Fans Suspect WNBA Spoiled Toronto Expansion Franchise Team Name

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.