By Cindy McGlynn
Photo: Amanda Lee Coffey
Teresa Resch is the president of WNBA Toronto and the Toronto Tempo, the first WNBA expansion team outside the US. We asked Resch about strategy—for working with sponsors, growing interest in the team and building an audience in Canada.
How are you ensuring sponsor partnerships are mutually beneficial, while resonating with fans?
From day one, we’ve been building so much more than a sports team. We’ve been building a community and we look for partners who truly understand this and share our values.
Our founding partners have gotten involved in so many creative ways! Sephora Canada partnered with us for Tempo LIVE, our first-ever in-person event, marking one year to tip-off in 2026.
This free, two-day event at Stackt Market in Toronto included a panel discussion and speaker series (Tempo Talks), featuring conversations on the beauty of basketball culture. There were interactive fan experiences, including a fan camp, basketball skills challenges and merch pop-ups. It was an incredible first taste of the passion and excitement that will power this team into 2026 and beyond.
CIBC has introduced Champions of Ambition, a new community program designed to celebrate and elevate Canadians who have been changing the tempo in women’s sports and their communities.
And we just launched Together We Win, our platform for equity, community and collective action. The platform, in partnership with Sephora, is coming to life through a fan pledge (to be played at all our games), limited-edition merchandise and partnerships with grassroots organizations. We worked with Shahaddah Jack, Toronto’s first youth poet laureate, to turn our fan pledge into a beautiful piece of spoken word.
Which channels successfully reach your audience, and how will you introduce new audiences to women’s professional basketball?
Part of the fun of launching a new team has been getting to know and build our fan base, which is consistently expanding.
Our community is diverse, about a quarter are new Canadians, and they tend to skew younger. We’re still testing and learning, and always evaluating new channels to reach our audiences.
Whether they are casual or hardcore fans, we want to offer a space for everyone that feels welcoming—you don’t need to have grown up watching or playing basketball to be part of team Tempo.
We’ve worked with various grassroots organizations within our communities to amplify their work, and have experimented with different channels and content to see what resonates with our audience. For example, on April Fool’s Day, we did a fun social media piece with Rick the Temp(o). This idea came from our fans and was targeted to a very specific audience, but resonated extremely well!
Will the Tempo use data insights to understand fan behaviour, personalize experiences and optimize revenue streams?
EngageRM is a proven tool used by many sports teams, and we’re excited to work with them to provide the best experience possible for our fans. The partnership allows us to customize and personalize experiences—from tickets to merchandise to activations—to best serve our communities.
One simple but unique feature is that EngageRM allows us to identify fan-favourite Tempo players and feature them in the graphics in emails. It’s a small touch that makes the experience that much more exciting for the user.
How will your merchandise strategy appeal to audiences beyond Toronto and reflect your identity as “Canada’s team”?
We were very intentional in developing our launch merchandise. We didn’t want it to feel like average sports memorabilia; we want to offer lifestyle options that can be incorporated into our fans’ everyday lives.
We focused on working with Canadian and female-owned businesses to create a broad assortment of items that reflect Tempo’s diverse fan base across the country. Our merchandise releases have been the first opportunity for our fans to showcase their Tempo pride—it’s incredibly special to witness.
BY THE NUMBERS
• In 2026, the WNBA will have 15 active teams, including Toronto
• Toronto Tempo’s home venue is the 8,500-seat Coca-Cola Coliseum
• Teresa Resch was VP of operations for the Toronto Raptors for 11 years before joining the Tempo
Published October 2025
