Toronto expansion not on table before 2026

Edmonton to host May pre-season game

The WNBA is coming back to Canada this spring for another one-off exhibition game but it’s going to be a couple of years before an expansion team could possibly land in Toronto.

The league’s second WNBA Canada Game has the Los Angeles Sparks and Seattle Storm in Edmonton in early May.

Any chance of a team in Toronto. though, won’t happen before the 2026 season.

“I’ve always said I think about 18 months is what you need to essentially finalize things,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a Zoom call with reporters to announce the May 5 game in Edmonton. “Quite frankly, that’s why we took 2025 off the table a few months ago and we’re working on 2026 now.”

Dreams of a Toronto franchise were fanned again this week when sources said a new sports/entertainment entity led by Larry Tanenbaum had been formed and had interest in a WNBA team for the city.

Engelbert did not speak to specifics of a Toronto bid but sources have told the Star for weeks that hopes of a Toronto team are very much alive.

“No news to report at this time, not close, but did want to note that any future expansion with teams will begin play in 2026 or beyond.”

Toronto hosted the league’s first Canadian pre-season game last May to rave results. A sellout crowd of nearly 20,000 saw the Minnesota Lynx play the Chicago Sky and led to cries for an expansion team here. The league decided to expend its Canadian footprint west this year.

“It was felt the perfect place was to move to the west this year, a hugely passionate sports city, (Edmonton) has been the home to the national women’s team for a decade,” the commissioner said. “The league coming here to Canada again is a sign of the importance we see in the global growth of our game, bringing the WNBA to a global platform.”