Serena Williams has joined the Toronto Tempo’s possession group, the WNBA enlargement franchise introduced Monday.
Williams will “play an energetic position in future jersey designs and can assist forge distinctive merchandise collaborations with the staff,” the franchise stated. The tennis icon may even “contribute to bringing the Tempo to life visually.”
“I’m thrilled to announce my possession position within the first Canadian WNBA staff, the Toronto Tempo,” Williams stated in an announcement. “It’s about showcasing the true worth and potential of feminine athletes — I’ve all the time stated that ladies’s sports activities are an unbelievable funding alternative.”
The Tempo had been unveiled because the league’s 14th franchise final Could and can debut within the 2026 season. The staff will probably be led by Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum and Kilmer Sports activities Ventures, which additionally invests in Maple Leaf Sports activities and Leisure (MLSE), proprietor of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.
“I’m excited to associate with Larry and all of Canada in creating this new WNBA franchise and legacy,” Williams stated.
The share of Williams’ stake within the franchise was not introduced, and her funding remains to be pending ultimate league approval.
Williams, a 23-time main girls’s singles title-winner on the tennis court docket, is not any stranger to investing in different skilled sports activities franchises. In 2009, Serena and her sister Venus grew to become minority homeowners of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. Serena, alongside her husband, entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, later grew to become founding members of the NWSL’s Angel Metropolis FC possession group. Alongside her husband, sister and daughter Olympia, Serena can also be an proprietor of one of many six founding groups of the TGL, a brand new golf league based by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Williams getting concerned in a WNBA franchise isn’t overly shocking. She informed CNN final April she was “tremendous ” in including a staff to her funding portfolio.
“I completely can be (). With the best market, I’d positively be tremendous all for that,” she stated.
Tanenbaum stated in an announcement that Williams “exemplifies the easiest of what the Tempo stand for” and that he’s “honored” to have her concerned with the franchise.
In 2026, the Tempo will initially use the 8,000-seat Coca-Cola Coliseum. The franchise will finally have its personal observe facility, however will prepare on the College of Toronto’s Goldring Centre for Excessive Efficiency Sport till it’s prepared.
Final month, the franchise unveiled former Phoenix Mercury assistant basic supervisor Monica Wright Rogers . Wright Rogers performed within the WNBA for seven seasons after a embellished profession on the College of Virginia.
In December, Ohanian, a fellow Virginia alumni, offered the Cavaliers girls’s basketball staff with the most important donation in program historical past. The multiyear present, the college stated, was the second largest present to girls’s athletics in UVA historical past.
In getting concerned with the Tempo, Williams can also be the most recent retired skilled athlete to get entangled in a WNBA franchise’s possession group. Magic Johnson, Dwyane Wade, Sue Hen, Alex Rodriguez, Tom Brady and Renee Montgomery are all a part of numerous teams throughout the league.
What are the advantages of getting Williams on board?
There’s a lengthy historical past of profitable professional athletes investing in professional sports activities possession and Williams has a historical past within the possession house.
Whereas Serena’s funding within the Tempo is probably going small — the Tempo declined to remark when requested by in regards to the proportion of her pending possession stake — the advantages of getting Williams a part of possession are large, significantly from a media-centric and brand-building perspective.
One of many nice athletes in international sports activities is now related to the Toronto Tempo product and that will probably be referenced typically on social media and legacy shops at any time when the staff is talked about. Williams may assist with potential high-end sponsors who may need to be a part of a model related with Williams.
Lastly, the Tempo has pitched itself not simply as Toronto’s staff however because the face of girls’s basketball throughout the entire nation of Canada. For that, you want to increase your model past the better Toronto space and the Serena Williams model does that.
At present is a large ‘W’ for one of many W’s latest franchises. —
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WNBA, Sports activities Enterprise, Tennis
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