Chicago Sky take on Minnesota Lynx in WNBA pre-season basketball action in Toronto on May 13.The Canadian Press
Before the WNBA tipped off its first game in Canada on Saturday, commissioner Cathy Engelbert spoke at a packed news conference at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena and called the day “a seminal moment.”
The soldout exhibition game, between the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky, drew a crowd of just under 20,000, many sporting the league’s signature bright orange hoodie. WNBA merchandise – including shirts with the slogan “Women run the court” – sold out fast.
“Toronto is definitely on the list,” Engelbert said of 10 cities the WNBA is exploring for an expansion franchise. Much like an all-star game does when it comes to town, the game inspired numerous events in the city, all focused on female sport. A who’s who of athletes, league builders, sponsors and business minds discussed the ripe-for-investment women’s sports market in Canada. They huddled in suites at Saturday’s game, held various basketball clinics, dinners, postgame parties, and speaker events.
“My takeaway from this weekend is just how powerful women are in the sport, and how much momentum there is right now,” said Canadian Olympic hockey gold medalist Sarah Nurse, who attended as a fan and then spoke at a postgame social for her sponsor, Adidas. She was also among the speakers at ESPNW Summit on Friday, the first time the popular conference about females in sport has visited Canada.
“I have not been in the stands at many women’s pro sporting events in my life, so today was an incredible experience, sitting among all those girls in WNBA shirts,” Nurse said.
The WNBA’s visit, and other events in Toronto, came as at least two other women’s pro sports – both of whom had their business leaders networking – are working to get leagues off the ground in Canada. Nurse said the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association is “very close” to an announcement about its new league. Project 8, led by Diana Matheson, is building an eight-team women’s soccer league set for launch in 2025.
In addition to her pro hockey career, Nurse says she wants to be among the owners of a women’s pro sports franchise. She’s open to lots of sports, but has been intrigued by talks with Project 8.
“When I see the W doing amazing things, and Project 8, I’m like, ‘Let’s go, let’s hype each other, because we’re all in this together,’” Nurse said.
The weekend showed several examples of budding investment and interest in women’s sport:
(box) At the postgame social Nurse attended, Adidas said it will launch an all-Canadian girls U14 travel basketball team to play in the Adidas Gold Circuit;
(box) Fifteen corporate sponsors, including Tangerine, Canadian Tire and Air Canada, were part of Saturday’s WNBA game. Door Dash flew in women’s university basketball teams, Nike held a women’s coaching clinic and Canada Goose played host to the WNBA players at CF Toronto Eaton Centre.
“There’s such a desire for brands to show they support diversity, and they’re dying for places to activate but there aren’t that many women’s sports events taking place in Canada right now,” said Leah MacNab, managing director at the NBA Canada. “So when you take a brand like the NBA and the WNBA and their history of professional activations and world-class events, everyone said yes.”
A theme widely discussed over the weekend was the need for sponsors and investors to be patient about a return on investment, giving new women’s teams and leagues a chance to grow. Canadian Tire recently turned heads by committing a minimum of 50 per cent of its sponsorship dollars toward women’s pro sport by 2026.
“People want the overnight sensation,” said Don Mayo, global managing partner at IMI International, which provides data to companies to help them make marketing decisions. “Lots of sponsors give lip service constantly that this is the right thing to do but they never step up and do it. You need someone committed to actually do it. Canadian Tire now has a roadmap for three years. It’s not just one year and done.”
Mayo, who also spoke at ESPNW, said sponsoring women’s sports is smart for brands. He said what Canadian Tire has done has made other companies ask about women’s sports.
“They’ll have to win their boardrooms over with facts,” Mayo said. “And the fact is, there are as many people watching, and engaging on social, as Formula One, PGA golf, and it’s bigger than eSports.”
Meghan Chayka, co-founder and CEO of Stathletes, a sports data and analytics company, was also prominent this weekend. Chosen as one of the most influential people in hockey, Chayka was part of a women’s sport tech showcase on Saturday, held with the Future of Sports Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Stathletes tracks player performance and has 22 leagues worldwide as clients, plus teams and some individual star players. Her company gathers data on women’s hockey “at the same level that I would expect an NHL product to be,” Chayka said.
“People say, ‘Why are you so passionate about women’s sports?’ It’s because what I have experienced in business is being reflected in the women’s sports landscape,” added Chayka, noting women-led tech companies still get only 2 per cent of all venture-capital money. “Like, ‘You’re not good enough, there’s not enough money to be made in what you’re doing.’ I saw all the same negativity.”
Chayka attended the game, as did many Canadian sports leaders. She said she felt an excitement in the city, as though it were a significant moment for women’s sports. The huge support elevated the curiosity about whether Toronto will get its own WNBA team.
The 12-team WNBA is ready to expand, Engelbert told media on Saturday, but didn’t set a timeline. With the boom in women’s NCAA basketball, it’s competitive now for the league’s 144 available roster spots. Now 27 years in, the WNBA has turned its “surviving” franchises into “thriving” ones, she said, so the league is comfortable adding more.
She said the WNBA did “big data analysis” about 18 months ago on a hundred potential cities, and has since narrowed that list to 10, including Toronto. Now, she is visiting those cities.
“It’s the dawn of a new day,” Engelbert said. “This is a seminal moment for this league that there’s so many cities interested in a WNBA team, including here in Toronto. So we’re working with a variety – about 10 – ownership groups around both the U.S. and Canada, and we’ll just continue to talk with them.”
Engelbert would not identify who in Toronto is interested in a franchise, but it is no secret that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Raptors, has done extensive research about ownership. However, MLSE has kept its cards close to the vest about the topic.
While it was MLSE’s arena in which Saturday’s game was held, MLSE staff gave support backstage while the WNBA ran the show. MLSE stayed quiet and let Engelbert do all the talking on Saturday. Several members of the Raptors’ front office, including president Masai Ujiri, sat courtside as fans.
The NBA surveyed its fans across Canada and found 70 per cent say they wanted to learn more about the WNBA. Engelbert said Saturday there’s five million WNBA fans in this country and added that it’s possible other Canadian cities may get games.
Many of the women said they’d never played before a bigger crowd than Saturday’s. Fans held up signs such as “Toronto wants the NBA” and “Future season ticket holder.”
“This is the epitome of excitement being shown for women’s sports right now,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “I think we’re going to look back on this and say this was really meaningful.”