{"id":26136,"date":"2026-04-30T13:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/26136\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:16:10","slug":"toronto-tempo-draw-sellout-crowd-in-preseason-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/26136\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Tempo draw sellout crowd in preseason debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA\u2019s Toronto Tempo<\/a> played their first game ever on Wednesday at Coca-Cola Coliseum, and \u201cnormalcy reigned\u201d for the preseason bout against the Sun — which drew a sellout crowd of 8,210. Fans \u201cwaited in long lines for merchandise\u201d ahead of the game, as players \u201cwent through shootaround and seats slowly filled in anticipation of tip-off.\u201d The \u201cenergy kicked up a few notches\u201d when starting lineups were introduced, and Tempo G Kia Nurse, from Hamilton, Ont., \u201creceived the honour of being announced last, and the sellout crowd … offered a loud roar welcoming back their hometown star.\u201d Sun C Brittney Griner \u201cscored the first bucket in the history of the building,\u201d while Nurse \u201clanded the first Tempo basket, swishing a three-pointer and sending the crowd into a frenzy.\u201d Earlier in the night, a pre-game hype video \u201cshowed behind-the-scenes footage of the warp-speed draft and free-agency process\u201d before ending with the slogan \u201cThe Future Starts Now\u201d (CP, 4\/29<\/a>). <\/p>\n

It was a \u201clast chance to smooth out game-day protocols\u201d in the arena ahead of the regular season, \u201cfrom anthems to media interviews, sound checks to dance team performances.\u201d The Tempo \u201ceven had staff with signs outside at the GO Train station directing new fans where to enter\u201d the arena. The game \u201cwas packed,\u201d even as the Raptors \u201cwere locked in a playoff game with the Cavaliers in Cleveland at the same time\u201d (GLOBE & MAIL, 4\/29<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA\u2019s Toronto Tempo played their first game ever on Wednesday at Coca-Cola Coliseum, and \u201cnormalcy reigned\u201d for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1288,48,2317,2694],"class_list":{"0":"post-26136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-toronto","10":"tag-wnba","11":"tag-womens-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}