Basketball: Toronto will host the 1st Canadian team in the WNBA in 2026

From 2026, basketball fans will be able to see a new team at work on Canadian soil. There Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) officially announces the arrival of this first women’s team in the country. Teresa Resch is named president of this new league expansion team.

Toronto will host the 14th team in the WNBA. The name of the league’s first team in Canada has not yet been revealed.

The new professional women’s basketball team is scheduled to play its first game in May 2026.

Billionaire Larry Tanenbaum managed to get the new team from WNBA through its holding company, the Kilmer Group.

This is an incredibly important and historic occasion.
A quote from Larry Tanenbaum, owner of Toronto’s WNBA expansion team

Cathy [Engelbert]under your leadership, the WNBA has experienced unprecedented growth, including the league’s first global expansionsays Larry Tanenbaum, delighted to welcome the first franchise outside the United States.

This team is Team Canadaadds the businessman.

In October, the WNBA granted the Warriors organization Golden Statein the NBAthe 13th expansion team at a cost of approximately 50 million US dollars.

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Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena hosted the first game in WNBA history on Canadian soil in May 2023 to a sold-out crowd.

Photo: The Canadian Press

Teresa Resch, first president of the team

At a news conference at a downtown Toronto hotel on Thursday, Larry Tanenbaum named Teresa Resch as president of the new team.

The first match day will be the happiest day of my life.
A quote from Teresa Resch, president of the WNBA team in Toronto

The former member of the management of MLSEwell known in basketball circles, will lead the expansion team.

She grew up in the United States and became a Canadian citizen two years ago.

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Teresa Resch named president of new WNBA team in Toronto.

Photo: Radio-Canada

Since 2024, she has held the position of vice-president of the management of Kilmer Sports Ventures after recently leaving her role as vice president of operations and player development for the Raptors from Toronto.

years that I have been learning from Raptors from Toronto. We will not have to make the same mistakes in the WNBA“,”text”:”I’ve been learning from the Toronto Raptors for 10 years. We won’t have to make the same mistakes in the WNBA”}}”>I’ve been learning from people for 10 years Raptors from Toronto. We will not have to make the same mistakes in the WNBAshe said with confidence.

Now I can finally make decisionsshe says.

The ambitious Larry Tanenbaum already has expectations for this new team which does not yet have a logo or players.

A man clenches his fists and raises his arms in the air in celebration. He is surrounded by basketball players.

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Larry Tanenbaum, who chairs the MLSE board of directors, now owns the first WNBA team in Canada through his company Kilmer Group. (File photo)

Photo: Associated Press / Tony Avelar

He hopes to replicate the success of the Toronto Raptors who won the championship NBA in 2019, and quickly. He wants the team to win a first championship of the WNBA during the first two years of the training’s existence.

The former star player of RaptorsKyle Lowry, was also at the official announcement Thursday to show his support, accompanied by the president of the team, Masai Ujiri.

The artist Drake, ambassador of the Canadian team of NBAwas also present.

Matches in Montreal and Vancouver

During the season, there will also be matches in Vancouver and Montreal, confirms Larry Tanenbaum.

The objective of these sporting events: that everyone, from one end of the country to the other, can benefit from this first Canadian team of the WNBA.

We will unite the country through our franchisehe maintains.

Besides, WNBA in Quebec”,”text”:”it is the CH Group which will take care of introducing the WNBA in Quebec”}}”>it is the CH Group which will take care of introducing the WNBA in Quebecexplained Larry Tanenbaum.

Placed in front of the CN Tower and covered with signatures, an orange statue represents a woman trying to score a basket in basketball.

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The Queen City will be home to a new WNBA team as the league expands its offerings outside of the United States for the first time. (Archive photo)

Photo: Radio-Canada / Ken Townsend

A much-awaited team

The new Toronto team will mainly play at the Coca-Cola Coliseum, located at the exhibition center, west of downtown.

The amphitheater has more than 8,000 seats, approximately half the capacity of the Scotiabank Arena, where the games of the Raptors from Toronto.

Teresa Resch, the new president of the WNBA team in Toronto, confirms that the team will first settle on the University of Toronto campus until the Coca-Cola Coliseum is ready to welcome them.

The addition of this 14th new WNBA women’s basketball team in 2026, the first in Canada, had been requested for several years.

Two American teams from the WNBAhad played a preparatory match in Toronto in May 2023, arousing great enthusiasm in the Queen City. The match was sold out.

There WNBA was also in Edmonton on May 4, 2024 in front of a sold-out crowd of 16,655 people.

With information from CBC Sports