The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Toronto Tempo: Bringing the WNBA to Canada

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

The Toronto Tempo will begin playing in the WNBA in 2026. How do you build a brand new team? And what does this team mean for Canadian basketball? We're joined by the team's president and general manager, Teresa Resch and Monica Wright Rogers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello everybody in the Hammer and Beyond. We are coming your way. May 10th at the Music Hall in downtown Hamilton. We're recording a new episode of TVO Today Live and we'd love to see you there. We're talking to the amazing and multi-award winning Canadian musicians, Sarah Harmer, Cadence Weppen, and Tom Wilson,

about the power of music and musicians in our culture, and especially during tumultuous political times. Tickets are free, thanks to the Wilson Foundation. musicians in our culture and especially during tumultuous political times. Tickets are free thanks to the Wilson Foundation. Go to tvo.org slash tvotodaylive or search it directly on Eventbrite. So join us May 10th, 7 p.m. in Hamilton. How do you build a new basketball franchise from the ground up? For the founders of the WNBA's Toronto Tempo, the question will go from theoretical to actual

when they make their professional women's basketball league debut in 2026. Joining us to discuss that and bringing the lead to Canada, we welcome in Phoenix, Arizona, Monica Wright-Rogers, former WNBA player and general manager of the Toronto Tempo. And with us here in studio, Teresa Resch, president of the Toronto Tempo. Teresa, delight to meet you and Monica, thanks for being there on the line from Phoenix, Arizona for us. And I'm quite excited about this. I want to learn all about this.

Many cities wanted a WNBA team, but Toronto got it. Teresa, how did that happen? Well, only the WNBA will truly be able to answer that question because they decided. But I think it was meant to be because of our support of women elite athletes across the board for many, many years, just as a society, as a culture. There's also been an incredible investment from corporate Canada in basketball and sports, specifically women

sports most recently. And we had an incredible sold-out WNBA game prior to us being awarded and I think that really gave the league something to to look at. How many people showed up to that game? Sellout in minutes at Scotiabank Arena. 20,000 people. Yep, exactly. And I remember that. That was pretty neat.

It was an incredible atmosphere, too. I had worked for the Raptors for 10 years before I took this job. You know, I was in that arena when we won a championship. And that game felt different. And not better or worse, but just different. And the group of people that were there to support it really, really told

an incredible story. And it was really great as well for the league because they're looking at expanding the league, right? International will be the, we will be the first team ever outside of the U.S. and they brought on some investors. So they raised $75 million capital raise back in 2022. And one of their stated goals with that influx of money was to grow the game globally.

And I think that this team is a stepping stone to really growing that league globally. Gotcha. Monica, the team starts playing basically a year from now. What do you need to do between now and then to be ready for the opening tip, tip off, I guess. Yeah. Tip off, yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's just a lot to do on my checklist,

but first and foremost, I really want to ensure that I'm bringing on talented individuals that are a great culture fit to help steward this team to victory. And so as I'm looking to hire staff, as we're going through interviews, I think it's really important that we have the right minds at the table in order to help build this team out.

Now, once we get to a point where we have an on-court philosophy and we know how we want to play the game of basketball, I think that will give us a great leeway into the expansion draft, free agency, and the WNBA draft and that's where we'll be choosing players. Well, yeah, I mean, that's the point, isn't it? You got to decide whether you want to be a bruising team or a finesse team, a speed team. Have you made any of those decisions yet?

No, you know, I think it's important to have a head coach in place because they'll be the ones really managing that talent on court. And so that decision will be made collectively together once we do have a coach that has their philosophy in place and we can work together on what talent would be a great fit for that. Teresa, does it matter if the coach is a man or a woman? No, we want the best talent.

And ultimately Monica as a general manager is gonna hire an incredible head coach for us It's funny you asked that question about you know, what kind of player we're gonna have I mean, I feel like with the name tempo we better have a good pace to our game, right Monica But I think more than anything what I've learned even through the hiring of the general manager Monica is exceptional And she definitely stood out in that process but what I learned is there's a lot of great talent out there and they're all really excited about Canada and they're really excited about the WNBA to come here so I think that we'll

have a lot of people interested in this role of head coach so we'll get to pick someone that's really really talented and that's gonna work well with with how Monica's envisioning this basketball as well as our owner, Larry Tenenbaum. OK, so Monica, I should ask you, you know, obviously in women's hockey, there are male head coaches. Can you imagine hiring a man to be the first coach of this women's team? You know, like Teresa mentioned, we

want to hire the best person for the role. Our league specifically, you know, we have a good number of male head coaches and female head coaches. And so I think we're going to really go through the process. Like Teresa also mentioned, we'll have a ton of interests and we really want something or someone in place that will reflect leadership and will reflect this team the proper way. And so yeah, we'll just go through the process.

We'll do our due diligence. We'll ensure that we cast a wide net. And we'll see who ends up winning that competition. OK. You mentioned Larry Tannenbaum, who, of course, everybody knows, the Maple Leafs and the Raptors, and the soccer, and the Argos, and the whole nine yards. That's right. You've got somebody else who's part of the ownership group

here. Sheldon, you want to bring this picture up? Some people may have some vague understanding of who this person is. Yeah, that's Serena Williams, who's the greatest, you could argue the greatest tennis player of all time. How'd you get her on board? What's great about Serena is she's walked away from tennis.

She's evolved, is how she's talked about, not retirement. And in that process, she's walked away from tennis. She's evolved, is how she's talked about it, not retirement. And in that process, she's invested heavily in women. You look at her track record and what she's done. She was very, very vocal in talking about wanting to be owner of a WNBA team. She had already had a dialogue with the commissioner of our league about different teams and what the potential might be.

So when we were awarded the franchise, she talked to the commissioner, talked to Serena about that, and ultimately Larry and her had multiple conversations, and they really struck up a great partnership. And that's what's important is they're really aligned on what they want this team to look like, what they want, what they believe this team can be, not only for the WNBA, but for all of Canada and even globally, like we talked about. And I mean, you said potentially the greatest

of all time in tennis. She could be potentially the greatest of all time of any sport, any athlete. That's true, of anything. When you can surround yourself by greatness, it elevates everyone. So both Monica and I had a chance to meet her, and she was part of the process we talked about. We talked about what we wanted this team to be about

and what we were going to prioritize. So we're really excited to have her on board. She's a very busy woman, so she's not going to be here every single day or anything like that. That's not the expectation. But she has a lot of passions and a lot of places that she's going to lean into when she has the time and availability.

Well, that's what I was wondering, because Monica, I mean, obviously, you know, in terms of trying to teach a winning spirit, a winning attitude, the commitment you need to make to be a champion, she can tell you all about that. I don't know that she knows anything about basketball, though. So what role do you see for her in that regard with this team? Well, similar to what Teresa said, I think she's one we can really tap into when we need to have athletes, like really understand the vision of ownership. I think that because she's a champion in so many ways, Larry is a champion.

We really want that to create, be into the fabric of our culture. I really think that, you know, I think the players, the players will be really excited to really touch base with Serena. She'll really help us, I think, in a lot of ways during free agency in attracting top talent here who wants to win, who wants to be a part of a championship culture, and so on. I think the sky's the limit for the possibilities of ways we can utilize her in order to make sure that this team is gonna be top tier in our league. Can I ask our director Sheldon Osmond

to give us a two shot here in the studio right now because I would like to see that. Okay, that's the new logo of the team. Looks great, right? Well, I wanted to get your opinion about this. Number one. I'm biased, to be clear, I'm very biased. I helped create this logo.

I understand. So first of all, the name tempo, the logo, the colors. How do you decide upon all of that, and why did you land on these? Well, I mean, the greatest thing is that it wasn't just me. When we got the team May 23 of 2024, the first question I was asked by everybody was, what's the team name?

What's the team name? And yes, the name and logo, all those things are gonna live on forever, but so will the story of how it was created, right? People still talk about the Raptors when they were named as a contest in the paper. And we knew that we wanted that story to be one of all of Canada.

So we did nameyourteam.ca. We got over 10,000 submissions, over 1,000 unique names. And Tempo was one of them, submitted multiple times by multiple people. And we went through an entire process. We had academics that all they do is inclusive design work. And we had them look through the different submissions. We had a community council made up of people

across the country in different areas of expertise that lend their thoughts to it. And the whole thing, we were really transparent. So we actually have a podcast, it's called Bringing on the W. It's seven episodes and it takes you behind the scenes of every single step that we took to get to the end of our name and logo. I highly recommend episode three, it's called Cutting Room Floor so it talks about those you

know 1,000 names that didn't make the cut. What was the worst stupidest name that you didn't pick? I wouldn't say it was worse or stupid it just wasn't right for us but if we had gone with the name that was the most submitted we would be called the Toronto Raptors and that just wasn't gonna work. No. So it's not that the Toronto Raptors is a bad name. Did it not occur to people that that name had already been taken? I think that they really liked it. I'm not sure. All I have to say is that that's not a stupid name at all. It's an incredible name. I love it. It's just not right for us.

So we went with Tempo. We love Tempo. Ultimately, it rose to the top because it kind of created a new category because it actually talks about the game of basketball. And rarely do you have a name in any sport that relates to the game being played. So we really like that concept. And then the logo itself, we feel

like it has a lot of movement. A lot of logos have something that's encumbering it, right? So it's in a circle. It's in a letter. It's part of an animal. Like, this is unencumbered. There's actually movement there. And we really like the feeling of it.

And then colors, it was interesting because when we started, the agency had kind of asked, oh, is there no or no-go places? And one thing I said was, well, we don't want to be blue or red because those colors are really owned in this marketplace specifically by other teams We want with versions of blue and red, but I think what works is it's our own modern twist on those two colors Right. So red is very prevalent in this marketplace. I mean Canada you think of the flag

It's red obviously the Raptors TFC and then blue like blue J's Leafs Argos Argos TFC, and then blue, like Blue Jays, Leafs. Argos. Argos, absolutely. But Bordeaux and hydrogen blue is our own little twist on it. And we think that we stand out in that way, yet complementing all of those teams as well. Now, Monica, I should ask you, because we've

got people watching us and listening to us right now who are not basketball fans, and they will not appreciate necessarily what the word tempo means as a philosophy of playing basketball. You're an ex-player, just to help us understand what that word means to you and the significance of it here. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's very significant in the game of basketball and even more in our league.

The tempo really is like the cadence at which a team plays. And so a team can really find itself playing to the tempo of what kind of talent it has, the style of play the coach wants to play. It can be fast, it can be slow. And I think, you know, for our league, there are some obvious statistics and analytics by which the tempo can affect your wins and losses. And so specifically, we're a league that likes to play up tempo. We are a league that likes high pace up and down. And that is what wins in our league.

There were times in our league in the past where teams actually played a slower, more efficient tempo. And they won with that. I can remember a Seattle Storm team with Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird that would score in the last 14 seconds of the shot clock, which was a very slow tempo team, but very efficient. And so when you look at a tempo of a basketball team, it really embodies number one, how the coach feels that the talent that he puts on the floor, how they mold and gel, and how they become efficient together. And therefore, you'll get, you know,

essentially a product on the floor that exemplifies that. Monica, could you follow up on that by saying how the game you believe today is different in the WNBA from when you played? Wow. Woo. Aging me here. I'll say this.

When I played in the WNBA, the league was in its adolescence. And I do feel that the game had talented players. There was no lack of talent. And there's not an additional talent that's entering the league all of a sudden. There was always talented players in this league. I think where the league has shifted is that we're getting players now that have been specializing with basketball

from a very young age. I think they're getting the resources and the training and the individualized plans from a high school age where I feel like with my generation, we just, you we just went out to the playground and hooped it up with the neighborhood kids, and we ended up just being good based on our love for the game. I think now we're really grooming kids to really understand what it takes and the sacrifices and skill work and time

and dedication that it takes to be a professional. And I think our league is only going to get better from here. Can we talk about that, please, Teresa? Because I think there might be four Canadian WNBA players in the whole league. So last season, so in 2024, there was four Canadians on the rosters. So we'll see this year in 2025.

The season's going to kick off here in about a month. Right now, it's training camp, so those players are trying to make rosters, so we have an opportunity for more Canadians this season. Actually, one was just drafted last week, so we'll see if she can make the roster. Well, this is what I'm wondering, because of course when I was a kid, there were no Canadians in the NBA.

It was just unheard of. Nowadays, it's not unusual at all. In fact, maybe the best player in the whole NBA, or one of them anyway, is from my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. There we go. SGA. What kind of a pipeline is there right now,

from women playing basketball in high school in Canada, to potentially someday being a WNBA star? Yeah, what's incredible is that the pipeline is rich and deep right now. There's a lot of Canadian talent coming up. The national team has been at the top of global rankings for years competing for medals in the Olympics for probably the last three or four definitely, maybe even before that. But what's incredible is what you're talking about on the men's

side. You talked about Shay. He's now a MVP candidate. You know, he came up right when the Raptors were coming up. And the existence of the Raptors of the Vince Carter effect has transformed basketball in this country for men. But that takes 20 years. And I don't even think it has taken that long, right? If you think about how those players have now come up and actually impacted a lot of it

is the infrastructure that Monica is referring to as well. But, yeah, Canadians are represented in the NBA only second to U.S. And I feel like there's a great pathway for Canadians to fill that same that same level of commitment and impact in the WNBA very shortly. Monica, it is absolutely true to say that the Toronto Blue Jays as the only Canadian team in Major League Baseball, represent the whole country. You could say the same for the Raptors. They're the only Canadian team in the NBA. They represent all of Canada. Is it your hope that the Tempo, as the only Canadian team in the WNBA, will represent the whole country. Absolutely. And, you know, I fair say it's not only a hope,

it's our commitment to ensure that we're inclusive of the entire country of Canada. I'm sure Theresa can speak to this more, but we'll be playing games all over the country in Montreal and Vancouver. And, you know, again, I'm hoping that those games and being able to cover such large territory inspires the next generation

of young ballers to really one day want to play for their WNBA team in their home country of Canada. Also what Theresa alluded to is the amount of talent up and coming in the country and how many of them, and I can really speak to the NCAA piece of it and how many of them are going through the NCAA pipeline and really having great careers in college and becoming draft prospects. And so it's our commitment to increase that number and have young ballers coming up wanting

to play for the tempo one day. Is it part of the plan to have quote, unquote, home games in the regular season by the tempo in Montreal and Vancouver, that kind of thing? Yeah, we're not committed to any sort of city right now, but it's definitely part of our plan. Unlike the Raptors, you know, they started with the Grizzlies right beside them.

Unlike the Blue Jays, they had the Expos for a long time. They're partners here in Canada. We get to start as Canada's team. So as Monica said, we're positioning ourselves that way. We're including all of Canada as part of this team's fan base from the very beginning. You'll see us out in marketplaces this summer before we're even having any players. And then ultimately, yeah, we want to have home regular season games outside the Toronto market. So stay tuned for that.

We have to work with those different markets and obviously with the league very, very closely in scheduling those, making sure that fits within the competitive landscape of the league as a whole. But they're on side too. They want to see this game and this league grow, and they see the huge opportunity from coast to coast in Canada, which is why the tempo is Canada's team. Monica, I wonder as well whether we are sort of at a moment

in the history of professional sports when it's really kind of a woman's moment, right? Like the professional women's hockey league has started. It is, I mean, I went to a game, I don't know, five, six weeks ago. It was great. There's women's pro soccer happening. Got the WNBA right now.

Are we at a moment, do you think, for women's pro sports? I think Teresa always says it best. This is not a moment, it's a movement. And then I'll just add that, you know, for women's pro sports? I think Teresa always says it best. This is not a moment. It's a movement. And then I'll just add that, in my mind, there's always been talent in women's sports. I think we're just at a point where we have the eyes,

we have the investment, and people are really starting to take notice. And so I think the biggest thing for me is to ensure that I steward this properly and create sustainability and longevity for our team and our Encore product. And I think that the sky's the limit, again, for women's sports, especially in Canada.

Well, OK, let me follow up, Teresa, with you in this regard. The NBA has been around since 1946. So in some respects, they've got a 50-year head start on you guys. Yeah. Is that a problem for you to try to, I mean, you ideally would like to be on a par with the male game, but they got a 50 year head start. So what do you do about that?

Well, you keep making progress every single day. You're exactly right. Like we're not gonna wake up tomorrow and have all be equal in everything. Like that's just not gonna happen because of that 50 years. But what is happening is the cumulative effect is happening. And that curve, we're going up it exponentially. And if you look at where the NBA was at in their 30th year,

we're way ahead of them. So it's basically everything that they've done to help build the game of basketball and everything we can learn from what they've done in the early years, we've been able to put into our playbook and exponentially expedite that growth. I think that's, I mean, that appears to be the case because you certainly have a much,

I mean, the ownership of the WNBA teams is much deeper pockets. You've got broadcast contracts already in a way that the other guys didn't have. The other thing, 30 years into the NBA, I'm sorry to say, was a league mired in terrible drug addiction issues and all that kind of thing. What have you, I mean, I presume at some point,

the league has to have a heart to heart talk with all the players about gambling, about drugs, about who you hang out with and all of that kind of stuff? Do you do that? Oh absolutely. The league and Monica's a former player knows from the very beginning they've had their players at the heart of everything they do. And what they're trying to do is create an incredible environment where they can be their best selves and be the best player they possibly can be. So the resources that they have is only increasing. What's incredible is to see, and this is not just in the WNBA,

but across women's sports and even men's sports, athletes who are entering the league are so much more sophisticated. The NIL process, the name image likeness that they're in the NCAA, a lot of these athletes are coming into the league as full brands. They understand the power that they have and the impact that they can have for themselves

and their ability to make money, but then also in the communities that they're part of. And I don't think that we've ever had a group of young people entering the league with that much understanding of how they can impact and grow this league, both as an individual and the team, as ever before, which is also going to help with the growth.

So yeah, I think that there's also a greater understanding, like Monica said before, the resources weren't there, so you just played because you loved it. Now there's a much greater understanding of how to take care of your body, how to get peak performance. They've seen people who have extended their careers, and they know all the things that they need to do

in order to do that for themselves. Yeah, like Monica, I know the salaries today are not what they presumably are gonna be in 10 years' time, for example. So maybe you could tell us, based on your experience as a player, what you have to be careful of, because before long, you know,

people are gonna be coming at players to, I'm sorry to say this, but it's a fact in sports nowadays. You gotta watch out who you hang out with. There are people with nefarious influences who are gonna wanna get people to throw games and all sorts of crazy stuff, right? How do you guard against that? Well, I think it's gonna be tough

to really guard against that kind of thing. But just adding kinda to what Teresa was mentioning about our league is that with a women's league, you get so many different kinds of players that come to the table. And I think with our players, there's a collective consciousness that we do have to stand for something and that we are working toward a common goal, which is pushing

the game of women's basketball and women in professional sports globally. And so with that, our players really are about some really high-level things and where they love to get out into the community. They will speak up and speak out for marginalized communities. They love to take action and make sure that they are standing on the right things

and that they do it collectively and so that they are using on the right things and that they do it collectively. And so that they're using their voices and their platforms for things that they believe in. And so that to me is just why women's sports is so beautiful. Why women's sports is just something that you cannot stop investing in. Because when you do that, you really bring along

so many other groups of people and communities that are benefiting from the things that those players believe in and their investment in them. Understood. And even you mentioned the PWHL launching, NSL launching, you know, it was incredible, Toronto AFC launching, and the tempo was there,

and the sectors are there. Like we all understand that we're part of this larger community, and the WNBA has really been leading the way in that. And I think, like, what Monica alludes to is we all understand there's something bigger at play here. And I think it's something that is unique to women's sports. And it's really great to see these people all come together. We don't have, you know, a lot of people when we first launched

saw us as competitors. But we've never seen us that way. We've seen us as like, we can help each other grow, and we can all rise. Well, I look forward to the first game of the Toronto Tempo, which will be May of 2026. Is that right? And your home arena is going to be?

The Coca-Cola Coliseum. At the X. Yeah. We can't wait. And like I said, we'll be playing games across Canada. So stay tuned for some of those announcements. But we can't wait to call Coca-Cola home. We'll be roommates with the Scepters there.

That's right, they're there. To be incredible. And thanks for telling our story. I mean, that's something that I say over and over, is this team is going to be successful. This marketplace is ready off the top of your first question. But for us to truly optimize opportunity, we need people to fall in love with us, who have us to truly optimize opportunity, we need people to

fall in love with us who have never ever followed sports, much less women's basketball. So thank you for telling our story. We wish you well. Monica Wright Rogers, new general manager of the Toronto Tempo and Teresa Resch, president of the Toronto Tempo. Thanks for visiting us at TVO tonight, it's been a pleasure. Pleasure's all mine. Thanks for having us.