Serena Williams has joined the Toronto Tempo’s possession group, the WNBA growth franchise introduced Monday.
Williams will “play an energetic function in future jersey designs and can assist forge distinctive merchandise collaborations with the workforce,” the franchise mentioned. The tennis icon may also “contribute to bringing the Tempo to life visually.”
“I’m thrilled to announce my possession function within the first Canadian WNBA workforce, the Toronto Tempo,” Williams mentioned in a press release. “It’s about showcasing the true worth and potential of feminine athletes — I’ve at all times mentioned that girls’s sports activities are an unbelievable funding alternative.”
The Tempo have been unveiled because the league’s 14th franchise final Could and can debut within the 2026 season. The workforce can 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 companion with Larry and all of Canada in creating this new WNBA franchise and legacy,” Williams mentioned.
The proportion of Williams’ stake within the franchise was not introduced, and her funding continues to be pending ultimate league approval.
Williams, a 23-time main girls’s singles title-winner on the tennis court docket, isn’t any stranger to investing in different skilled sports activities franchises. In 2009, Serena and her sister Venus turned minority homeowners of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. Serena, alongside her husband, entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, later turned 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 stunning. She advised CNN final April she was “tremendous ” in including a workforce to her funding portfolio.
“I completely can be (). With the correct market, I’d positively be tremendous involved in that,” she mentioned.
Tanenbaum mentioned in a press release 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 practice 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 normal 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 workforce with the most important donation in program historical past. The multiyear present, the college mentioned, was the second largest present to girls’s athletics in UVA historical past.
In getting concerned with the Tempo, Williams can also be the newest retired skilled athlete to become involved 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 area.
Whereas Serena’s funding within the Tempo is probably going small — the Tempo declined to remark when requested by in regards to the share of her pending possession stake — the advantages of getting Williams a part of possession are large, notably 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 can be referenced usually on social media and legacy retailers at any time when the workforce is talked about. Williams may assist with potential high-end sponsors who would possibly need to be a part of a model linked with Williams.
Lastly, the Tempo has pitched itself not simply as Toronto’s workforce however because the face of ladies’s basketball throughout the entire nation of Canada. For that, you could broaden your model past the larger Toronto space and the Serena Williams model does that.
In the present day is an enormous ‘W’ for one of many W’s latest franchises. —
This text initially appeared in .
WNBA, Sports activities Enterprise, Tennis
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