The Women’s National Basketball Association is officially coming to Canada, and that’s music to the ears of some of the Toronto’s top female ballers.
“I am super excited … to see how much, not just Toronto but Canada will be influenced by the sport of basketball now,” Fitriya Mohamed, founder of the Muslim Women’s Summer Basketball League, told The Athletic Ummah.
“We’ve become a basketball spot already, and now it’s going to go to the next level that we’ve never even imagined.”
In a packed press conference in downtown Toronto on Thursday, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that the city has been awarded a team in the professional women’s basketball league.
The Toronto team, which hasn’t been nicknamed yet, will be the first non-American club to play in the WNBA when it takes the court in 2026.
It’s the newest women’s professional sports team to come to Canada, following the launch of the Professional Women’s Hockey League and its three Canadian teams; and the announcement of Project 8, a Canadian women’s soccer league.
Amreen Kadwa, founder of the Toronto-based sports group Hijabi Ballers, hopes these leagues will open doors for more Muslimahs to play professional sports.
“We want to be able to see ourselves represented at that level eventually,” she told The Athletic Ummah. “Having a women’s sports team is the first step, but we don’t want to stop there.”
“We want the diversity represented, not just in the fans but in the players as well.”
Weeks before the official announcement, sports journalist Shireen Ahmed broke the exclusive news that the WNBA would be expanding to Toronto.
It was a rare opportunity for Ahmed — primarily a columnist, she’s broken news only a handful of times before. But it was news Ahmed was glad she got to share with the world first, given her expertise in and dedication to women’s sports.
The Athletic Ummah spoke with Ahmed earlier this month, the day after she broke the story. Here’s part of our conversation with her.
How are you feeling after what has surely been a hectic day [breaking the news]?
I was very tired. When any story has a rollout of this magnitude, it becomes a very long day. My first hit was at 6:45 [a.m.] with World Report and I think my last hit was late in the afternoon.
So it was pretty intense. The whole day was go-go and you’re on adrenaline, but you’re also absolutely exhausted.
For those who aren’t journalists, what goes into breaking news like this?
For people who don’t know about the process of journalism or how you put a story like this together, you don’t work alone.
Not only was there my team at CBC Sports … the local CBC News Desk was on it, CBC Toronto, and then the network was on it because they would have been interested. So we had a bigger editorial meeting and then a meeting about planning the rollout.
This particular story happened really quickly because the tip came in and I got a corroborating source. Then we had a meeting, and then we decided to move really quickly.
I was [in Panama] for work and had just extended my trip with my husband. I flew in on Tuesday, [May 7] morning and then went to cover the PWHL Toronto-Minnesota series, and I was doing a feature on one of the players for Mother’s Day. So I wasn’t planning to break a story this week at all.
And then, as it is in journalism, things just pop out and you go with the flow. And being able to report and break a story of this magnitude is — for someone like me who’s generally a columnist — it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I went with it.
Given how much work you’ve done in women’s sports, how important was it for you to be the one to break this news?
Breaking the news is actually not something I do a lot … because I’m not a beat reporter. I’m someone who is a columnist and I’m looked to for analysis. After news breaks, I provide that kind of critique or provide more information and insight on broader implications.
But this was really fun. I’m exhausted, but it’s really beautiful for me, personally. One of the most gratifying aspects … is working with people who were really invested in this and really happy to give me flowers about it.
One of the … things that came out of this was people saying we’re really glad it was you, meaning me, who is someone who has worked a lot in women’s sports, as opposed to anyone from the old boys’ club who might have gotten the tip traditionally.
What response have you received from loved ones about breaking the news?
Alhamdulillah, my family is incredible. My kids are understanding because I’ve been very, very, very busy this week. My husband is right by my side, he’s supportive.
I did let my kids know the night before, just because if they needed something, I wouldn’t necessarily be available because I was doing media hits all day. That didn’t prevent my youngest son from texting me about borrowing the car.
But … I’m a mother and a wife and a daughter, and I did let my parents know I would be really, really busy. And my mother was delighted to hear me on the 7:00 a.m. World Report. So that was that was really fun.
My family called and my cousins texted. I’m really lucky, alhamdulillah. I have a lot of support. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without my family.
What do you hope the arrival of a WNBA franchise in Toronto does for women’s sports here?
The arrival of a WNBA team in Toronto will only add to the growing landscape of women’s sports and particularly in Canada.
I don’t think people understand that until fairly recently, Canada was really under-serviced in this area. There was no professional women’s hockey league. There was an expansion [ice hockey] team, but there was no league that was sustainable and paying women the way that it needed to.
What this does, not only for sports, is it creates a landscape where there are more opportunities for women in media — women like myself, women like my students [at Toronto Metropolitan University]. I’m seeing a growing number of women and racialized women in my classes.
“We want the diversity represented, not just in the fans but in the players as well.”
Amreen Kadwa, founder of Hijabi Ballers
This is a good thing to be able to [cover] … a league like the WNBA, that’s mostly Black women and there’s opportunity and excitement about this; whereas traditionally, sports is male-dominated. So I think this is a really important point.
Also, the fans deserve it. Toronto is an incredible market for sports and as we’ve seen, it’s continued to grow and just keep growing. So I think it’s immense and the reception from the public has been wonderful.
Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. Headline image credit: @idilmussa/Instagram