Toronto Tempo president wants WNBA expansion team to bring joy to Canada like Blue Jays

Teresa Resch is not a hardcore baseball fan, but she admits she was transfixed by the Toronto Blue Jays’ run to the World Series. As president of the Toronto Tempo, one of two new WNBA franchises along with the Portland Fire that will begin play next spring, Resch watched with amazement as Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer and Co., provided one of the greatest communal experiences in recent Canadian history. In a country of just 41 million, Game 7 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Blue Jays averaged 10.9 million Canadian viewers, the most-watched non-Olympics telecast on record in Canada. (Only the 2010 Vancouver Games drew higher viewership.) That shared adventure gave Resch even more belief that her franchise also has the potential to bring Canadians together.

“Wasn’t that so joyful?” Resch said. “It was sad that we lost, but there was so much joy throughout the entire playoff run. I grew up a big Twins fan, growing up in Minnesota, but I really connected to the Blue Jays. I was all-in. I thought about how this can be Tempo. The Tempo can be the same type of nation-building event that the Jays were going to the World Series. I remember (infielder) Ernie Clement was being interviewed, and he was asked, “What makes the Blue Jays special? He’s like, ‘We’re all friends.’ I took that clip and sent it to everybody in our organization. I was like, friendship equals championships. That team really resonated with a lot of people, the joy they felt amongst each other. I could feel it as a fan. I didn’t even know all of their names (of the players) until September, but it gave me hope that this is a role the Tempo can also play for this country.”

In an interview last week, Resch offered an update about the Tempo franchise roughly six months away from playing games (assuming the WNBA CBA negotiations are concluded by then, and that is no guarantee). Resch said the Tempo have 32 employees now, and by opening tip, she predicts the team will have 55. One of those employees is Sandy Brondello, who last month was officially named Toronto’s head coach.

“When (general manager Monica Rogers) and I were talking about who we were targeting and what the profile of the coach of the Tempo was going to be, the thing that stood out were: No. 1 a good person, somebody that is going to be authentic, genuine, and that you wanted to work with,” Resch said. “Then 1A was somebody who was really well established and experienced, specifically in the WNBA. (Brondello’s) profile fit exactly what we’re looking for. But then you get a chance to talk to her, meet with her, hear her share her priorities, how she operates, and it was a grand slam. It confirmed all the things that you thought about her ahead of time.”

Here are some highlights from my conversation with Resch. You can listen to the full conversation here.

How will the Tempo approach the expansion draft?

“I’m not going to give out state secrets, but Monica has a great strategy team. That’s something that we invested in, our people, to help shape our strategy. There’s so many different variables that can impact the expansion draft — the status of the league, protections, who’s available, and what the crop looks like in free agency and the college draft. I would say that any strategy surrounding the expansion draft is rooted in the current status. I don’t think that you can say this team used this strategy prior, so let’s replicate it 100 percent. There’s things that you can pull from previous new WNBA teams as well as expansion drafts in other leagues. But ultimately, you have to kind of create your own strategy. The fact that the Portland Fire are coming in the same year as us adds another wrinkle. We’re excited about getting players. We want to make sure that people understand an expansion draft is just that — it’s a draft and it’s expansion. It’s not your final roster. Depending on the strategy, some of those players might be taken to hold rights. They might be taken because we know there’s another team that really wants a player we have access to, so we can then enter into a trade for someone else. There’s a lot of different things that can happen, so you have to be really flexible.”

Will the success of the Golden State Valkyries have an impact on how the Tempo builds its roster?

“It’s one more piece of incredible data to help us make great decisions. To be able to see their strategy play out and how it actually came to fruition is a great piece of data that’s gonna help us create our strategy.  Whether it was the Valkyries this year or Atlanta in 2008, all those different points of data will help us define what our strategy is.”

How will the college draft order be determined between the Tempo and Fire?

“I heard a coin flip, but we haven’t gotten any definitive word.”

On getting a permanent practice facility

“We are really excited to be able to bring that to life. We are working very closely with different partners to make sure that we’re securing the site, securing design plans, and all those things that need to cross the finish line before it becomes real. We’re excited to bring something to life that we think will really serve our population of elite women professional athletes. We look forward to saying more when the timing is right. This was always part of the plan and something we talked about when we were awarded the team. It’s something that will be coming to fruition. We’ll be using the University of Toronto for the interim. That’s where we will be spending our first season.”

What makes Brondello the right fit?

“She’s one of the winningest coaches in WNBA history. If you’re not trying to at least have a conversation or woo her, you’re missing the point. As soon as she became available, we knew that anybody else looking for a head coach was probably gonna be interested. We knew we would have competition. Monica and I talked about making sure that we were authentic to who we are and authentic to the opportunity here. It’s not for everyone. We’re a startup. It’s an expansion team who does not have anybody under contract. It’s a very different position than other teams that she was considering. We had confidence that if she was telling us what she truly felt about her priorities, we were gonna be a great fit for her. It turns out that she wasn’t lying, and all those things that she said she was prioritizing in her decision-making are what led her here.”

Will single-game tickets be available during the season?

“For our first season, we have two goals: Number one, sell out every single game. Number two, have as many unique visitors over the season as possible. In order to achieve that, you have to have different ways that people can enter. We have our season seat holders, but we also hope that they bring friends to experience a Tempo game. Once we have the season seat holders all secured, then we’ll go back into the marketplace and do group sales, half packs, different products that will be toward our second goal of exposure, which is as many unique visitors as possible. We’re also gonna have some games that are not held at Coca-Cola Coliseum. We’ve already announced games in Montreal and Vancouver, so we’ll have two games in each of those markets. We also look to have games at Scotiabank Arena (home of the NBA Raptors and NHL Maple Leafs) during the season. Those will provide a great entry point for people who maybe are just looking to come to one game or maybe that one weekend is the only one that works for them.”

On getting a local broadcast deal

No updates to share. But we’re really excited that for the first time in history, there will be one. In the past, Canada has never had a broadcast deal with the WNBA. It’s always just been a pass-through of NBA rights holders. So we’re really excited that we’re gonna have an actual deal within Canada that’s going to bring so many more WNBA games to so many fans across this country from coast to coast. Stay tuned for that.

On coming up with a mascot

“We encouraged our fans to complete our Mascot Aura audit, which will inform our mascot. What is the game presentation? What is the aura of the mascot? What is the vibe? What sets (New York Liberty mascot) Ellie apart is, I don’t know what else to call it, but it’s her aura. What she brings every day, her personality, how she dresses, how she acts, the different things that are happening around her for every game day. That’s what we wanted the fans to help us shape. We actually brought in some kids ages 5 to 9 to get their thoughts on it, which was really fun. We look forward to taking all that information and helping us shape the true personality of our mascot.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Toronto Tempo, WNBA

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