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The first game of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) finals between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries tips off on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 3:30 p.m. @hergame.to, a Women’s Sports Hub founded by Jessie Vasseur and Casey Campbell, posted on various social media platforms asking what Canadian bars would be projecting the WNBA finals on their big screens: “I do not mean only if someone asks… in the back corner of the bar… on a tiny screen… on mute,” wrote Vasseur.
The Toronto Tempo, Canada’s first WNBA team, debuted in the 2026 season.
“There are just a lot of people like me. It makes me feel a part of something. In the arena, people are there because they support it,” said Ariana Ferrer, a 28-year-old accountant living in Toronto. Ferrer says she was introduced to the world of women’s basketball through a viral TikTok edit in 2025. The post featured current Dallas Wings player Paige Bueckers, who was a senior at the University of Connecticut at the time. After Bueckers graduated and was drafted to play professionally, that’s when Ferrer became invested in the WNBA.
She became one of the first season ticket holders of the (then) freshly announced Toronto Tempo team.
“That’s part of the flywheel of growing sport is giving fans an opportunity to create that community and fandom because fandom is not just an individual pursuit, it’s also a collective pursuit,” said Cheri Bradish, the director of the Future of Sport Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
If Ferrer is not at Coca-Cola Coliseum, she is actively trying to find where to watch WNBA games. There is a WNBA League Pass she additionally pays for on top of her season tickets, but it doesn’t stream every game. “If it’s not on League Pass, it’s on TV. If it’s not on TV, it’s on Amazon Prime,” said Ferrer. She said it makes supporting the WNBA inaccessible when there are so many subscription fees that also may confuse new viewers.
“This is a huge opportunity for young women. They’ve waited this long to be able to play professionally, so if I have the ability, why not showcase it?” asked Niki Tsourounakis, a former Varsity Blues player on the University of Toronto women’s basketball team. Now she runs a restaurant called Bar Neon near Lansdowne station.
Her decision to project the WNBA playoffs and finals in the restaurant has been well-received online. It garnered almost seven hundred likes between two posts announcing the showing.
In Toronto, Ferrer said she has attended some watch parties usually hosted by media groups not affiliated with the league.
Tsourounakis said she projected every Tempo game this season because, aside from selfish reasons, she couldn’t find any other restaurant that would be doing the same. “If it just takes one person walking by to see, like, hey, this is a thing, and also for little girls to say, that could be me on the screen one day, that means the world to me because I never had that.”
Bradish said that there is a responsibility on the league itself to grow fan culture. She referenced the Harbourfront NBA Courtside Restaurant that recently closed permanently. “I think from the fans and the teams that they work together to say fandom isn’t just during the course of the event and on the field of play. It extends and should be cultivated,” Bradish said.
Tsourounakis pointed out her unique position as a business owner and former athlete. She said there are not enough women-owned businesses with the ability or inclination to project these games.
Bradish talked about the purposeful ways the community can see more spaces dedicated to them pop up in the city. “We see media personalities, media outlets, other kinds of entities, women in sport, entrepreneurs leaning in.” Bradish compares growing the sport to building a network. “It’s about spending the time creating opportunities to sync with like-minded people, and I think that’s a great way to create colleagues and allies, but it’s also a way to create collaboration.”
Bradish says it’s a win-win situation for both the WNBA fandom and the Toronto businesses projecting the finals. As the game grows, more spaces can exist for the rising fandom.
“I’ve been seeing people that I’ve never seen before. Even if it’s just two people, two people next time becomes four people, and I understand it’s a slow, slow burn, so you’ve got to be in there for the long haul,” said Tsourounakis.
F2026 OTR reporter.
