TORONTO — The Toronto Tempo are still months away from adding players, but an area where the WNBA expansion team has become formidable with other franchises is at the ownership table.
Following the news two months ago that tennis icon Serena Williams had joined the Tempo’s ownership group, the franchise will announce Tuesday that Lilly Singh, one of Canada’s most well-known entertainers and a breakout YouTube star with more than 14 million subscribers, is the newest ownership member. Singh joins an ownership group that includes technology leader Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, the CEO of small business accounting software company Xero Ltd. and the former president of StubHub. The Tempo’s principal owner is billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of Kilmer Sports Ventures, and a 25 percent owner of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, parent to the Toronto Raptors.
In addition to her role as an owner, the Tempo said Singh will be the team’s Chief Hype Officer, which the club described as “building and amplifying excitement for the Tempo on and off the court, including cultivating the fan community, curating in-game rituals, and celebrating the sport of women’s basketball.”
Singh said the role fits her personality perfectly. “I think if you were to ask any of my friends or family, ‘what is Lilly known for,’ they would say ‘Lilly’s everyone’s biggest hype woman,’” Singh said in an interview last week. “I just love cheering on people, but namely I love cheering women on. I’m an over-the-top person, and I think that’s exactly what you need to be a team hype officer. That means cheering on the team at the games, bringing some of my international friends to the games and talking about the Tempo on and offline. I love basketball and I love Toronto. I’m a Toronto girlie through and through.”
Tempo president Teresa Resch said in an interview that the franchise will continue to add more accomplished women to the ownership table.
“Larry’s been great and supportive of understanding how important it is to have women on the ownership table and to give them an opportunity to have an ownership stake in women’s sports,” Resch said. “We’ve tried to be strategic. Serena is obviously one of the greatest athletes of all time, Sukhinder is an incredible businesswoman who’s gonna be really strategic on how she can help with this team operate. We will have other women join that are strategic in different ways.”
Singh also has an ownership stake in the NWSL’s Angel City FC, and Resch said her name came up in conversations when it came to adding women to the Tempo ownership group.
“We were connected together early in the process, and she was like, ‘I love Toronto, I love women, I love sports.’” Resch said. “When we were working through the ownership process, we would both sign off emails saying this is the greatest combination — women, sports, Toronto. Lilly speaks to so many different people, and we really want the Toronto Tempo to represent all of Canada, to be a place where people can feel welcome and feel part of this energy.”
“Having the Angel City experience definitely played a role in my decision making, although let me just be blunt: Even if I wasn’t in part owner of Angel City, if some approached me and said women’s basketball and Toronto, I would have been like, ‘absolutely, yes,’” Singh said. “But me having some ownership of Angel City was really helpful navigating this entire thing. “
Drake has served as a global ambassador for the Toronto Raptors for more than a decade. When asked if there were parallels with bringing Singh to the Tempo, Resch said what Singh will be doing is different. “It’s a little nuanced, but Drake was a community ambassador for the Raptors and had no share in the team,” she said. “This is really being on the ownership. There is a vested interest here. I think in the same way that when in 2013 Drake was hyping Toronto and hyping the Raptors, there might be some comparison, but Lilly is a unique individual who will help us reach new audiences.”
Away from the Singh announcement, the basketball building continues. Resch said that general manager Monica Wright is targeting the conclusion of the WNBA season to name the Tempo’s first coach. (Expect that announcement to come in October or November.) Resch said Wright will hire an assistant general manager soon, and the team will also hire a basketball operations leader.
“We’ll be keeping a keen eye on the (Golden State) Valkyries for sure, but our strategy might not match theirs,” Resch said. “It might be more aligned with other teams. We are paying very close attention and learning from everyone.”
(Photo: Courtesy of the Tempo)
