The Toronto Tempo are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Tempo will compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference; they are scheduled to begin play in 2026. The team will play its home games at Coca-Cola Coliseum. The Tempo will be the first WNBA team located outside of the United States and the first in Canada.
History
In May 2023, the WNBA held a preseason exhibition game between the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky at the 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.[2]
On 10 May 2024, reports emerged that the WNBA and Kilmer Group were negotiating for a Toronto-based expansion franchise.[3][4] The WNBA officially announced the creation of the franchise on May 23.[5][6] 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.[7] 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.[4] Tanenbaum originally pursued the WNBA venture through MLSE, though other members of the board turned it down.[3]CBC.ca reported a source stating the WNBA expansion franchise is expected to play at the Coca-Cola Coliseum, an 8,500-seat arena at Exhibition Place that has hosted most Toronto Marlies AHL games since 2005.[3][8][9]
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".[5]
On 4 December 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.[10][11] The next day, the Tempo name, logo, and colour scheme were officially unveiled by the team.[1]
