Tempo construction continues to be delayed by lack of CBA

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For everyone connected with the Toronto Tempo, the waiting game continues.

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Three months before the Tempo is scheduled to play its first game in the Women’s National Basketball Association — on May 8 against the Washington Mystics at Coca-Cola Coliseum — the league and its players’ union still do not have a new collective bargaining agreement.

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In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, WNBA players’ union president Nneka Ogwumike said significant work remains for the season to start on time, but said she remains confident games will be played in 2026.

“I know our players 100% want to play this year,” Ogwumike told The AP. “We want a season.”

Ogwumike told The AP that the WNBA and union are not close on key issues, such as revenue sharing, in their effort to come together on a new CBA.

The expansion draft to help stock the Tempo, and another WNBA expansion team in Portland, likely should have taken place in December. That, plus a period of free agency and a rookie player draft, all need to take place before the WNBA’s season begins.

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Toronto was awarded a WNBA expansion franchise in May 2024 and the team announced its name and logo in December 2024.

On Feb. 20, 2025, the Tempo announced that Monica Wright Rogers would be the team’s first general manager. She had been the assistant GM of the Phoenix Mercury, and had won two WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx in 2011 and 2013.

On Nov. 4, 2025, the Tempo announced the hiring of Sandy Brondello as the team’s first head coach. In her coaching career, Brondello has led two teams — the Phoenix Mercury in 2014, and the New York Liberty in 2024 — to a WNBA championship.

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The Tempo’s home and away jerseys were revealed in December 2025.

The team’s 2026 schedule also includes two “home” games at Bell Centre in Montreal and two “home” games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. Most games in Toronto will be at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Three contests are scheduled to be played at Scotiabank Arena, including a visit by Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on August 18.

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But as for now, the closest Toronto fans will come to seeing a WNBA player on a basketball court was on Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena during a game between the Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves. Lash Legend, a WWE Superstar who was a standout player in U.S. college basketball and took part in three WNBA games for Seattle in 2019, appeared on court during a break in play along with another WWE Superstar, and her real-life fiance, Trick Williams.

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