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With Toronto set to get a WNBA team in 2026, a local paper asked Canadian basketball fans to come up with some names for the new franchise, and they ran the gamut from hilarious to hilariously bad.
The WNBA product is on a serious upswing. The league has been making notable headway with basketball fans in recent years and the addition of Caitlin Clark and her rookie class has led to big business for the league. That is why it should be no surprise that there are wealthy individuals around North America looking to invest in the league.
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Next year will bring the Golden State Valkyries, and in 2026 Toronto will get a team as well. However, the franchise that will join the Raptors in the city has yet to be named. That is why the Toronto Star decided to ask fans what they would like to see the organization be named, and there were some wild suggestions made.
Oddly enough, the Toronto Towers were a popular choice because of the existence of the CN Tower in the city and because “basketball players are tall, several readers said.” Some names tried to link the club to the Raptors, so the Dinos, Triceratops, Raptettes, and Lady Raps were offered up.
Other fans went mythical and proposed the Toronto Sirens, Toronto Amazons, and Toronto Valkyries. Unfortunately, the latter is taken by the new Golden State Squad. Trash Pandas and Huskies were also suggested by other fans.
However, one of the best Toronto WNBA team names recommended was the Toronto Kendricks. To play off the rivalry between Kendrick Lamar and the most famous Raptors fan in the world, Drake.
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Another great option, that deserves serious consideration, actually came from an X post and not the Toronto Star poll. Following the article being published, The Athletic writer and podcaster Richard Deitsch suggested the Toronto North.
“If you could somehow get THE NORTH as the team’s name/nickname/something, you have a goldmine as far as marketing merch,” Deitsch wrote on X. “The North just sounds cool. Game of Thrones is your proof of concept too.”