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This Friday, Toronto makes history with the debut of Canada’s first-ever WNBA team: the Toronto Tempo.
Today on Commotion, sports journalists Shireen Ahmed and Savanna Hamilton join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to break down how the new basketball team is changing the culture of Toronto with its arrival.
We’ve included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today’s episode on YouTube:
Elamin: Toronto Tempo became the first-ever team to sign both Marina Mabrey to a contract worth over a million dollars a year. Brittney Sykes also got the max contract, over a million dollars a year. This was made possible partly because of the collective bargaining agreement that was ratified a couple of months ago.
What kind of message do you think it sends that Toronto is the first team to do that, to have the max contracts?
Savanna: They’re making history — point blank, period, clock it. They’re making history and I think being the first WNBA franchise that’s international, that is so historic in and of itself. And so I think Teresa Resch, the president, she’s very much the type of person that’s like, “Why not? And why not us? And why can’t it be us? Let’s do it first, let’s do better.” We’ve all seen the practice facility that they’re building now — come on now, that’s probably going to be the best one in the league.
Elamin: Do you want to describe what we’re seeing?
Savanna: From the mock-ups that they’ve shared, first of all, it’s green space all around the entire building. So it’s actually so community-oriented. They said that when the Tempo’s not practicing in it, it’s going to be used for the community first and foremost. And then if you see some of the mockups, it’s absolutely stunning. The way that they designed it is very intentional and it also feels very catered to women. Covering the Toronto Raptors for three years myself, I’ve been inside tons of locker rooms before and it’s always, you know, it’s just sports. It’s very traditional. They’re really nice, but it’s sports.
Elamin: “Sports,” in caps lock: SPORTS.
Savanna: Sports, caps lock, exactly. But this felt kind of feminine. And I was like, this is so interesting to see the intersection. And this is why it doesn’t feel real still because we’re finally seeing what femininity and sports look like together. We’ve seen the makeup industry kind of break that barrier. And now we’re seeing: what does it look like in design in sports? And what does that look like on the court in sports and then in a jersey in sports? There’s so many of these elements that are just unbelievable to me.
Elamin: Shireen, what do you think the impact is going to be of the Toronto Tempo, just on the culture of the city?
Shireen: One of the things I think that’s the most profound to me is that there’s little girls … and [they] won’t know Canada without professional women’s sports. That’s life-changing, it’s society-changing, it’s mentality-changing.
From a professional standpoint, my calendar is a mess because there’s so many women’s sports happening. This is an excellent problem to have, and not a problem I had five years ago. So I’m well aware of that…. And I love all of it.
You can listen to the full discussion from today’s show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.
