This Raptors Championship has undeniably created waves in more ways than one. These waves have turned Toronto into a basketball town and spread the sport across the country of Canada like wildfire. In fact, I can’t enter a TTC bus without seeing a 2019 NBA Champions hat. But most of the effects of these waves won’t be able to be fully felt for years, if not decades, to come. That said we are already starting to see some of its influence come into fruition in a real and impactful way. To avoid belaboring the wave metaphor further this Canadian basketball fever is spreading faster than the number of retweets on a fresh Woj bomb (for those of you with lives that means really really fast). The largest example of this, and the reason for you reading this piece is a Toronto WNBA bid.
A pair of New Media Group employees, Daniel Escott and Max Abrahams, have launched a group called WNBA Toronto which aims to get a Toronto WNBA team for as early as the 2020 season. Yes, next season! This ambitious move is still short on details as the duo of founders still haven’t been able to offer the public much of anything in terms of a structured plan. And while all of this may still seem high in the clouds, WNBA Toronto aims to meet with not only the WNBA when it finalizes its bid but also with multiple ownership groups in the NBA during the NBA Summer League season. Even though this is still very much at the beginning of its process Steven Loung from Sportsnet was quick to compare this campaign to that of the 2008 Atlanta Dream. The Atlanta Dream, much like this theoretical Toronto team, wasn’t associated with its city’s NBA affiliate but were still able to bid the team and see it play its inaugural WNBA season, all within 9 months. So while there’s still a definite possibility that all of this could fizzle out by the time we hear of Kawhi’s free agency decision, it at least, for now, looks like there might be a path for the WNBA to carry yet another torch for sports in Toronto.
For a city that is diverse in people, cultures, and now sports, the addition of a WNBA team would influence an entirely new movement of its own, even separate from that of just basketball. As an organization that prides itself on being the only organization to offer a women’s only competitive league in Toronto, we are also saddened by that fact. We want more women’s basketball, and not just in our own organization. As strong as our community is it needs the support of a city and a country to get it, and women’s sports in general, to the level that we know it can be. To have a women’s only sports team in Toronto would be incredibly inspirational for not just women in sport, but also women in general. How often do women get the opportunity to represent a city, or country, especially in a field that is traditionally so heavily dominated by men? Really, never. When the CBC came to interview our girl's competitive players they spoke out about how the Raptors had been role models for them. Can you imagine what these WNBA players would mean to them if they came to Toronto? While we continuously take time to reflect on how far our women’s programs have come and what we can do to make them grow, we also recognize that sometimes the growth of a sport (like the Raptors championship) requires something bigger than us. Our players need role models, our young women need role models, and this city needs female role models. Hopefully, next summer season we’ll be talking about the WNBA season in the North instead of just free agency. And hopefully, this is just a stepping stone for female athletes in Canada, and worldwide.