franchise.
Players unsurprisingly opted out of the previous agreement one day after the New York Liberty won their first title in October.
In July 2024, the league announced a monumental 11-year media rights deal valued at $2.2 billion. It includes partnerships with Disney, Amazon Prime Video, and new rights holder NBCUniversal and future agreements with additional partners could bring the overall value closer to $3 billion.
“This is a defining moment, not just for the WNBA, but for all of us who believe in progress,” Women’s National Basketball Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike said in a statement. “The world has evolved since 2020, and we cannot afford to stand still. If we stay in the current agreement, we fall behind.
“Opting out isn’t just about bigger paychecks – it’s about claiming our rightful share of the business we’ve built, improving working conditions, and securing a future where the success we create benefits today’s players and the generations to come.”
The current agreement expires on October 31, 2025, giving the league and the union six months to negotiate a new pact. With the W’s 48 percent attendance jump last season (from an average of 6,615 to 9,807) and the new media deal being six times the size of the previous agreement with ESPN, it stands to reason that WNBA hoopers are due for a substantial raise.
Last season the players earned 9.3 percent of the league’s basketball related income. By comparison, NBA players and team owners aim to split the same income 50/50. If you adjusted the W’s hard salary cap to reflect the NBA’s much fairer model, it would increase from $1,462,300 to closer to $6.6 million. And that isn’t accounting for the increase that will be seen from the new TV deal.
With the expectation of a salary boost from the new CBA, the majority of the league’s players have decided to sign short-term deals in recent seasons that expire in 2025. This has 2026 free agency primed to potentially be the biggest shake up in W history. Almost all of last season’s all-stars – 21 of 24 – will be free agents next off-season. Phoenix Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren joked to the Washington Post that executives should treat free agency like a “fantasy football draft. We should all just get together, get a table and we’ll just do this thing in one room.”
While the Toronto Raptors have historically struggled to attract talent in free agency, Wright Rogers thinks it will be a different story for the Tempo.
“Players want to be in a situation where they feel the support, they can be competitive and win,” said Wright Rogers at her introductory press conference in Toronto. “And we get all of those here. They’ll have a top fan base, they’ll have support. The business side is so robust that they’ll feel support on all sides. And so I think, again, it was a no brainer for me. It’ll be a no brainer for a player to want to play in a market like this.”
Usually there aren’t this many free agents available, and the impactful ones that are aren’t interested in signing with a franchise that is just getting started. But the negotiation of a new CBA aligning with the league’s expansion could change that. Signing a top free agent or two would certainly go a long way in kickstarting the Tempo’s success in their inaugural season.
Entry and expansion drafts
The conventional way that expansion teams are built is both through the traditional draft and an expansion draft where they can select players from other teams in the league.
While there has been no official announcement of the when the expansion draft for the Tempo (and Portland’s unnamed franchise) will take place or how it will work, we can take clues from this season’s addition: the Golden State Valkyries.
The Valkyries expansion draft took place not long after the end of last season, on Dec. 6, 2024. The WNBA announced the date that it would take place on September 30, along with all the draft rules.
Each team had to designate six players who would be ineligible for selection, with Golden State being allowed to select one player from each of the 12 previously existing teams. They were also allowed to select only one player who was eligible to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of 2024, and that player could not have played under a “core player” contract for two or more seasons.
(A core player is the WNBA’s version of the NFL’s “franchise tag.” Players can be retained in free agency by being given the “core designation,” giving them a fully guaranteed one-year supermax contract. An organization can core only one veteran free agent.)
While the rules will likely be adjusted slightly given that both Toronto and Portland will be participating in the expansion draft this time around, it is also fair to presume that they will be similar to maintain evenness among these new franchises. Perhaps a similar system to the one the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies saw as 1995 NBA expansion teams could be used, where one team gets picks first in the expansion draft and the other picks higher in the traditional draft.
The timing of the expansion draft is also relevant to Wright Rogers’ coaching search, adding during her Feb. 20 press conference that she hopes “by expansion draft that we would have someone in place.”
The WNBA Draft will come after, generally taking place in mid-April. Expansion teams are not eligible for the top four picks, meaning the Tempo will likely either pick fifth or sixth. While it may be more difficult to find a franchise altering talent at this stage of the draft, it will still be Toronto’s best avenue to add a high-ceiling player, along with free agency, as the only players available in the expansion draft will be depth rotation pieces.
As basketball fans in the GTA know, an organization’s first ever first-round pick can wind up as an all-time franchise great. The Tempo passing on their Ed O’Bannon and finding their Damon Stoudamire will be important if they’re going to start off on the right foot.
Who’s running things
The team has already established a strong ownership group, led by Larry Tanenbaum of Kilmer Sports Ventures. (Tanenbaum has plenty of experience in an ownership role of a professional sports franchise as a longtime minority stakeholder in MLSE.) Tennis legend Serena Williams was also announced as part of the ownership group in March. The former women’s world No. 1 and all-time women’s major singles title leader (23) is well known for her philanthropy, activism, and as a relentless advocate for women’s sports.
“(Serena) Williams is an icon, a role model and a force for change in the world” Tanenbaum said in a statement released by the team. “She’s earned every bit of her incredible success with hard work, tenacity and determination in the face of countless challenges. She exemplifies the very best of what the Tempo stand for – we couldn’t be more honoured to have Serena in our court.”
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, a widely respect technology executive, entrepreneur, investor, and current CEO of the accounting platform Xero, was also announced as part of the ownership group on April 30.
“The opportunity to be part of this absolutely powerhouse ownership group is, in many ways, the culmination of both my personal passions and my professional experiences,” said the St. Catharines, Ont.-raised Singh Cassidy in an announcement released by the Tempo. “I am a proud Canadian, a passionate sports fan, and a champion for creating opportunities for women to thrive. I believe there’s never been a better time to invest in women’s sports, and there’s no better team to invest in than the Toronto Tempo.”
CIBC and Sephora have also been announced as founding partners.
Upcoming event
Meanwhile, the Tempo have announced a two-day pop-up event on May 24 and 25 at Stackt Market to celebrate the one-year countdown to tip off. Toronto has been ready for professional women’s basketball for some time – the first WNBA game played in Canada in 2023 sold out Scotiabank Arena the day tickets were made available – and this activation should be a buoyant affair. According to the team’s social media the event will include merch, hoops, music, speakers, and more.
Toronto has such a rich and diverse basketball community, and the women’s game has only been on the rise in recent years. This year’s NCAA tournament had 23 Canadian women participate, including 12 from Ontario. And the Canadian presence in women’s NCAA basketball has only been on the rise, something that will only grow with the introduction of WNBA Basketball to Canada.
This Stackt Market takeover is sure to be a joyous occasion for a city that is evidently eager for the start of its newest professional sports franchise. Tempo basketball nearing reality is certainly worth celebrating.
