Talk to any member of the Toronto Tempo organization – even the billionaire owner of the team — and they’ll sing in unison that competing for a playoff spot this season is the organizational aspiration.
You can see it in how the basketball operations department approached the WNBA expansion draft and free agency. Yes, the Tempo are an expansion team but the Golden State Valkyries and the Vegas Golden Knights, both playoff-bound in Year 1, proved that age is just a number. So, why not the Tempo?
Here’s the thing, though: Aspiration is great but it doesn’t set hard screens, provide rim protection or help you when you have multiple post players out with injuries.
Sandy Brondello knows this very well. The head coach of the Toronto Tempo has led two different franchises (Phoenix and New York) to WNBA titles, one of only two coaches to pull off that coaching magic trick.
It was a coup that Toronto landed a Hall of Famer-to-be coach on the sideline, and sure, owner Larry Tanenbaum’s checkbook helped with the sell. But Brondello had to believe in the vision – and she does.
It’s been interesting to talk with the affable Brondello since she accepted the Tempo job last November. She’s consistently walked the line between publicly demanding excellence from her team and acknowledging the reality that they are a first-year franchise in a very competitive league.
“You have to be realistic — we’re an expansion team,” Brondello said earlier this month. “We’re realistic about our expectations with what we are. We know it’s going to take a little bit of time. I’ve said that we have to have grace along this journey because it’s not always going to look how we want it.
“These are smart basketball players, they’re competitive, they want to win, and we’re going to go out and do our best every single day. But this is a journey, not a sprint. This year we want to be the best team we can be, hopefully pushing for that playoff, and then from there what do we need to get to that next level.”
Realism has front-row seat
Realism had a front-row seat on Saturday night at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto as women’s basketball fans in Canada were offered something unique — an opportunity to compare the Tempo with the league’s other 2026 expansion team, the Portland Fire.
Here’s the verdict: Both teams looked like expansion teams.
The game was tied after the first quarter and at the half but the second half was all Portland. Toronto was consistently late on Portland’s shooters and point guard Carla Leite, the third pick in the expansion draft, put on a pick-and-roll clinic with her frontcourt players.
The crowd showed up — a sellout at 8,210 — but the Tempo’s long-distance shooting did not. They were 6 of 25 from 3-point range and the Fire won easily, a 99-80 victory. The Tempo are now 3-4; the Fire are 3-3.
“I think it’s natural to make comparisons because we joined as expansion teams in the same year,” said Fire coach Alex Sarama. “But we really want to see them succeed. It’s awesome for Canadian basketball.”
While their records are similar at the moment, the Fire approached building a roster with a longer timeline in mind than the Tempo. Portland has only one player on a max-deal contract (Canadian forward Bridget Carleton, who hails from Chatham-Kent, Ont.) where Tempo guards Marina Mabrey and Brittney Sykes became the first million-dollar backcourt pairing under the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement.
Toronto drafted guard Kiki Rice with the No. 6 overall pick in the WNBA draft and she has already started four of the team’s seven games. Portland’s top draft pick, Spanish guard Iyana Martin, was selected one pick after Rice and opted not to come to Portland for the 2026 WNBA season.
“We went about expansion two different ways, which is great,” said Sarama, a former assistant for the Cleveland Cavaliers. “They picked some really great established players and we went a little bit younger, thinking more about how can we be at our best by year two or three and having a ton of young players with multi-year contracts who could develop into something special.
“People make comparisons with us and the Tempo to the Valkyries and that’s the comparison I probably disagree with more because I think it’s such a different context. The league has gotten a lot better and going through the expansion draft last year prompted big differences with the strategies the teams used to protect players. Plus, we have a brand new CBA.”
Portland Fire beat Toronto Tempo 99-80. Bridget Carleton of Chatham, Ont., finishes with 15 points.
Dramatic differences
The business side will produce dramatic differences: Tempo management said they expect to rank near the top of the league in sponsorship dollars given they have Canada as an entire marketplace. The Fire will easily be ahead of them in ticket sales because they play in the massive Moda Center, a 20,000-seat arena.
While the Tempo have seven games in similar-sized arenas between three games at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, two games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver and two games at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Coca-Cola Coliseum (home to 15 games) has a capacity just a shade over 8,000 seats.
If you want similarities, both Toronto and Portland have shown an affinity for women’s sports. The NWSL’s Portland Thorns led the league in attendance in 2025 with an average of 18,173 fans per game.
Per the Toronto Sun’s Mike Ganter, the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres have drawn an average of 7,492 fans to its 39 home games (all arenas) since the PWHL began — the No. 2 attendance in the league during that time behind only Montreal. Where Portland has a more counterculture vibe than cosmopolitan Toronto, each city usually leaves most out-of-town visitors feeling the same way — that city is cool.
“It’s been incredible being in Portland so far,” said Carleton, who finished with 15 points. “I’ve mentioned this before doing media. On my second day in the city, even before playing any games or even practising, there were people on the street who knew who I was.”
That a Canadian stood out in the game maybe softened the blow a little for the home crowd. About 30 minutes after the buzzer, Brondello acknowledged once again this process is a journey and not a sprint.
“I just think we got away from our identity tonight,” she said
“Our defence is very average at the moment and we’ve got to find solutions for that. We’re not moving the ball in terms of creating space and trusting each other. But, you know, we’ll get there. We’re facing some adversity and sometimes you just need to get slapped in the face to make some changes and be better.”
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