It will all come down to dollars and sense \u2014 of both collaboration and leadership.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Brock University experts say will be needed for women\u2019s professional basketball to find success after tipping off in Toronto in 2026.<\/p>\n
As news whirls of an expansion franchise of the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WNBA) heading to Canada, professors in Brock\u2019s Department of Sport Management suggest there are a few critical steps that should be taken to ensure the team finds a permanent home court.<\/p>\n
Michele Donnelly, Assistant Professor of Sport Management, says a willingness to invest resources in the long term will be crucial to the success of Toronto\u2019s WNBA expansion team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that fans want to be able to buy a jersey with their favourite player\u2019s name on the back, attend games in modern sport venues and follow their teams on various media platforms,\u201d she says. \u201cMaking these things available to as many fans as possible will help Toronto\u2019s WNBA team be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are signs that fan interest is growing.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Attendance at the WNBA pre-season game in Toronto in May 2023 clearly demonstrated an interest in, and excitement about, women\u2019s basketball,\u201d Donnelly says. \u201cIt is about time Canada has a WNBA team, and it is good to see that Kilmer Sports Inc. has pursued the franchise after Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) denied support for a Toronto team.\u201d<\/p>\n The groundswell of support extends well beyond basketball, with more people recognizing how \u201cexciting, entertaining and impressive\u201d women\u2019s sport is, Donnelly says.<\/p>\n \u201cAudiences around the world have increasingly been given the opportunity to learn this, largely due to the efforts of women athletes and existing women\u2019s sport fans,\u201d she says. \u201cWomen athletes have done an incredible amount of work to promote themselves and their sports using social media and other non-traditional media platforms. Their successes are being recognized, and more mainstream media outlets and corporations are interested in the audiences those athletes have cultivated. From a business perspective, professional women\u2019s sport is now viewed as a more profitable option for broadcasters and sponsors.\u201d<\/p>\n Shannon Kerwin, Associate Professor of Sport Management, says the WNBA has created a collaborative culture that must be maintained as an expansion moves forward.<\/p>\n \u201cEnsuring that the values of the WNBA \u2014 and less so the values attached to the other sport franchises in Toronto \u2014 are held constant with the new franchise will be key to its success,\u201d she says. \u00a0\u201cWe know that the movement towards embracing women\u2019s sport is fierce and staying true to the values that have grown the professional women\u2019s game in North America will be paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n The new WNBA team will need to navigate its place in a large sport market, but there is room to leverage connections with the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League (PWHL) and professional women\u2019s soccer league already built within Toronto, Kerwin says.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing mindful of the ground that has been laid for women\u2019s sport in Toronto by leagues, sponsors, organizations and the sport research community will be important for overcoming any barriers that may be faced,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Taylor McKee, Assistant Professor of Sport Management, calls the arrival of the WNBA to Toronto a \u201cwatershed moment for professional sport in Canada\u201d that is \u201clong overdue\u201d given the high-quality basketball talent the country has produced in recent decades.<\/p>\n In last year\u2019s NCAA tournament, Canada had 22 women competing, along with four active Canadian WNBA players this season.<\/p>\n McKee says MLSE may have missed the mark by turning down the franchise expansion opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cCountless metrics\u00a0<\/a>have demonstrated the immense growth in women\u2019s sport in North America. Closer to home, the seeming initial success of PWHL Toronto would appear to have given MLSE enough proof of concept to support the pursuit of a franchise,\u201d he says. \u201cHowever, ultimately putting forward the capital to bring a WNBA team to Toronto is not an endeavour free of risk. It is decidedly possible that MLSE\u2019s decision will look short-sighted if the WNBA franchise enjoys the type of success that\u00a0many anticipate<\/a>\u00a0is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The team will benefit from the leadership of Larry Tanenbaum, the Toronto billionaire who heads Kilmer Sports Inc., McKee says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat it was Tanenbaum who successfully brought a WNBA franchise to Toronto is crucial given the importance of stable, committed and well-heeled ownership and Tanenbaum\u2019s previous track record,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It will all come down to dollars and sense \u2014 of both collaboration and leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,1],"tags":[4753,8463,4210,57,10657],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92816,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92814\/revisions\/92816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}