A Toronto Tempo training facility will be built at Exhibition Place
Through a lease agreement with the city, at least 2,200 hours will be reserved for community use each year
We’re now just weeks out from the Toronto Tempo’s inaugural WNBA season. The team announced earlier this week that Hamilton legend Kia Nurse has signed on, and today, there’s more good news.
At the Tempo’s home arena, Coca-Cola Coliseum, it was announced that the team will get its own “high-performance training facility and community recreation hub” nearby, outside the Princes’ Gates at Exhibition Place. Mayor Olivia Chow, deputy mayor Ausma Malik, Tempo president Teresa Resch and majority owner Larry Tanenbaum were in attendance.
According to a press release, it will be North America’s first WNBA facility that includes community access and programming. The release said it will include two full-sized indoor basketball courts, outdoor basketball courts, a new park and public washrooms.
Through a lease agreement with the city, at least 2,200 hours will be reserved for community programming each year.
“We’re partnering with the Toronto Tempo to turn an under-used site into a world-class facility that serves both professional athletes and the public,” Mayor Olivia Chow said in the statement. “With year-round access to recreation, new park space and inclusive programming, this project delivers real benefits for residents while strengthening Toronto’s leadership in women’s sport.”
Pending approval from city council, construction could begin this fall.
Related: WNBA players are getting a huge raise, and it’s great news for the Toronto Tempo
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
