The Toronto Tempo, Canada’s first WNBA team, has appointed Monica Wright Rogers as the club’s first general manager.
As general manager, Wright Rogers will lead basketball operations for the Tempo, including, most immediately, the hiring of a head coach and building out the roster for the team’s inaugural season. A WNBA champion and collegiate All-American, Rogers joins the Tempo from the Phoenix Mercury, where she was assistant general manager.
“The unique combination of experience that Monica will bring to this team is incredible. She’s a proven champion who understands the game from so many different perspectives,” said Teresa Resch, president, Tempo Basketball Club, Inc. “And she’s so much more than the collection of her experiences. Monica is an incredible relationship-builder with a sharp eye for talent who embodies everything we want the Tempo to stand for: she’s warm, welcoming, smart, driven, and fiercely competitive. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have her on board.”
After her collegiate career at the University of Virginia, where she was ACC Player of the Year, ACC Defensive Player of the Year, and National Defensive Player of the Year, Rogers was selected second overall by the Minnesota Lynx in the 2010 WNBA Draft. She was named to the WNBA All-Rookie Team that year and won two WNBA championships with the Lynx in 2011 and 2013.
Rogers also spent time with the Seattle Storm, and played in Poland, Turkey, Australia, and Iceland. During the 2015 season, she was the secretary-treasurer for the WNBA Players Association.
Since the end of her playing career, Rogers has coached at the collegiate level, including at her alma mater, and worked as an assistant coach and NBA executive before assuming the title of assistant general manager for the Phoenix Mercury in 2023.
“The excitement about this team, and around women’s sports in general in Canada right now is palpable,” Rogers said. “To have the opportunity to play such a key role in building this team in this country at this moment is an honor. I am truly fortunate to be leading this franchise alongside impressive figures like Teresa and Larry, and I thank them for entrusting me to put together a team as vibrant, passionate and dynamic as the city it calls home. Sports fans around the world should keep an eye on us.”
The Tempo will begin playing at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in 2026 and also host regular-season games in Montreal and Vancouver.
In May 2024, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced its expansion into Canada by awarding Toronto an expansion team, the league’s first outside the United States. The new team, owned and operated by Kilmer Sports Ventures, will begin play in the 2026 season as the WNBA’s 14th franchise.
Sephora Canada is the team’s first announced founding partner. Larry Tanenbaum, Chairman of Kilmer Sports Ventures and a 30-year veteran of building championship-caliber teams, is also chairman of the NBA Board of Governors and chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, MLS’ Toronto FC, and other professional sports franchises. Under his leadership, the Raptors won their first NBA championship in 2019.
Images courtesy Toronto Tempo
