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The WNBA is officially going international.
Toronto was officially named as the home of the league’s 14th franchise Thursday. The yet-unnamed team will be the league’s first outside the United States and second in a recent wave of expansion. It will begin playing in the 2026 season under owner Larry Tanenbaum of Kilmer Sports Ventures. Tanenbaum is the chairman of Kilmer Sports Ventures and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Raptors, Maple Leafs, and Toronto FC, among other franchises.
”Bringing a WNBA team to Toronto represents an important milestone for our league as we continue to expand both domestically and outside the United States,” said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “With Larry Tanenbaum’s distinguished record of leading successful sports franchises and Toronto’s appeal as a dynamic, diverse city that cares deeply about the game of basketball, we are confident that this new team will thrive as a first-class WNBA organization and become a great source of inspiration and support for the Toronto-area community and across Canada.”
The team will play at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in downtown Toronto, with additional games scheduled at Scotiabank Arena, home of the Raptors and Maple Leafs, as well as in Vancouver and Montreal. Vancouver used to be home to the NBA’s Grizzlies before the team moved to Memphis in 2001.
At the WNBA draft in April, Engelbert said she was hoping to expand the league to 16 teams over the next few years. The Golden State Valkyries are the league’s 13th team and will begin play in 2025. and Engelbert has listed Philadelphia, Portland, Nashville, Milwaukee, and Denver as possible markets for the league’s final two expansion slots, but surprisingly not Houston, despite its history and population as a top-five U.S. market.
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