Toronto will officially host the WNBA.
this time for good.
The WNBA has awarded an additional franchise to Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum through his holding firm Kilmer Sports Inc., according to a Friday report by CBC Sports.
The club is anticipated to make its formal debut on May 23rd and start play in May 2026 at the Coca-Cola Coliseum, an 8,000-seat venue that already hosts the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League and the Professional Women’s Hockey League of Toronto.
Following the recent acquisition of a San Francisco club that will start play in the next season, Toronto will become the 14th WNBA franchise.
In addition to owning the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs, Tanenbaum is a stakeholder in Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment. However, he has recently started his own sports business, Kilmer Sports Inc., hiring former Raptors vice president of basketball operations Teresa Rech and European soccer executive Ivan Gazidis to lead the organization.
In light of the current expansion of women’s basketball, the following significant advancements have been made in the professional division:
The WNBA has announced that it will spend $50 million over the next two years to guarantee all of its clubs have full-time chartered planes, prioritizing safety and travel in the quickly expanding league.
Breaking attendance records: With over 2.45 million viewers, the 2024 WNBA draft became the most viewed draft in league history. In general, viewership has increased dramatically lately, with the 2023 season setting records for both social engagement and TV viewership.
In the last two years, the WNBA has sold out two exhibition games in Canada: nearly 16,000 tickets were sold in Edmonton this month, while Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena was completely sold out in 2023.
The WNBA has seen an increase in viewership recently in Canada: The league had a 325% spike in viewership in Canada on its debut weekend in 2023, and a global gain of more than 35% year over year.
According to a 2020 Nielson Study, 31% more people were interested in the WNBA, and 76% of respondents thought that women’s sports were becoming more popular.
Given all of these details, it seems obvious that the league should give Toronto a franchise.
But the task is far from over. Tanenbaum, Resch, and the Kilmer Group as a whole will need to construct the facilities required to house a professional women’s basketball team in Toronto throughout the course of the next two years, in time for the summer of 2026, when Toronto is scheduled to host a FIFA World Cup.
And maybe most crucially, the team’s moniker.
Professional women’s basketball is headed north of the border, which is another huge step in the right direction for the growth of the game and a huge moment for Canadian basketball. Many have suggested bringing back the Toronto Huskies, the name of the city’s very first NBA team. Others may want the women’s team to create their own identity.
