'Something powerful': Toronto Tempo, president Teresa Resch go with flow as brand is unveiled
Team executive says next step in roster-building process involves hiring of a GM
From the unveiling of the Toronto Tempo first thing on Thursday morning to her interview with CBC Sports in the early afternoon, media appearances for Teresa Resch were nonstop.
Yet through it all, Resch was still bursting with excitement at the introduction of the Tempo as the city's incoming WNBA team. The franchise will play its first game in May 2026.
"I don't mind repeating myself about a brand new team name and identity and colours and logos. You can talk about it over and over all day, every day. I hope actually that people talk about this over and over for years to come," Resch said.
Stationed at Makeway, a women's sneaker store in Toronto, Resch wore a team-branded letterman jacket and held court with multiple outlets Thursday after the WNBA team unveiled its nickname and logos earlier in the day.
But the long-awaited release wasn't supposed to happen this way — not exactly.
WATCH | Resch discusses how Toronto chose Tempo nickname:
The team was planning to publicly divulge its identity on Jan. 14. When Tempo was leaked as the nickname on a drop-down menu on the league's website late Tuesday night, everything changed.
Still, what may have felt hasty from the outside was anything but for Resch and her team.
In fact, the flexibility encapsulates the name Tempo itself.
Indeed, basketball is a game of reflex and reaction.
"It's sports — nothing ever goes as planned, right? So you just go with the flow and everything happens for a reason. So we had a plan to launch and we're really excited to press go. And we feel like we've been well-received," Resch said.
Anecdotally, reaction to the nickname Tempo has seemed mixed — which cannot have been a surprise to team brass, considering recent receptions to the PWHL teams, and the WNBA's Golden State Valkyries, and the NWSL's BOS Nation FC.
"If they can get half the audience to love it right away, that would be a landslide victory. But eventually people will like the name or the colours or they won't," John Lashway, a communications executive who helped launch the Raptors, told CBC Sports in November.
Collaborative branding process
The WNBA Toronto team was open about its branding process throughout, with regular social-media updates on names — like the Towers, Traffic and 6ixers — which had been eliminated and a team-produced podcast going behind the scenes through the journey.
There was also a 'Name Your Team' campaign which garnered over 10,000 submissions — including Tempo.
"We had over a thousand unique names to consider. And we also tried to make up our own, consider things that hadn't been submitted, but ultimately Tempo really rose to the top and we're really excited to introduce it today," Resch said.
"We had a community council give us some different feedback and ultimately even on the design, we did a calling-all for creators and hired three people to help us with the process. So it was really a group effort."
WATCH | Toronto franchise issues 'call for inspiration' in search of nickname:
The Tempo logo features six motion lines, which the team says represents Toronto's six boroughs, two common area codes (416 and 647) and five players on the court plus a sixth in the fans.
Its colours, as described by Nike, are hydrogen blue and bordeaux.
"It is kind of a modern twist on the colour palette that exists within the Toronto sports scene. You have the very regal blue, you also have the very strong red, and this is just a version of that, but our own way. So we're really excited," Resch said.
"It feels unique to us, but also very complimentary to the teams that are our peers, both in the city and in the league."
Now, with Resch in place as president, the next step for the franchise is building out the team itself.
Focus shifts to roster building
Though it's still 18 months away from action, Resch said roster-building begins with the hiring of a general manager, a job she hopes to have filled at the beginning of 2025.
On Friday, the Golden State Valkyries' expansion draft will take place — meaning Toronto could be just 12 months away from having faces for the team.
Resch said she will be watching "very closely," and that she is in constant contact with Golden State, which will begin play next season, and Portland, which is set to enter alongside the Tempo.
WATCH | WNBA officially announces Toronto's expansion franchise:
"We're talking to them and really all the teams, direct line with all the presidents. They've been nothing but welcoming and only helping us because they know the more we succeed, the more the entire league succeeds," Resch said.
In the meantime, Resch said some of the next milestones on the branding side will include merchandise, tickets and announcements for games that will take place outside of Toronto in Canada.
Resch was with the Raptors in 2014 when the team launched its heralded 'We The North' campaign months ahead of schedule due to the team's surprising success.
She also helped bring the G League's Raptors 905 to life.
Yet while she's experienced in basketball brand launches, she said the Tempo mostly felt completely different — except for one aspect.
"We're capturing lightning in a bottle, right? Like there's a certain movement, feel. All the stars align. And like I said before, everything happens for a reason and the right timing," Resch said.
"And that right time for Toronto Tempo to enter the world was Dec. 5, 2024, and we're really excited to be here today."
