Dez the Snapping Turtle and Dot the Arctic Hare debut as Toronto Tempo mascots

Top secret auditions, costume fittings and rehearsals all led to Tuesday night, when the Toronto Tempo finally revealed not one but two official mascots: Dez the Snapping Turtle and Dot the Arctic Hare.

Toronto’s WNBA team introduced the costumed duo for the first time Tuesday during a theatrical moment at halftime of their game against the Indiana Fever.

The team was going for a new spin on the tortoise and the hare fable. This pair is meant to represent steady and swift, a nod to tempo, and the importance of changing pace.

“There’s no better representation of tempo than the tortoise and the hare, like that juxtaposition,” said Tempo chief marketing officer Whitney Bell. “And both species are native to Canada. That was really important to us that they felt genuinely Canadian.”

So why wait for Game No. 34 to unveil the mascots? This wasn’t always the plan.

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The basketball club has had the mascots ready to go since the beginning of the season and initially wanted to reveal them at their preseason pep rally event in May. But they had so much new stuff to introduce already – their basketball court, the first-ever players and coaches. So they chose to wait, build up anticipation, and let people speculate online about what the mascots might be. Even the players have been making guesses on the team’s social media channels.

They chose to keep the mascots under wraps until the right time – like before a packed house at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday against one of the league’s hottest opponents.

They went to great lengths to keep it under wraps until the reveal. The Tempo know all about leaks, as their team name and logo leaked out before their originally planned official rollout.

As the team was brainstorming for mascot ideas, it studied other mascots, including one of the WNBA’s most well-known, the New York Liberty’s Ellie the Elephant. They explored animated characters from movies, too.

The organization settled on a snapping turtle and arctic hare as mascots, who at first began as illustrations. They were designed then approved by the WNBA and trademarked.

The team held auditions early this year, looking for performers who could become the mascots – people who could dance, do acrobatics, and connect with fans of all ages. The team managed to keep the mascots’ identities and that there would be two of them secret from those auditioning.

The team will not reveal the identities or even the ages or genders of who was selected to be inside the costumes.

The Chicago Mascot Company came highly recommended by other teams, and they made the costumes. The two Tempo performers travelled there for meticulous fittings.

The name Dez is inspired by decibel, so she is more sonically inclined, with a love for music. A Borealis blue snapping turtle from Muskoka, Ont., she is slow and controlled but also breakdances.

Dot is named for the Toronto moniker T-dot. She’s an energetic Arctic hare from the Arctic Circle, she has endless energy, is an acrobat and hype woman.

The team held rehearsals without costumes just in case people with prying phones might see.

“We’ve tried to keep it as hush-hush as possible,” said Bell. “Apart from dancing and choreography, we’ve also done a lot of character development with them over Zoom calls, talking about what is their origin, their favourite foods, guilty pleasures? All so they can really get into character.”