WNBA: Toronto to “share” team with Montreal

It’s official: the WNBA is coming to Toronto. Canada will now have its own women’s basketball team.

I say Canada because in 2026, the Toronto club will make its debut as the first team in the country… but I also say it because the club has stolen a page from the Blue Jays’ and Raptors’ book by creating the branding of being Canada’s team.

And it will do so by playing games in Vancouver and Montreal during the franchise’s inaugural season.

“This franchise will be Canada’s team.”

Larry Tanenbaum says Toronto’s WNBA expansion team will also play games in Vancouver and Montreal throughout the season. pic.twitter.com/AyaQd9b1qB

– Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 23, 2024

There are two ways of looking at this. The first is to say that even if Montreal doesn’t get its own franchise, basketball fans will be able to see the best players in the world in action in the city.

In the end, the fans win.

From Toronto’s point of view, it’s a great idea. It increases interest in the country, it consolidates the new franchise’s (currently unnamed) place in Canada, and it brings in new fans from coast to coast.

Why deprive yourself?

But the other way of looking at it is from a Montreal perspective. It’s to say that the city isn’t capable of having its own events and has to rely on Toronto to make it happen.

There’s a lot of excitement around women’s basketball and Montreal isn’t fully on board at the moment. That’s a shame.

Need I remind you that the Four Nations Tournament could slip through Montreal’s fingers, and it’s Toronto that could save itself by getting the games in Canada?

I wrote about this yesterday, and this morning, during Renaud Lavoie’s column, the boys from BPM Sports got angry – and rightly so – about the fact that nothing big in sports ever happens in the city.

While Toronto has an NBA and MLB club, will be hosting World Cup games in 2026, and stands to benefit from Montreal’s inability to close the deal on the Four Nations Tournament, Quebec’s metropolis is putting money into the Olympic Stadium.

Let’s just say that we’re talking more about losing sports than winning, in Montreal. And to see that we still have to rely on Toronto for sports, in this case women’s basketball, is deplorable for a city that’s supposed to be big.