New breed of expansion teams in Toronto and Portland to challenge the Sky in 2026

The Sky will face two new opponents this season: the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo. So how seriously should they take the newcomers?

Traditionally, expansion teams were the league’s punching bags, a rite of passage the Sky know well. In their 2006 debut, they won just five games. Six losing seasons followed before they reached the playoffs.

It’s not just the Sky — building a roster from scratch isn’t easy. You draft players from other teams’ benches. You don’t get a lottery pick in the college draft.

In many ways, expansion teams are built to suffer.

Then the Golden State Valkyries shattered that expectation.

They became the winningest expansion team in league history last season, making the playoffs and sweeping the Sky 3-0.

They had everything going for them. Deep-pocketed ownership. A one-of-a-kind fan atmosphere. A roster built from international gems and an elite coach.

The looming question for the Sky is whether the Valkyries are the start of a new trend. Because the league is going to keep expanding: three more teams will join starting in 2028.

Brondello is the Tempo’s ace

The Tempo might have the best shot at replicating the Valkyries’ blueprint. They have an ace in head coach Sandy Brondello, a two-time champion with strong relationships across the league’s superstar ranks. The Tempo smartly made her one of only a handful of coaches earning more than $1 million.

The Tempo front office also signaled they’re on top of the latest trend: building rosters around data, analytics and high-level scouting. General manager Monica Wright Rogers and assistant general manager Eli Horowitz bring experience with this from the Mercury and Sparks, respectively.

They’ll also have a nation cheering them on. The Tempo sold out season tickets in Toronto and will play games in Montreal and Vancouver, establishing themselves as Canada’s team.

Fire are poaching from the best

Portland’s path looks more experimental. Their coach, 30-year-old Alex Sarama, was an NBA assistant and lacks Brondello’s league relationships and institutional knowledge.

But the organization has been poaching from the right places. Before joining the Fire, general manager Vanja Černivec helped build the Valkyries roster. Her ambition is to build the best analytics department in the league, and she already plucked an analyst from the 2024 champion Liberty.

The Fire may have an edge over the Tempo in facilities. They’ll play in the Moda Center, an arena roughly twice the size of the Tempo’s, and will practice in a brand-new facility. The Tempo will practice at the University of Toronto this season.

Sky on track?

While the Fire and Tempo have plenty to prove, they’re clearly a different breed of expansion team than the Sky were. Twenty years ago, Sky investors saw the team more as a civic and social justice project than a major commercial venture. Now, they must figure out how to compete with expansion groups that can commit more than $100 million as an opening gambit.

The Sky’s new practice facility in Bedford Park is part of their attempt to keep pace. The team says the project cost has risen to $60 million, though Bedford Park is covering roughly half.

This season should also reveal the Sky’s progress in the two other key areas: coaching and international scouting. Tyler Marsh enters his second season as head coach, and general manager Jeff Pagliocca’s first international prospect, Ajša Sivka, is expected to join the roster.

Where the Sky have not yet made moves is the basketball strategy department. While the Tempo and Fire have both prioritized dedicated hires in analytics and scouting, the Sky front office remains lean. They lack support roles such as an assistant GM or data analysts, leaving the bulk of the strategic lift to the coaching staff.

If Toronto or Portland prove that the Valkyries were no fluke, the Sky may need to rethink its intellectual infrastructure.