Reports: Toronto awarded WNBA franchise
TORONTO — The WNBA’s widely reported arrival in Toronto isn’t just a good thing for women’s basketball in Canada, but for women’s sports in general, says one expert.
Several media outlets reported on Friday that the women’s professional basketball league had awarded a franchise to the Kilmer Group, which has a 25 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the owner of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors and NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, among other sports properties. The deal, first reported by the CBC, would have Toronto’s WNBA team start playing in May 2026.
Canadian Women and Sport CEO Allison Sandmeyer-Graves said that the arrival of a WNBA franchise in Toronto, the ongoing success of the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the development of Project 8 — a planned Division I professional women’s soccer league — could have implications for society beyond the world of sports.
“We see the continued growth and development of women’s professional sport in this country as not only the potential for great commercial benefits for those who invest in it, but also for tremendous social impact in this country,” said SandmeyerGraves. “Having the WNBA form a team here in Canada would be a very significant positive step toward unlocking all of that potential.”
Canadian Women and Sport is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the presence of girls and women at all levels and in all areas of sport. The organization issued a report on April 22 that found that two in three Canadians between the ages of 13 and 65 consider themselves to be fans of women’s sports.
Sandmeyer-Graves expects that by the time a Toronto WNBA team starts playing in 2026, the socio-economic realities of women’s sport will have evolved.
“When we did this research back in October we found that there were already 17 million Canadians who describe themselves as fans of women’s sport. I expect that that number will continue to grow,” she said. “The number of avid fans among them will continue to grow as they’re given more and more opportunities to engage.
“That and more Canadians will join the fandom, so I think that it’s tough to exactly predict what it will look like.”
The WNBA did not confirm the media reports of a pending expansion into Canada but said in a statement it is continuing to explore adding teams.
“We continue to engage in productive conversations with interested ownership groups in a number of markets and the granting of any expansion teams requires a vote of the WNBA and NBA Board of Governors,” the league said.
Larry Tanenbaum is the chairman and CEO of Kilmer Group and the chairman of the board for MLSE. He is a part owner of MLSE through Kilmer’s holdings.
Mayor Olivia Chow said in a television interview on Friday that she was aware there was movement on Toronto getting a women’s basketball team.
“Wait for it. Hopefully, there will be something later on,” said Chow in an interview with local news channel CP24. “Basketball, it’s just great and having role models, it’s time.”