Thirty-five days to tipoff: Inside the Toronto Tempo’s mad dash to opening night
TORONTO – From the window-wrapped 68th-floor lounge atop Scotia Plaza, the view is the point. Maybe some people come for the coffee or the halibut with lemon risotto. It’s more likely that meetings take place here so everyone can take a load off, talk quietly and gaze upon the sprawl of the city and Lake Ontario, contemplating vast horizons.
And here comes Monica Wright Rogers, phone pinned to her ear, asking about a photo shoot across town, very much accustomed to looking around and ahead in all directions. She is the first-ever general manager for the Toronto Tempo, the first-ever WNBA franchise in this country. She ends her call, takes a seat and exhales on a Wednesday in late April.
Less than three weeks before this precise moment, her team did not have a single player on its roster. Meanwhile, there was that regular-season game set for May 8. Another first-ever, at home and not budging.
“I told my husband, ‘Can you call my mom? Let her know I’m alive? ’” Wright Rogers says.
The job is simple and boundless: Build a marketable, recognizable and professionally competitive group to represent a nation of 41 million people. In a whole 35 days. The Tempo are not alone on this log flume ride of WNBA expansion in 2026.
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