WNBA’s Tempo to have practice facility built at Exhibition Place, set to open in 2028

The Tempo Performance Centre is scheduled for completion by the start of the 2028 season. It will consist of two WNBA regulation courts, sports medicine, sports performance, and recovery areas, player lounges, locker rooms, a theatre for film study and business offices.

It will be funded by the Tempo alone, with the property — an “underused” parking lot — leased to the team by the city. The facility, which will also include outdoor courts and a mini soccer pitch, will be open to public use — with 2,200 hours of programming per year — during the WNBA off-season and when the team is out of town.

Resch said the facility was used as part of the team’s pitch to free agents.

“This is something that players expect in all their markets and all the teams in the WNBA, and they should,” she said. “So we definitely told them — it wasn’t public, obviously, until today — but we had made enough progress that we were telling them about the vision for this and what it would look like.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said the plan will be sent to city council by the end of the month for approval, with construction to commence shortly after.

“I think city council will be fully on board,” Chow said. “I was involved in the last negotiation because I want to make sure that because it’s city land that the public, the Torontonians have access to it. So I have been involved and I know the terms and all of that in pretty great detail.”

Paul Farish, director of parks planning and strategic initiatives for the City of Toronto, said there was a different plan for the property, but this plan sped up the process.

“It had been intended to become a park in time, this project, as a partnership with Tempo accelerates that and advances the park in the next few years as opposed to 10 years out as planned as a city project,” he said.

The Tempo are one of two expansion teams set to join the WNBA this season, alongside the Portland Fire. Toronto will make its debut on May 8 against the visiting Washington Mystics.

Kilmer Sports Ventures, led by Toronto-based billionaire Larry Tanenbaum, paid US$50 million to bring the expansion franchise north of the border. It’s the first time the WNBA will have a team outside of the United States.

“When we set out to bring the Tempo into existence, to bring Canada its first WNBA team, we made a promise not just to build a team, but to build something lasting, something that would stand as proof,” he said. “That it serves as an investment and infrastructure, and a home worthy of the athletes that give everything to compete at the highest level.

“Today, that promise takes shape. The Tempo Performance Centre will be one of the finest athlete training facilities in the world.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2026.

Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

WNBA’s Tempo to have practice facility built at Exhibition Place, set to open in 2028

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