Amid recent excitement around Toronto’s WNBA expansion team, one critical aspect has fallen through the cracks: the basketball itself.
It’s fun to debate whether Tempo works as a nickname, and discuss whether the blue-and-red colour scheme is appealing, and dream about what a mascot may be for a team branded more as an idea than a tangible object or living being.
But what will ultimately determine the team’s ability to reach its fans is on-court success.
Just look at a home game for this year’s 15-32 Toronto Raptors and you’ll see a crowd that’s thinned out and quieted down from its ‘We The North’ heyday in the late 2010s.
For the Tempo, roster-building may still be 10 months away — there is no date set for the expansion draft, but the Golden State Valkyries selected their first players in early December — but planning begins now.
On Saturday, free agency for the league’s active 13 franchises will officially open, though some league-altering moves have already been reported. The entry draft, which the Tempo will also sit out, is set for April 14.
Meanwhile, the Tempo have hired Monica Wright Rogers as general manager, per multiple reports. CBC Sports has reached out to the team for confirmation.
WATCH | Toronto WNBA team to tip off in 2026:
Fans are primed for Toronto to welcome professional women’s basketball to the city. Larry Tanenbaum, the billionaire chair of Maple Leaf Sports, was granted a new expansion WNBA team, expected to begin playing in 2026.
Tempo ‘fortunate’ to have Wright Rogers
Wright Rogers, 36, is a former second overall pick of the Minnesota Lynx who transitioned to coaching, and then the front office, after her playing career ended in 2016. She won a pair of championships with the Maya Moore-led Lynx teams of 2011 and 2013, earning significant minutes in both instances.
After four years as a college assistant at Liberty and her alma mater Virginia, she took a job in the league office for a year before being hired as assistant GM of the Phoenix Mercury in Feb. 2023. The team went 27-52 during her two seasons and was swept by the Lynx in the first round of the playoffs last year.
“No one has earned this more than Monica through both her work and her character,” Mercury general manager Nick U’Ren told The Athletic. “I am beyond grateful for her friendship and what she has taught me during our time together. Toronto is so fortunate to have Monica’s kindness, preparedness and extensive basketball experience.”
Now, Wright Rogers may have the opportunity to build a team in her vision.
In a way, the Valkyries could serve as a guiding light as the league’s first expansion team since 2008, when Atlanta came to life. Their expansion draft featured a couple interesting choices, though it offered little reason to believe Golden State will emerge as the next coming of the Vegas Golden Knights.
In any case, the circumstances may also be vastly different by the time Toronto’s turn comes around. For one, there is an as-yet unnamed franchise in Portland entering the league alongside the Tempo.
Moreover, there are no details about how the expansion draft will work, or where the Tempo will pick in the entry draft.
Looming over it all is a CBA negotiation that could change how teams and players operate. With a new $2.2-billion U.S. media deal set to kick in for 2026, and the current collective agreement expiring after the 2025 season, it seems a safe bet that players will be fighting for significant salary increases.
For proof of that, look no further than the fact that the only players under contract for 2026 are those on their original rookie deals.
Still, there may be some things to glean from the player movement sure to come over the next few days.
Howard reportedly to sign with Fever
Natasha Howard, a former all-star and Defensive Player of the Year entering her 12th season, will reportedly sign with Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever. The lesson there? Starpower is attractive.
Or take the three-way trade that sent Las Vegas stalwart Kelsey Plum to Los Angeles and Seattle star Jewell Loyd to the Aces. Opportunity always beckons to swing a deal for a star player.
In free agency, the Tempo’s pitch will be like many other expansion teams – but with the added value of beginning a legacy of professional women’s basketball in Canada.
“The initial roster is something special,” said Glen Grunwald, a Raptors executive in their first year and later the team’s GM. “To be part of the groundwork of a great franchise is something you try and sell to the players and allow them to have their input from their experience in terms of what it takes to be a winning team and a winning franchise.”
Of course, if the Raptors are the example, then the entry draft will be the most important moment – the NBA team’s first star was Damon Stoudamire, the seventh overall pick in 1995.
There are still 15 months to go until that event, but scouting can never start too early, especially when the 2026 class could include the likes of LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson — a very good player who is perhaps even more marketable, given her side hustle as a rapper — and Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers, a rising star at centre who could also help sell a few jerseys.
For now, the Tempo can sit back and watch how the Valkyries and the rest of the league operate through the remainder of the off-season.
Toronto’s first game remains well over a year away, but the work is just beginning.
