Rising interest, reserves of talent open door to women’s pro basketball in Canada
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Kayla Alexander’s professional basketball career has taken her across the world — just not to Canada.
Future generations may not have that issue.
As professional Canadian women’s soccer and hockey leagues appear poised to start up over the next few years, the foundations are being laid for the same in basketball.
Meanwhile, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has mentioned Toronto as a possible expansion city. The league which began play in 1996 is hosting its first game in Canada on Saturday, an exhibition between the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.
Alexander, who spent eight years in the WNBA while also playing overseas in Russia, France, Poland and elsewhere, says there’s room for both Canada’s own league and a WNBA team.
“Because I’m a dreamer, I’m always like, why do I have to choose?” Alexander, of Milton, Ont., told CBC Sports. “Why can’t I do both? Why can’t we find a way to make both a possibility for young girls?”
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The native of Mississauga, Ontario, played her college ball at South Carolina and is a member of the Canadian national team.
Maritime league learning the ropes
The six-team Maritime Women’s Basketball League recently began its second season. Commissioner Tasia McKenna said the league currently covers player expenses, but she hopes to pay salaries at some point — or become part of a broader organization that does.
“There’s a lot of financial logistics that come into play. And I think part of it, the biggest thing for us, is to ensure that, if and when we go in that direction, it can be sustainable over time,” McKenna said.
McKenna said two major lessons emerged from the league’s inaugural season: volunteers can’t be overworked, and fans are worth the investment. In other words, an upfront financial commitment is required to get a league off the ground.
McKenna works as a program manager promoting gender equity among provincial and municipal sport organizations for Canadian Women and Sport, which produced the report.
“There’s a lot of money out there floating around, but how could we make sure that we can have multiple types of leagues?” she said. “You look at the European setup of professional sports and there’s different tiers. And so that’s something that I’m really interested to see what it looks like.”
Fit alongside WNBA
Enter Fabienne Blizzard. The Ottawa native is working behind the scenes toward a larger Canadian women’s basketball league in the vein of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association’s reportedly incoming league and Project 8’s plan to launch a soccer league in 2025.
While it would be concurrent with the WNBA season, perhaps it could serve as a feeder league featuring game-ready players within close proximity.
“I think that’s why it’s nice to see [the] WNBA come here where it kind of opens the door to say ‘OK, the rest of these amazing Canadian players could be playing on Canadian soil as well,’” Blizzard told CBC Sports.
WNBA regular seasons currently consist of 20 home games per team, which may go up if more franchises are added. And interest in Toronto was evident when tickets to Saturday’s game sold out the same day they became available. Resale prices are now as high as $300.
Blizzard was initially optimistic about launching her league this summer. Her timeline has now moved back to 2025, since the Paris Olympics would cut a big chunk from next season.
“I thought we had an investor that was ready but there’s a lot more red tape that’s required in those areas. Everything looks so promising right now, and as quick as I would want it, it requires a lot more signatures in terms of the financial portion of it because everything else can be set in place pretty quickly,” Blizzard said.
She compared her idea for a league to a women’s Canadian Elite Basketball League or G League (the NBA’s developmental league which houses Raptors 905). There are only 144 players in the WNBA — a number that former Canadian women’s team head coach Lisa Thomaidis called “ridiculously low.”
‘Why can’t I be the change that I want to see?’
Keesa Koomalsingh founded Hoop Queens, which touts itself as Toronto’s first paid women’s basketball league, after a conversation with friends about the lack of opportunities for players coming from the U Sports system at home.
For the upcoming season, which begins in June, players will be paid $250 per game — up from $200 last year. The money comes through sponsorship deals from the likes of Nike and RBC Training Ground, as well as community funding.
“I actually truly believe it starts with the corporations and it also starts with the community. So it’s a little bit of a bridge, and bridging that gap,” she said.
Ultimately, though, Koomalsingh hopes to turn Hoop Queens into an ecosystem that supports women at all levels of basketball, and she too views the G League as aspirational. Her personal goal is to become commissioner of that league.
“We’re at the point of who’s going to be investing and who’s going to be showcasing it and covering it and things like that,” she said. “We’re past the point of, ‘Is there enough people that are going to support this?’”
Even with WNBA expansion a possibility into Canada and elsewhere, there would be more than enough basketball talent to spill into leagues such as Hoop Queens.
“I think it’s the next logical step,” Thomaidis said. “It’s just such a different animal when you’re competing against those countries that have that and then for us that don’t, we’re basically treating the NCAA as that league. … But once they hit 23, where are they going?”
Alexander, who played at the Tokyo Olympics, and Thomaidis both noted how a domestic league would help the national team, which is currently ranked fifth in the world but hasn’t won a major tournament medal since 1986.
“I think it’s a great way for us to continue to build that chemistry, playing with each other instead of just playing for small pockets throughout the year where we have those training camp sessions,” Alexander said.
Timelines uncertain
There are currently four Canadians under contract in the WNBA. The rest make a living overseas, as Alexander does now. She said she’d be interested in joining the type of league Blizzard is proposing.
“If you’re feeling healthy, it’s another possible way to continue to work on your game, stay at home. I don’t see why not. I mean, I would love to,” she said.
Blizzard said she’s also spoken with other players who have expressed interest.
For now, though, it all remains theoretical. The timelines, despite Blizzard’s optimism, remain in flux.
“I’m hoping it’s sooner than later. I mean, I’m getting towards the tail end of my career,” Alexander said. “But even if I don’t get to experience it, I’m hoping that the next gen coming up gets to experience it.”
McKenna said her hope was for a league to pop up within five years, while Koomalsingh said she was aiming for national growth next year.
Meanwhile, there’s no timeline for WNBA expansion, though it seems inevitable with rising interest coupled with reserves of talent. The Athletic reported last June that expansion could come as soon as the 2024 season, though that seems less likely now just one year away.
Thomaidis said a WNBA and domestic league are both “necessary and warranted.”
“You read so many things now about how women’s sports is exploding — jump on the train or you’re going to get left behind kind of thing,” she said.
“I think this is the time. I think we’ve got to jump on the train.”
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