The WNBA will be holding a pre-season game in Canada next season, commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced.
This would be the first game played outside of the United States since 2011 when the Atlanta Dream played the Standard Life Great Britain Women's basketball team in Manchester. It was just the second time the league held a game outside of the USA.
Engelbert told Chantel Jennings and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic back in June that the league hopes to identify one or two cities for an expansion franchise that would start playing as early as 2024. The Dream were the last expansion team in the WNBA back in 2008.
The Athletic lists Toronto as one of six cities likely on a short list -- the others are Nashville, Oakland, Philadelphia, Portland and San Francisco.
The Toronto portion of the Athletic's reporting focuses on New Media Sports & Entertainment Group, a Toronto group that pursued a franchise in 2019, while also mentioning that MLSE has done due diligence on an expansion possibility.
The story says one issue for Toronto could be transportation because teams can only fly commercially under the current CBA -- and travel delays already are popping up without crossing the border.
