Latest news with #TeresaResch
CBC
24-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
WNBA's Toronto Tempo will be 'Canada's team,' president says, as 1-year countdown begins
Social Sharing As Toronto Tempo begins the one-year countdown to its inaugural tip off with a weekend of celebrations, the president of Canada's first WNBA franchise said she hopes the team will draw hundreds of thousands of fans from coast to coast. "We have the opportunity to create something really unique and really special for the first team outside of the U.S.," said Teresa Resch. "We're truly going to be Canada's team." Tempo fans gathered in Toronto Saturday to play basketball and attend panels exploring the game's cultural impact in celebration of the one-year mark before the opening game. STACKT Market is hosting an event this weekend near Bathurst and Front Street W. that will allow fans to "interact with the Tempo brand" for the first time, Resch said. The event is running from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Fans can play basketball and check out a merch pop-up store. There will also be three panels a day, touching on subjects that include how food, fashion and art intersect with basketball, Resch said. Speakers will include Monica Rogers, the team's general manager, and Lily Singh, a part-owner and Canadian media star who is also the team's chief hype officer. Resch said 19 people are currently working for the team, which will go up to 50 by tip off — including a full coaching staff and medical team. Players will join the team through the expansion draft, college draft and free agency in the lead-up to next year's season, she said. "Our mission is to win championships and prove that women' s basketball is an incredible business," Resch said. "I think we're well on our way." Women's basketball 'changing the culture' Among those at Saturday's event was Brey Johnson, head coach for Lay-Up, a Toronto charity that provides free basketball programming for children. The U.S. has rallied around women's basketball recently, Johnson said, and she thinks the enthusiasm will spill over north of the border. "Women's basketball right now is having a movement. It's really changing the culture," she said. More girls are getting involved in the sport, and boys who don't play with girls are noticing more and more that "women can ball too," she said. Johnson said she's always wanted to live in a city with a WNBA team. She said she expects the first game will be "very special," with people from all communities in the city coming out to support the team.
CTV News
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Scarborough's Lilly Singh part-owner, chief ‘hype' officer to Toronto Tempo
Scarborough's very own Lilly Singh is officially joining the ownership ranks of the WNBA's Toronto Tempo, as well as being an official 'hype' officer for the franchise. The actor and former late-night talk show host expressed her love for Toronto and the positive impact team sports has for girls and women as part of the reasons why she wanted to join the ownership group behind the Tempo team. 'I know from experience that in every corner of the world, one thing always rings true: the positive impact that participating in sports and the sports community has on girls and women,' Singh said in a release issued on Tuesday. 'I love women. I love Toronto. Joining the ownership group of the Tempo is an absolute no-brainer. I can't think of anything else I would rather spend my money, time and hype-woman energy on.' On top of being part-owner, Singh is also tasked as being the Tempo's Chief Hype Officer, which the team says is focused on amplifying the excitement for the Tempo both on and off the court. To do that, Singh will be charged with helming in-game rituals, ramping up excitement among fans and celebrating women's basketball as a whole. 'She's been one of the earliest and most vocal supporters of this team, and we're thrilled to have her as part of our ownership group,' Teresa Resch, the club's president, said in a release. 'Her expertise in online community-building and socially-driven storytelling, not to mention her deep passion for this game, this league and this city, will be absolutely invaluable.' Singh is not the only celebrity who has an ownership stake, as 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams announced her part-owner status earlier this year. The Tempo will play their home games at the Coca-Cola Coliseum starting in 2026, but will also host regular-season contests across Canada.
CBC
09-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
With 1 year until the franchise tips off, WNBA's Toronto Tempo starting to come together
Toronto Tempo president Teresa Resch has one guarantee: her team will have jerseys in time for tip-off next season. "That's what I can 100 per cent commit to. Anything else, I would be lying," Resch said in a recent conversation with CBC Sports. Yet as preparations for Canada's first WNBA team intensify with one year until its debut, Resch and her growing crew have already had to place their order for on-court merchandise — practice gear, bench wear, coaching attire and the like. Even without a jersey design. "We don't have any idea who our coach is going to be, or any of our players. The deadlines don't change for us. So we had to place that order," Resch said. The 2025 WNBA season begins May 16. For Toronto, it also serves as the unofficial one year out marker. And while roots have been planted for the franchise — a president, general manager, nickname and logo being the most notable — there's still plenty left to do before the Tempo play basketball. To honour the occasion, the team will hold what it is billing as its first live event — a meet and greet in downtown Toronto May 24-25. There are plans to hold similar public events across Canada throughout the season. In a year from now, however, there will be basketball to be played. Resch said she has still not yet received any indication from the league on what the expansion draft might look like when the Tempo enter alongside an expansion sister in Portland. WATCH | Meet Tempo GM Monica Wright Rogers: Meet Monica Wright Rogers, the GM of the WNBA's newest team, the Toronto Tempo 2 months ago Duration 12:57 The newly hired Tempo general manager talks goals for the 2026 WNBA season and how she plans to build a championship-winning team. She also wouldn't address the collective bargaining agreement, which expires after this season and represents the one anvil that could blow up the Tempo's inaugural season. Regardless of how that all plays out, the free-agent class is set to be historic. "We know that there is a very large number of players [whose] the contracts will expire at end of the season and we look forward to engaging with and talking to those players about potentially being in Toronto," Resch said. In the meantime, GM Monica Wright Rogers has already hit the road at college and pre-season games to scout potential Tempo targets. Resch said she hasn't fully set her own schedule for the season, but she plans to be in Vancouver for the first-ever regular-season WNBA game in Canada on Aug. 15 as well as Indiana for all-star weekend. Otherwise, Resch just wants to consume lots of basketball. "Obviously we're scouting as well, like understanding what's happening in the league, how the [expansion Golden State] Valkyries are [doing], some of the things that are working well for them hopefully we can implement ourselves and also learn from anything that kind of goes sideways," Resch said. She also hopes to gain knowledge off the court. "This is really the first season that we'll have people dedicated to the Tempo so that we can actually be really focused on those learnings. So there's a lot we can learn from the business side. Going to the games, understanding the in-arena experiences as well as some of the back end," Resch said. "What's incredible about the W is it is a great community and there's a lot of best practices shared." Behind the scenes, the Tempo team has grown to 18 people, and things are beginning to accelerate due to the increased personnel. The overall feeling among the Tempo's first dozen-and-a-half hires? Excitement. "I mean, think about your own life when you're starting something new. And there's just a lot of excitement because we all go into something feeling very positive, right? We know that it's not gonna be an easy journey, but we're up for the challenge and excited about it. There's a lot of momentum, a lot of positivity, good vibes every day. So it's nice to have that," Resch said. The budding group has helped transform the Tempo into an operational business — a definite step forward from when year ago when Resch and CFO Patrick Lee were the team's first hires. Still, it is early stages. The Tempo continue to implement back-end business software like CRM and ERP systems, among other "acronyms that I had no idea what they stood for six months ago," Resch said with a laugh. The goal is short-term pain for long-term gain. "We'll be able to find out more about our fan base, we'll be able to engage with them in a more personalized way. We'll be able to have financial documents that aren't so manual so we can track our progress and make sure we're running a really great business," Resch said. Elsewhere, there continue to be job postings on LinkedIn to join the Tempo, including one for a director of basketball operations to work side-by-side with Wright Rogers. The team also keeps adding to its ownership group, with Xero CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy recently joining Larry Tanenbaum and Serena Williams. Resch said another addition will be announced soon. And so, slowly but surely, things are coming together for the Tempo — and the group is learning together. "You're building that strategy from scratch, which is a really great opportunity, but also means you don't have historicals to base it on. You have some market research and things across the league, but nothing that has actually happened in your market for your team before," Resch said.
