Longtime Prince Albert basketball coach Adie Schenk says she's thrilled to see the WNBA come to Canada. She attended one of the league's preseason games with her daughter in Edmonton on May 4 (pictured postgame). (Adie Schenk/submitted)

By Logan Lehmann

Growing sport

Local basketball figure thrilled to see WNBA expand north of the border

May 24, 2024 | 3:11 PM

With the news of a professional women’s basketball team coming to Canada, many basketball fans are excited to see the new club in action.

During a press conference on Thursday morning, it was announced that the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) awarded the league’s first team outside of the United States to Toronto, with many dignitaries on hand for the historic event including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, rapper Drake, Raptors star Scottie Barnes and former Raptors great Kyle Lowry among others.

In Prince Albert, the news is welcomed by long-time coach Adie Schenk who said it’s exciting to see women’s basketball continue to grow in Saskatchewan and the country.

“To see women’s sport in general and specifically basketball on the rise is absolutely amazing,” she said. “We’ve seen a lot of women’s basketball on the rise particularly in our province with our Huskies women’s team at the U of S. They’ve had a ton of success under coach Lisa Thomaidis and being from Prince Albert, we’ve had three of our Carlton students go on to play there with Gage Grassick, Dalyce Emmerson, and Erica Gavel having success with the Huskies. To see women’s basketball continue to soar and now Canada get their own team is incredible.”

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Although they don’t have an identity quite yet, Toronto’s WNBA team will begin play in May 2026 and will be the league’s 14th franchise.

Schenk said that with the new team and spotlight on women’s basketball in Canada, she expects to see more girls across the country and province take to the hardwood in the coming years.

“We know that representation matters so when people see themselves represented, they say ‘Hey I can do this as well’,” she said. “It’s great to see all of this happening and it’s going to bring more and more young females to the game which is what we want.”

The new team will mainly play out of the Coca-Cola Coliseum and can move up to the Scotiabank Arena on occasion. The 103-year-old arena is also home to the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies and hosted the first Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) Toronto team during its first-ever playoff run this past season.

“We’re excited to expand outside the United States and this is our first as we continue to work to bring in new audiences, new fans,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert during Thursday’s announcement. “It creates new opportunities for players.”

“The depth of talent in this league is amazing and so to be able to offer a deeper pool of talent with a team here in Canada is great.”

Canada has hosted sold-out WNBA pre-season games at Scotiabank Arena in 2023 and Edmonton’s Rogers Place earlier this month on May 4.

-with files from The Canadian Press.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com