Former Toronto Raptors vice president of basketball operations and player development Teresa Resch is set to help lead a new WNBA franchise out of Toronto, per CBC Sports’ Shireen. With Raptors minority owner and billionaire Larry Tanenbaum bidding for the proposed expansion franchise, “an announcement could come as soon as May.”
Teresa Resch Set to Help Lead WNBA Expansion Franchise
There’s no clarity on exactly what role Teresa Resch will have with the proposed WNBA expansion franchise. However, she stepped down from her role with the Raptors last Friday. According to the Toronto Star’s Doug Smith, Resch made the decision in order “to seek other professional opportunities.” She had been with the franchise since 2023.
WNBA Expansion Expected by 2025
Like the NBA, the WNBA has long been discussing expansion. A move that not only would allow the league to grow but interest in it, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has already shortlisted a handful of potential host cities.
Chief among them was the Bay Area. In October, the WNBA awarded its 13th franchise to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. It is the W’s first expansion team since 2008. The move also made Golden State the sixth NBA franchise with a WNBA team.
The Bay Area is home to one of the most successful franchises in the Warriors, signifying the area’s potential interest in and support of a professional women’s basketball team.
Engelbert has also lamented the fact there’s no WNBA team in the Bay Area, despite the success of the Stanford Cardinals women’s basketball team. To that point, bringing a new team to the Bay allows them to right one of the wrongs of WNBA history: the dissolution of the Sacramento Monarchs. One of the W’s original teams, the Monarchs’ fate was out of anyone’s control, as they were victimized by the Global Economic Crisis.
Toronto Enters the Chat
Toronto also figured to be quite high on the list of preferred host cities.
Like the Bay Area, the location has a popular NBA franchise in the Toronto Raptors. However, there’s never been a WNBA team in the Toronto area. In fact, the W has never had a franchise team in any of Canada’s 10 provinces.
That Toronto is even in position to make the bid may be a stroke of luck though. Last fall, the W deferred Portland’s bid for a WNBA franchise due to potential arena renovations. Nothing was set in stone. Nonetheless, Portland “was believed to be well on its way to joining Golden State as an expansion franchise,” per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou.
Months later, Toronto appears poised to become the 14th franchise that Engelbert envisioned joining the WNBA by 2025.
