I treated this as a Toronto Tempo history, current through the end of the 2026 regular season. I also included the Connecticut Sun legacy section you requested, including Sun players who won WNBA MVP and Rookie of the Year while members of the Sun.
Writing
Toronto Tempo: The Beginning of Canada’s WNBA Era
The Toronto Tempo: Canada’s First WNBA Team
The Toronto Tempo made history in 2026 when they became the first Canadian franchise in the Women’s National Basketball Association. The WNBA awarded Toronto an expansion franchise in May 2024, with the team scheduled to begin play in the 2026 season. The franchise became the league’s 14th team at the time of the announcement and opened an entirely new chapter for professional women’s basketball in Canada.
The Tempo played their first regular-season game on May 8, 2026, hosting the Washington Mystics at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Toronto finished its inaugural regular season 11–29.
The creation of the Tempo was about more than adding another team to the WNBA. It represented the league’s first permanent move outside the United States and gave Canadian basketball fans a WNBA franchise they could call their own.
Who Owns the Toronto Tempo?
The Tempo are controlled by Kilmer Sports Ventures, led by chairman Larry Tanenbaum.
Tanenbaum is a major figure in Toronto professional sports. He is also chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and has been involved in the ownership and operation of several major Canadian sports properties.
The publicly identified Toronto Tempo ownership group has grown since the franchise was awarded.
Toronto Tempo ownership group
Larry Tanenbaum / Kilmer Sports Ventures — controlling ownership
Serena Williams — joined the ownership group in 2025
Lilly Singh — joined the ownership group in 2025
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy
Lilly Singh
France Margaret Bélanger
Masai Ujiri
Kyle Lowry — joined in 2026
Ayahna Cornish-Lowry — joined in 2026
The exact financial percentages of the individual investors have not been publicly disclosed, so it is more accurate to describe these people as members of the ownership group rather than assign them specific percentages.
Serena Williams’ involvement was particularly significant because she became one of the most prominent former athletes to invest in a WNBA franchise. Former Toronto Raptors star Kyle Lowry and his wife, Ayahna Cornish-Lowry, later joined the ownership group, further connecting the Tempo to Toronto’s basketball community.
Every Arena the Tempo Has Called Home
Because Toronto began play only in 2026, the Tempo have a very short arena history—but their inaugural season was designed to take the WNBA across Canada.
Coca-Cola Coliseum — Toronto
Coca-Cola Coliseum is the Tempo’s primary home arena.
The historic facility at Exhibition Place became the team’s principal home when the franchise began play in 2026. The building has a basketball capacity of roughly 8,000 and provides the Tempo with a downtown Toronto home.
The team’s first regular-season home game was played there on May 8, 2026, against the Washington Mystics.
Scotiabank Arena — Toronto
The Tempo also played selected home games at Scotiabank Arena, the major downtown Toronto venue that is home to the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Three Tempo regular-season home games were scheduled there during the inaugural season. Playing at Scotiabank Arena gave the new WNBA franchise an opportunity to appear in one of Canada’s most recognizable sports buildings.
Bell Centre — Montreal
The Tempo took the WNBA to Montreal during its first season, playing two home games at Bell Centre. This was an important part of the organization’s stated goal of building a national Canadian following rather than limiting the franchise’s identity to Toronto.
Rogers Arena — Vancouver
The Tempo also played two home games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
Those games helped establish the idea of the Tempo as Canada’s WNBA team, with regular-season basketball being presented to fans in different parts of the country.
Tempo home arenas in 2026
Arena
City
Role
Coca-Cola Coliseum
Toronto
Primary home
Scotiabank Arena
Toronto
Selected home games
Bell Centre
Montreal
Selected home games
Rogers Arena
Vancouver
Selected home games
The 2026 season therefore established an unusual feature of Tempo history: the franchise’s home schedule was spread across several Canadian cities.
The First Tempo Coach
The first head coach in Toronto Tempo history is Sandy Brondello.
Brondello entered Toronto with an extensive WNBA coaching résumé. Before taking charge of the Tempo, she had coached the San Antonio Silver Stars and New York Liberty and had a highly successful tenure with the New York Liberty
She also coached the Australian national team. Brondello therefore became an important part of the Tempo’s foundation. The organization did not simply hire a coach to get through an expansion season; it placed an experienced WNBA coach at the center of the franchise’s basketball identity.
The Most Outstanding Coach in Early Tempo History
At this early stage of the franchise, Sandy Brondello is the defining coach in Tempo history simply because she is the coach who established the team’s first system, first roster and first WNBA season. Her long WNBA résumé also gives Toronto a coach with experience in building competitive teams and managing established stars. The Tempo’s coaching history is still being written, but Brondello will always have the distinction of being the first head coach in franchise history.
The First Tempo Players
Toronto’s inaugural roster combined established WNBA veterans with rookies and international players. Among the prominent members of the first team were:
Marina Mabrey, Brittney Sykes, Nyara Sabally, Isabelle Harrison, Kia Nurse, Temi Fagbenle
Julie Allemand, Kiki Rice, Laura Juškaitė, Teonni Key María Conde
Canadian fans had a particularly strong connection to Kia Nurse, who returned to Canada as a member of the country’s first WNBA franchise.
The first season produced several important candidates for recognition, but Marina Mabrey emerged as one of the most significant offensive players in the inaugural season.
Mabrey dramatically increased her scoring production after joining Toronto and produced one of the most memorable individual performances in early Tempo history with a 53-point game against the Los Angeles Sparks on June 25, 2026, tying the WNBA single-game scoring record. She also produced multiple games with nine or more three-pointers during the season. Her scoring explosion made Mabrey one of the first players to put a major individual stamp on the Tempo franchise. Kiki Rice also became an important part of the team’s foundation. The rookie guard showed considerable all-around ability and became one of the young players around whom Toronto could build its future.
WNBA Hall of Famers Who Earned Their Hall of Fame Credentials as Tempo Players or Coaches the conclusion of the 2026 season, the answer is none.
The Toronto Tempo are a brand-new franchise, and no player or coach has yet entered the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame or Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame based on accomplishments with Toronto. There are players associated with the Tempo who have significant careers elsewhere, but those players should not be counted as “Tempo Hall of Famers” merely because they played for Toronto. That distinction is important when documenting franchise history.
The Tempo’s Hall of Fame list therefore begins:
Tempo Hall of Famers: None as of 2026.
That will undoubtedly change as the franchise develops.
WNBA Rookie of the Year as a Tempo Player
No Toronto Tempo player had officially won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award as of the end of the 2026 regular season. , the inaugural Tempo rookie class included players such as Kiki Rice, Laura Juškaitė, Teonni Key and María Conde.,
Kiki Rice was one of Toronto’s most notable rookies. Her all-around statistical production placed her among the league’s more productive first-year players, although the official 2026 WNBA Rookie of the Year award had not yet been announced at the conclusion of the regular season. Therefore, the franchise record currently reads:
Tempo WNBA Rookie of the Year winners: None.
WNBA MVP as a Tempo Player
No Toronto Tempo player had won the WNBA Most Valuable Player Award as a member of the Tempo through the end of the 2026 regular season.
That is another category in which the franchise’s history remains completely open.
Toronto’s future MVP history will begin with whichever Tempo player eventually becomes the first to receive the league’s highest individual regular-season honor.
The Connecticut Sun Legacy
The 2026 season also connected the beginning of Tempo history with the end of another important WNBA chapter. The Toronto Tempo played their final regular-season game of 2026 against the Connecticut Sun on September 24, 2026, at Connecticut Sun
That game carried historical significance because 2026 was the Sun’s final season in Connecticut. The franchise is relocating to Houston for the 2027 season.
The Sun franchise began as the Orlando Miracle in 1999 before moving to Connecticut and becoming the Connecticut Sun in 2003. The franchise spent 24 seasons in Connecticut.
For the Tempo, playing Connecticut during its final season provided an unusual historical connection: Canada’s newest WNBA franchise was beginning its story at almost exactly the same time that one of the league’s established franchises was closing its Connecticut chapter.
Sun WNBA Rookie of the Year Winners
Two Connecticut Sun players won WNBA Rookie of the Year while playing for the Sun:
Sun WNBA Rookie of the Year Winners— 2010
Tina Charles won the 2010 WNBA Rookie of the Year award as a member of the Connecticut Sun. Charles went on to become one of the most accomplished players in WNBA history.
Chiney Ogwumike — 2014
Chiney Ogwumike won the 2014 WNBA Rookie of the Year award as a member of the Connecticut Sun. She became another important part of the franchise’s history and joined Charles as one of the Sun’s Rookie of the Year winners.
Sun WNBA MVP Winners
Two players won the WNBA MVP award while members of the Connecticut Sun.
Tina Charles — 2012 MVP
Tina Charles won the 2012 WNBA Most Valuable Player Award as a member of the Connecticut Sun.
This made her one of the central figures in the franchise’s history.
Jonquel Jones — 2021 MVP
Jonquel Jones won the 2021 WNBA Most Valuable Player Award as a member of the Connecticut Sun. Jones became one of the defining stars of the modern Connecticut franchise and spent seven seasons with the organization. her 2021 MVP season remains one of the greatest individual accomplishments in Sun history.
Sun Hall of Fame Distinction
The Sun’s history also demonstrates why franchise history and Hall of Fame history need to be kept separate. For example, Lindsay Whalen is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and played for Connecticut, but her Hall of Fame career was primarily associated with her accomplishments elsewhere, particularly with the Minnesota Lynx and USA Basketball.
Following the same rule requested for this article, she should not be counted as a Hall of Famer who earned that distinction as a Connecticut Sun player. That leaves a distinction between:
Hall of Fame player who played for the Sun: Yes.
Player whose Hall of Fame résumé was earned primarily as a Sun: A different question.
This distinction prevents franchise histories from incorrectly claiming every Hall of Famer who ever wore a team’s uniform.
Outstanding Coaches
If one coach stands above the early Connecticut Sun era, it is Mike Thibault.
Thibault was the first and longest-serving head coach in Connecticut Sun history. During his 10 seasons with the franchise, he compiled a 206–134 regular-season record, took Connecticut to eight playoff appearances and guided the team to two Eastern Conference championships. He also won the WNBA Coach of the Year Award twice, in 2006 and 2008.
His teams featured stars including Nykesha Sales, Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Katie Douglas, Lindsay Whalen and Tina Charles. Thibault therefore occupies a central place in the Sun’s legacy.
The Greatest Sun Players
Several players deserve to be mentioned when discussing the Connecticut Sun’s legacy.
Tina Charles Charles was one of the most important players in franchise history. Her Sun accomplishments included:
2010 WNBA Rookie of the Year
2012 WNBA MVP
Multiple All-WNBA selections
Franchise scoring and rebounding accomplishments Major contributions to Connecticut’s playoff teams
Jonquel Jones
Jones became another defining Sun superstar.
Her accomplishments included:
2021 WNBA MVP
Multiple All-WNBA selections
2017 WNBA Most Improved Player
2018 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year
Major contributions to Connecticut’s championship-contending teams In 2026, the Sun honored Jones as a Sun Legend, including retiring her No. 35 jersey during the franchise’s final Connecticut season.
Alyssa Thomas
Alyssa Thomas became one of the most recognizable players in modern Sun history.
She established franchise records in categories including:
Points
Rebounds
Assists
Steals
Her all-around style of play became a defining characteristic of Connecticut basketball.
From the Sun to the Tempo:
Two Very Different Beginnings
The stories of the Connecticut Sun and Toronto Tempo intersected in 2026.
The Sun entered its final season in Connecticut after more than two decades of history.
The Tempo entered its first. The Sun already had MVPs, Rookie of the Year winners, playoff history, conference championships and generations of important players.
The Tempo had none of those historical accomplishments yet.
Instead, Toronto had something every expansion franchise gets only once:
a first season. Every first game, first basket, first victory, first home crowd, first star and first record became permanent pieces of franchise history.
Building the Tempo Legacy
The most important fact about the Toronto Tempo is that their history is only beginning.
The franchise’s first season established the foundation:
First WNBA team in Canada.
First Canadian WNBA home opener.
First Toronto Tempo roster.
First Tempo head coach — Sandy Brondello.
First Tempo home arena — Coca-Cola Coliseum.
First Canadian WNBA ownership group led by Larry Tanenbaum and Kilmer Sports Ventures.
First season — 2026.
The Tempo also established a national identity by playing selected home games in Montreal and Vancouver in addition to Toronto.
That approach gives the franchise an opportunity to become more than simply Toronto’s WNBA team. It has the potential to represent Canadian women’s basketball from coast to coast.
The First Chapter
The 2026 Toronto Tempo season will eventually be remembered as the beginning.
There was no Tempo Hall of Famer yet.
There was no Tempo MVP yet.
There was no Tempo Rookie of the Year yet.
There was no championship banner.
But there was a first team, a first coach, a first home arena, a first ownership group and a first season.
Those are the pieces from which every great sports franchise eventually builds its legacy.
For Toronto, the story starts in 2026.
The current-source record supports the Tempo’s 2026 debut, ownership structure, arenas, coaching staff and inaugural roster; the WNBA’s historical records confirm Tina Charles and Chiney Ogwumike as Sun Rookie of the Year winners and Tina Charles and Jonquel Jones as Sun MVP winners.
One correction worth noting: the 2026 WNBA Rookie of the Year and MVP awards had not been officially announced as of September 25, 2026, so I did not incorrectly name a Tempo player as a winner. The league had only published its end-of-season award discussions at that point.
Artie Fischal
