Edmonton hosting WNBA pre-season game [Video]

The WNBA is coming back to Canada, just maybe not in the way people had expected.

The women’s basketball league announced on Thursday that it will hold a pre-season game between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Seattle Storm at Edmonton’s Rogers Place on May 5. The news comes three days after media reports that Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum is pursuing a WNBA franchise in Toronto.

It’s the second year in a row a Canadian city has hosted a WNBA pre-season game after Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena held one in 2023.

“We were thrilled with the way Canada and Toronto, Toronto specifically, but I would say how the country responded to having our first-ever game there,” said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a video conference. “Globalizing the game is an important part of our strategy and given that Canada is our neighbour to the north here in …