Toronto Tempo general manager Monica Wright Rogers, left, and team president Teresa Resch had their expansion franchise plans altered by a prolonged labour negotiation between the WNBA and its players' union.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Now that the WNBA and its players’ association have finally agreed verbally to terms of a transformative new collective bargaining agreement, the focus will soon turn to the whirlwind month of preparation ahead before the league’s 30th season tips off.
That’s welcome news for the expansion Toronto Tempo, who have been eagerly waiting, and still have no players with some 50 days left until their first-ever game.
The league has said the season will start as scheduled on May 8, but the CBA is not inked just yet. The term sheet will be voted on by players and then the WNBA board of governors before it becomes fully ratified. After the paperwork is official, the fun can finally begin for Canada’s first WNBA team.
What the president of the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo has learned about the business of sports
When will the Tempo add basketball players?
The Tempo will acquire players for its inaugural roster via a few different phases, all happening next month, with most precise dates still to be announced.
Toronto is one of two expansion teams entering the WNBA in 2026. The other is the Portland Fire. The league will hold an expansion draft for the two new franchises to select players whom the league’s 13 other teams leave unprotected. The rules for the expansion draft had to be collectively bargained.
Had there been no CBA disruption, the expansion draft would have taken place in December. The condensed timeline means the Tempo and the Fire could be making their expansion draft decisions during the women’s Final Four – a huge lift for their scouting departments.
Then free agency will follow, with about 100 players available to be signed.
The free agency period will overlap with the college draft, which is scheduled for April 13, after the NCAA tournament is over. Toronto and Portland get the No. 6 and 7 picks, but who gets which is still to be determined.
Tempo staff on the basketball side have been busy studying players who may be available and refining their draft strategies.
When will the Tempo hit the floor?
All WNBA teams are set to open their training camps on April 19. The Tempo’s will take place at the University of Toronto.
The club’s inaugural preseason game is April 29 against the Connecticut Sun. It marks the first chance to see the Tempo at their home stadium, Coca-Cola Coliseum. Toronto’s season opener is May 8 at home against the Washington Mystics.
Season seats sold out back in December, with single tickets for Coca-Cola Coliseum game still to come. The Cross Canada Series games went on sale March 20 – including the three at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, two at the Bell Centre in Montreal and the pair at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena. Tickets to the April 29 preseason game become available on March 27.
There were a range of ticket prices. One could get 300-level seats to see the Tempo face the New York Liberty in Montreal as low as $25 each, while some close to the court were going for $715.
To watch the Tempo against Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever at Scotiabank Arena, only 300-level tickets from $145 were left when this reporter logged into Ticketmaster to survey availability just minutes after the sale began at 10 a.m. The best available courtside seats at Scotiabank to see the Minnesota Lynx were as high as $936, while 300-levels could be had as low as $43.
“We have two goals this season on the ticketing side,” Tempo president Teresa Resch told The Globe and Mail. “To sell out every single game and to have as many unique people as possible attend.”
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What’s in the transformative new CBA and how will it impact WNBA teams?
After prolonged labour negotiations, the WNBA and the players’ union reached a verbal agreement on terms of the new CBA at a New York hotel in Wednesday’s wee hours. The players, who wore “pay us what you owe us” T-shirts to promote their plight during last season’s All-Star game, were fighting for a bigger share of the revenues they’ve helped grow, and larger salaries.
After months of contentious deliberating and more than a week of overnight marathon meetings, they finally reached consensus and celebrated with a champagne toast. They avoided a work stoppage, which could have hurt the momentum built by the league in recent years.
The new landmark deal, once ratified, assures labour peace for the league and players through the 2032 season. The details include:
- A salary cap starting at US$7-million, up from US$1.5-million in 2025. It is projected to be over US$11-million by 2032.
- A supermax salary starting at US$1.4-million in 2026, up from US$249,244 in 2025.
- Average salary of US$583,000 (US$120,000 in 2025), and minimum of US$270,000 (US$66,079 in 2025).
- WNBA-provided housing will be available for all players for the next three seasons, and for players making less than US$500,000 for the two seasons after that.
More details of the agreement are expected to be announced after a term sheet is ready in the coming days.
What is the WNBA’s history with expansion?
Adding Toronto and Portland will put the WNBA at 15 teams. Since debuting with just eight teams in 1997, the WNBA has expanded in several waves, reaching a high of 16 teams in 2000 before a period of contraction and relocation.
Now the “W” is in the thick of its most aggressive growth phase yet, set to reach 18 teams by 2030, with clubs in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia on the way.
While some expansion teams floundered in the past, the most recent one to join the WNBA set a high bar. Joining in the 2025 season, the Golden State Valkyries played to a 23-21 record and became the first expansion team to make the WNBA playoffs in their first campaign. The Valkyries also set the all-time league record for average attendance (18,064) and total fans (397,408) in year one. They sold out all 22 regular-season home games at San Francisco’s Chase Center.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Toronto Tempo's inaugural preseason game is April 27. The game is scheduled for April 29. Caitlin Clark’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of the story and has been corrected.