Toronto Gets an 'A-Plus' in the First WNBA Preseason Game in Canada: 'We Need the WNBA in the 6ix'

In a historic moment for the WNBA and Canadian basketball, the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky played the first ever WNBA (preseason) game in Canada on Saturday.

Bridget Carleton at WNBA game in Toronto
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Bridget Carleton at WNBA game in Toronto

Bridget Carleton at WNBA game in Toronto

It was exactly the type of day that you dream of for a one-of-a-kind event like this—the type that makes Toronto one of the best cities in the world. 

With bright and sunny 20 degree weather, thousands of Canadians descended upon downtown Toronto in shorts and t-shirts for maybe the first time this year, lending to a euphoric buzz permeating throughout the city. But it wasn’t just the weather that brought everybody downtown with smiles on their faces. It was basketball that brought them together. Specifically: Women’s basketball. 

In a historic moment for the WNBA and Canadian basketball, the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky played the first ever WNBA (preseason) game in Canada last Saturday, which was officially dubbed “Welcome WNBA Day” in Toronto. It was just the third time the WNBA has played a game outside of the United States and the first since 2011. But it was unlike anything the league has seen before. 

The game took place at a sold-out Scotiabank Arena, with a crowd of 19,000 fans filling the seats, donning bright orange WNBA hoodies as well as Sky blue and Lynx green WNBA jerseys. It was a diverse crowd made up primarily of young people, specifically young girls, getting an opportunity to witness history. After all, in the absence of a domestic league or professional team, it was the first time many of them got to watch professional women’s basketball right here in our own backyard, in Canada. 

And if Canadians have anything to say about it, it won’t be the last time.

“It’s pretty surreal,” said Bridget Carleton, one of four Canadians in the WNBA and the lone Canadian fortunate enough to play in Saturday’s game. “Growing up, I never imagined the WNBA being associated with Canada. It was kind of two different things.”

“...It’s kind of almost like a trial run to see what it would be like to have a WNBA team here,” Carleton added. “Obviously, with the success of the Toronto Raptors winning a championship in 2019, you can feel the excitement around basketball in general in Canada. And there’s a culture about it that people want to be a part of… it’s about going to games, engaging on social media, like the whole thing around basketball. So it’s exciting to be a part of that growth. And I think we’re proving that Toronto is a good market for [expansion].”

The WNBA is in the process of expanding beyond its 12-team league, with one or two additional franchises potentially coming as soon as the 2025 season. After an initial data analysis of 100 potential expansion cities was completed 18 months ago, the WNBA has narrowed down their list to about ten potential landing spots for their initial round of expansion. And, according to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressing reporters before the game, “Toronto scored very high on the list, so Toronto is definitely [still] on the list.”

“I think the time for expansion is ripe and ready right now,” she added.

Calls for a WNBA team in Toronto have gotten louder since the Toronto Raptors won a championship in 2019, when Toronto and Canada took the basketball world by storm. It was then that Toronto showcased its passion for sports—a passion that sets the city apart as a one-of-a-kind global market that is home to the only NBA and MLB teams outside of the United States, and successful ones at that. 

The WNBA game in Toronto was an opportunity for the country to prove that it is ready for a WNBA team, too; That it’s ready to support women’s basketball the same way that they support men’s basketball, regularly selling out Raptors games as the fourth-best attended team in the NBA this season. 

According to everyone who participated in the event, the city and fanbase passed with flying colours. 

“I don’t know this has been done before: a preseason game that sold out in how many minutes?” Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said after tickets sold out within minutes of going on sale before airing live on three networks across Canada and the United States and issuing 122 media credentials for the game. 

“I think this is the epitome of the enthusiasm that’s being shown for women’s sports in general. And so it was awesome to see Canada step up in that way and say: ‘Yeah, we feel it here too. And we’re excited about this and we think we’re a great place for a WNBA team.’”

“I know there’s a lot of passion. I’ve felt that since I’ve been here,” Commissioner Engelbert said, noting that the feeling she gets from her time in Toronto and other potential candidates will influence her expansion decision. “I just walked in and fans are lining up outside and they’re just so excited that a woman just came up to me to say: ‘can I get my picture with you because this is my lifelong dream to attend a WNBA game?’” 

There was more of that inside the arena on Saturday afternoon, where 19,000 fans cheered in their seats before the opening tip went up at 4:10pm. On top of the screaming young girls whose voices reverberated throughout the crowd when they weren’t busy selling out the merchandise by halftime, the more famous supporters included Toronto Raptors executives Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster, players Jeff Dowtin Jr. and Christian Koloko, former Raptor Serge Ibaka, and Canadian ballers Lu Dort, Aaliyah Edwards, and Lynx forward currently on sabbatical leave, Nathalie Achonwa.

During commercial breaks, kids held up signs to be featured on the jumbotron saying: “future season ticket holder,” “Toronto wants WNBA expansion” and “We need WNBA in the 6ix,” all getting huge cheers from the crowd. The fans continued their loud ways from a slow first half through a whirlwind of three-pointers as teams went back-and-forth in the second half until after the final buzzer sounded, when they got on their feet to give both teams a standing ovation following a 82-74 Sky win. The players embraced them, staying on the court after the game to throw t-shirts to the rabid fans.

“It was amazing. When we came out into the tunnel and saw people all the way up as far as you could see, it was like the seats were filled and they were cheering already just with the players getting into warm-up lines. So it was great. I thought the energy was great all night,” said Chicago Sky head coach James Wade, who proceeded to call Scotiabank Arena “my house” after becoming the first head coach to win a professional women’s basketball game in Canada.

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve never played in front of that many people for sure,” said Sky forward Morgan Bertsch, who played four years at UC Davis before joining the WNBA. “Just being able to come out and really feel the support from Toronto and from Canada overall, it was really incredible. The sold out crowd, they really brought the energy so it was so fun to play in front of that kind of crowd and that really gets me energized as a player. It’s a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity.” 

Superstar wing Kahleah Copper said the buzz of the arena reminded her of Wintrust Arena in Chicago during the Sky’s WNBA Championship run in 2021, saying “Those are the exact feels that I had, feeling like the sold out crowd, can’t hear anything, just feeding off the crowd and feeling that energy.”

And the hope going forward is that those major events in women’s basketball no longer occur once every four years during an Olympic cycle, but every single week during a WNBA season, with a professional women’s team in Toronto as soon as 2025.

“Major shout out to Canada and all the supporters that came out, the little girls were able to see it so they can really be it. It’s nothing like really having that experience, that real WNBA experience, seeing and having direct access to these players.”

Copper added that she did not get to witness WNBA games growing up in Philadelphia, but that it’s important for young girls to “see players that are from where they’re from make it in the WNBA. So I think that was special too, because not only are they seeing us Americans, they’re seeing Canadians also that are doing it. So, they’re definitely double inspired.”

After all, the desire to bring a WNBA franchise to Toronto and to Canada is not just so that people can spend their Saturday afternoons happily watching basketball in downtown Toronto during the summer—it’s also so that young women can see themselves represented in the professional ranks, providing role models for them to aspire towards. Basketball is already growing in Canada in the youth ranks and among our women’s national teams, with the girls and senior team each ranking fifth in the world. Plus, in addition to Carleton, Achonwa, and Kia Nurse, Scarborough-native Laeticia Amihere was selected No. 8 overall by the Atlanta Dream in the 2023 Draft, giving the WNBA four Canadian players.

“Yeah, it’s exciting,” Carleton said about the opportunity to play in front of the next generation of Canadian girls. “I think back to when I was a kid growing up and I was looking up to a lot of the players that were on our senior national team: Kim Gaucher, Miranda Ayim… So I’m really, really excited to be those people, be that person for the next generation of kids that hopefully comes to the game tomorrow and can see me, especially Canadians, playing at this level at the highest level.”

Carelton admitted that “it would have been huge” to see a WNBA game in Canada herself growing up, saying that “Growing up, I didn’t even dream of playing in the WNBA. I knew of it, I knew that there was a league. I knew it was the best league. but I’d never thought it was gonna be possible for me. It just wasn’t accessible. … I really didn’t have access to it, and I didn’t really know what it was like.”

“So if I did, if I did know, if I were to go to a game in Canada, especially just being able to see people that look like me that I could potentially fill their shoes one day, I would have had those dreams for myself. And it really wasn’t until like my senior year of college where I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I can play in the WNBA.’”

Instead, like many of the young girls in attendance on Saturday, Carleton became a fan of basketball and saw it as a potential future career through the Canadian women’s senior team (which she is now a key member of), with Canada Basketball being largely responsible for both her development and aspirations growing up.

“My family especially loves cheering for Canada at the Olympics. Like when the Olympics are on, that’s the only thing on TV,” Carleton said. “And I remember watching our senior women’s team qualify for 2012, they beat Japan and it was like their last chance to qualify for the London Olympics. And I remember watching that game when I was 15 years old and I was like: ‘Okay, that’s what I want to do in my career.’”

Carleton added: “I think the rise of the women’s team and now that we’re getting more attention and we’re on TV a little bit more, social media is helping, I think that’s building the fandom around it.”

The hope with the WNBA Canada game was to showcase the women’s basketball talent and fanbase that has slowly but surely been growing in Canada. And the hope going forward is that those major events in women’s basketball no longer occur once every four years during an Olympic cycle, but every single week during a WNBA season, with a professional women’s team in Toronto as soon as 2025.

Canadians made those hopes clear on Saturday afternoon, when they cheered so loud it was as if they were afraid the moment would pass. And the WNBA not only took notice of Canada’s desire to have a WNBA team, but also of what the league itself could gain from being in Canada and surrounding itself with such a passionate fanbase.

“I’ll give you an A-plus,” Wade said about Toronto’s test run for having a WNBA team. “Listen, you guys have something here in Toronto that’s really special. You sensed it when you guys made the NBA Finals run in 2019, how you were partying outside, there was like as many people outside [in Jurassic Park] as there were inside.”

“And so us being here yesterday, there were like 100,000 people in a square radius or whatever and it’s like: damn everybody has a Maple Leafs shirt or this or that and it’s just nice to see how energetic and vibrant the city is. 

“And so you’re like: ‘damn, the WNBA deserves that too.’”

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