Kilmer Sports activities Inc., headed by billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, is anticipated to announce Toronto because the WNBA’s newest growth workforce on Thursday at 9 a.m. ET.
CBC Sports activities solely reported on Could 10 that Toronto could be awarded an growth franchise, set to start play in Could 2026.
Tanenbaum is a minority proprietor and chairman of sporting large Maple Leafs Sports activities and Leisure (MLSE) which owns the Maple Leafs, Raptors, TFC, Argos and Marlies.
The 79-year-old initially pursued the growth workforce via MLSE, however it was turned down by different members of the board.
The WNBA not too long ago expanded to 13 groups with San Francisco-based Golden State to start play subsequent yr, and commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated in April that Toronto was among the many cities being thought-about because the 14th workforce.
A supply instructed CBC Sports activities the workforce would play at Coca-Cola Coliseum, an 8,000-seat enviornment at Toronto’s Exhibition Place which is residence to the Marlies and the place Toronto’s Skilled Ladies’s Hockey League franchise performed its first playoff sequence.
Kilmer Sports activities Inc. is a brand new arm of Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Group, and it has employed former European soccer government Ivan Gazidis to guide the brand new group. Teresa Resch can be a part of the brand new group after leaving her job with the Raptors as vice chairman of basketball operations.
WATCH | How sports activities followers are reacting to potential Toronto WNBA growth workforce:
Ladies’s skilled basketball is coming to Toronto in Could 2026. CBC Sports activities has realized that Kilmer Sports activities Inc., headed by Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, has been granted an growth franchise with the Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation.