This past weekend the WNBA hosted its first-ever game in Canada. The game was an exhibition game between the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx but was a huge deal and a historic moment for Canadian basketball fans. To celebrate, there were several cool things to do in Toronto and I was able to check out a few. In this blog, I recap some of the stuff I was able to do including attending the game with details and pictures! Before you read below, if you like to read up about more cool things to check out in Toronto or read recaps of what you may have missed in the city, feel free to follow on social media (Tiktok, Instagram, and Facebook)! See below for a preview of what you can expect in this blog post!
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Things to Do to Celebrate WNBA in Canada
WNBA Statue
What better way of placing your mark in Toronto, Canada than with a statue? For this weekend the WNBA unveiled a special 12-foot tall statue of the WNBA logo that was at the CN Tower on Friday and then inside the arena during the game. What made it more special is that they invited Torontonians to sign the statue with WNBA-branded Sharpies that you get to keep!
Exclusive WNBA Clothing Customization
During this weekend, if you went to the massive Footlocker Toronto store (was the Jordan 306 Yonge store before) then you would have been able to customize some apparel including WNBA apparel with exclusive designs, done by Toronto artist, Erika (inkscrpt). You just need to buy the item first, there were a few options available such as a t-shirt, Nike hoodie, or WNBA hoodies including a special tie-dye one but since I wanted the designs to pop more I went with the black WNBA hoodie. There were a lot of great designs you can choose from, and you get to choose up to six. The screenprinting and designs are free which is awesome and took about 15 minutes or less. I really liked the artwork and you can see what the designs looked like in the image above.
Merchandise, Freebies, Activations
There were a lot of fun activities and freebies, as well as special merchandise. My favorite has to be the Candian Tire 360 video (bottom right) because despite looking like an idiot, I thought the video you get looks really cool. The Tangerine photobooth is not bad either and to get the Sobeys x Scene waist bag of that size for free is a great giveaway. Also, there was some exclusive merchandise such as the Peace Collective collab and WNBA basketballs you don’t often see in stores.
The Game & Tickets
The game itself was special and I am grateful I was able to secure tickets. As soon as I heard this was happening, I immediately signed up and got tickets when they were released in early March. This game was sold out within minutes and it was reported that there were over 19,000 fans in attendance. The ticket pricing was really cheap since we were in section 102 and for two tickets, the after-tax amount was $87.50! I’ve never spent so little for an event at Scotiabank Arena before and was never this close (besides the Hockey Hall of Fame Legends Game)! The game itself was fun to watch, but unfortunately we did miss the halftime show featuring Jully Black (was excited to see her) when trying to get food and even though it was an exhibition game, both teams fought hard! It was nice to see Canadian Bridget Carleton share a few words before the game began. The best part of the game was seeing how many families and children were in attendance. It was incredible to see and I am so happy they were able to experience this as it was a truly special moment.
Overall
All in all, this was a historic and special moment/weekend for Canada, specifically basketball fans! I hope that this weekend serves as a great reason why Toronto should get its own WNBA team! I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and let me know your thoughts! Did you attend? Did you wish you knew about any of these things that happened? What would you look forward to seeing in a future WNBA game? Let me know in the comments below or on social media by following on Tiktok, Instagram, and Facebook, especially as I will be posting more Toronto content!