The Toronto Tempo tip off their inaugural WNBA season Friday against the Washington Mystics, a historic moment for Canada's first team in the league.
Team president Teresa Resch described the feeling as 'extreme excitement.'
'It's truly a culmination of so many people's work, but not just the people working on it now, but so many people who have laid the groundwork ahead of us,' Resch said.
The team, owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum, held events in Vancouver and Montreal, and will play regular-season games in both cities, positioning itself as 'Canada's team.'
The Tempo have signed Kia Nurse, a veteran of Canada's national team, and selected UCLA's Kiki Rice as their first-ever draft pick.
Beyond basketball, the team launched Tempo Impact, a social platform addressing a statistic that women in Canada live an average of 20 percent of their lives in poorer health than men.
'It's about creating a space where you can show up as yourself and feel like you belong,' Resch said.