Women's Fastbreak On SI

Fans Suspect WNBA Spoiled Toronto Expansion Franchise Team Name

The WNBA might have accidentally leaked the name of the Toronto expansion franchise that's arriving in 2026.

Grant Young

Sep 7, 2018; Seattle, WA, USA; The WNBA logo on a ball during the fourth quarter of game one of the WNBA finals between the Seattle Storm and the Washington Mystics at KeyArena. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Buchanan-Imagn Images
Sep 7, 2018; Seattle, WA, USA; The WNBA logo on a ball during the fourth quarter of game one of the WNBA finals between the Seattle Storm and the Washington Mystics at KeyArena. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Buchanan-Imagn Images / Jennifer Buchanan-Imagn Images

Many within the women's basketball community have their alarms set for 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday, December 6, as that marks the Golden State Valkyries WNBA Expansion Draft.

While news of this 13th franchise has been out for over a year, this is the first week where Golden State's arrival feels imminent, and it has the entire sport of women's basketball optimistic about where the WNBA is heading.

Adding to that excitement is the fact that more expansion franchises are on the way, as we know that both Portland and Toronto will receive expansion teams in 2026, which means the league will soon have 15 teams.

Toronto's expansion franchise is top of mind right now after fans on social media are convinced the WNBA inadvertently leaked their team name on Tuesday evening.

X user @nosyone4 posted a screenshot of a drop-down 'Teams' sortable option within the 'Players' section on the WNBA website. In other words, this drop-down allowed users to search players based on the team they play for, as all 13 current WNBA franchises are listed.

However, there was a 14th team listed: the Toronto Tempo.

Granted, there's a chance 'Tempo' could stand for Temporary (as in a temporary name). But social media believes this is Toronto's true team name that has just been leaked.

"Just tried on the W website and saw the same dropdown seemingly tipping off that Toronto's expansion team will be called the Tempo. Lots of thoughts, but just gonna start and say... that team had better play with pace," wrote Winsidr's Myles Ehrlich.

Another X user added, "Tempo better mean temporary."

Toronto-based sports writer Chelsea Leite wrote, "So… the WNBA news going around was supposed to be announced at a later date. Def an error on the league’s end. This wasn’t the original plan".

It will be fascinating to see what the WNBA has to say about this seeming blunder in the coming days.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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