Toronto’s new WNBA team making progress on getting a name

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Toronto’s incoming WNBA team is inching closer to getting a name.

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A request for name ideas ran from Aug. 8-28 and garnered more than 5,000 submissions, according to team president Teresa Resch, who discussed the early days of the franchise and the process leading up to the May unveil on the first edition of the team’s “Bringing Home the W” podcast. The name is expected to be revealed in November or December and the team will join the WNBA with its first game in May 2026.

“We’re asking for inspiration now and we’re getting all kinds of stuff,” Resch said on the podcast. While most of the input came from Canada (84%, according to Resch), people from 58 different countries chimed in. The team’s social media channels said more than 50% of the responses included colour suggestions. A week before the process concluded they said 13% of all submissions reflected Toronto landmarks (like the CN Tower) and 13% included a weather element. There also were tongue-in-cheek suggestions such as the Toronto Raccoons.

Resch mentioned how Dragons (an option back in the day for the Raptors) are popular now thanks to the Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon television franchises.

“I think there’s always going to be some sort of cultural, societal (tie-in) like what’s interesting now, what’s interesting here that’s going to influence it. Everybody is a winner in this, because you’re all going to have some sort of impact on this process,” Resch said.

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Toronto Raptors co-owner Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports Ventures owns the WNBA team, which will primarily play out of Coca-Cola Coliseum at Exhibition Place in Toronto and be the league’s 14th team. The 13th, Golden State Valkyries, will tip off in May 2025.

Resch had said early last month when the site looking for name suggestions launched that they wanted all of Canada to take part in the process. “From the moment this franchise was announced, we’ve promised that this will be Canada’s team,” Resch had said in a media release. “That commitment starts today, by inviting every Canadian into the process of shaping our new name and logo.”

The release added that all the input would be reviewed by the group of designers and advisors that have been assembled to create the team’s official brand. Consultation with “a community council” will be part of the process used to develop a shortlist of options.

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“Our goal is to create the most inclusive and participatory process in sports history, because we know that we’re not just creating a brand,” Resch had said. “We’re building a community.” On the podcast she said they would now bring in “groups of people of influence, like an advisory council” to help pare down to the best and most viable choices.

Resch admitted the timeline is tight (for reference, the Professional Women’s Hockey League is preparing for its second season and still doesn’t have any team names or logos) and maybe a bit “crazy,” but, it will be great to have an actual identity to rally around,” Resch said.

The WNBA, which was founded in 1996 and began play in 1997 with eight teams, is using charter flights for every trip for the first time this season, a key demand from its players and a necessary step to expand to Canada.

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Toronto sold out Scotiabank Arena for a WNBA exhibition game last year, the league’s first in Canada, and a game in Edmonton sold more than 16,000 tickets.

Back in the mid-1990s the incoming Toronto NBA franchise held a contest of its own to pick the team’s name. Early in the process 20 names were registered for trademarking purposes.

From a list of 189 names (including such inspired ideas as “Canadian Eh’s, Northern Stars, Mighty Dunks, Bucketeers and Kool Kats), the choices were reduced to Beavers, Bobcats, Dragons, Grizzlies, Hogs, Raptors, Scorpions, T-Rex, Tarantulas or Terriers. Grizzlies was later the choice for Vancouver and eventually the Bobcats would play in Charlotte. The then-New Jersey Nets nearly became the (Swamp) Dragons. We’re still waiting on Beavers, Hogs, Scorpions, T-Rex, Tarantulas and Terriers. Raptors, Dragons and Bobcats were the final three choices in the contest (voted on by youths under 18 who had to go to Sears or Cineplex movie locations to vote on site), with the Toronto Sun first reporting on May 13, 1994, that Raptors was the winner.

While many had initial reservations about the choice, thinking it would be based on a fad that would pass (a rebrand was even considered as late as the Tim Leiweke era a decade or so ago), the name Raptors has stood the test of time and merchandise flew off the shelf from the start before peaking again during the Vince Carter years and later when the We the North run began. The WNBA group is hoping for the same results, whatever the choice ends up being.

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