Full steam ahead for Toronto Tempo as WNBA team readies for inaugural season

With the 2025 WNBA season well underway, the debut of the Toronto Tempo is fast approaching and the month ahead promises to be a busy time for team president Teresa Resch.

She recently hired the team’s first general manager, Monica Wright Rogers, a move which will take some of the spotlight off of Resch, who has pretty much been the face of the franchise since MLSE chair Larry Tannenbaum was first awarded the franchise in May of 2024.

“When I got this job, I didn’t realize I’d be getting to talk to so many people like yourself, journalists telling the story of the team, because I’d worked for the Raptors for 10 seasons, and it was always the players and the coach and even our GM who was telling the story about the Raptors,” Resch told Global News’ Eric Sorensen.

But team meetings remain pretty small for the Tempo as they still need to hire a coach and fill out the roster.

“We’ll have a coach probably at the end of the W’ season in the fall, in October, November,” Resch offered.

“And then we’ll have players starting in the wintertime. So we’ll an expansion draft likely in December, January. We’ll have free agency in January, and we’ll (have) a college draft in April. So then those people will really be truly telling the Tempo story.”

While the roster remains unfilled, a few famous female faces with wildly different backgrounds have bought into the team, including Serena Williams, Lilly Singh and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy.

“It’s incredible to have that level of female leaders connected to our team,” Resch said.

“They’re invested in this. They have invested their own dollars into this and believe in it.”

Williams immediately chipped in with the hiring of the team’s general manager, and the former tennis star, who was also known for her style, has offered to assist in other areas.

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“Serena is passionate about design, so she’s going to help us with uniforms and maybe a collection,” Resch explained. “She was involved in interviewing Monica Rogers, our GM.”

YouTube star Singh also brings a different offering to the table.

“Lily has been incredible,” the team president said of the Canadian media star. “She has the title of ‘Chief Hype Officer’ and boy, oh boy, does she embody that. And I cannot wait for her to really tell our story in a way that only she can”

And while Singh Cassidy may not be quite as famous as the others, the southern Ontario native has been a Silicon Valley star for years, having worked with Google and StubHub before becoming CEO of Xero.

Resch said that she appreciates the opportunity to pick the tech mogul’s brain at times.

“Just her insights being able to mine her and she’s available to provide insights for us as we’re building this organization,” she said. “She’s done it before so it’s incredible to have that type of talent and intellect helping us.”

–with files from Global News’ Eric Sorensen

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