As WNBA free agency begins, Toronto Tempo can watch and learn from sidelines

Amid recent excitement around Toronto's WNBA expansion team, one critical aspect has fallen through the cracks: the basketball itself.

It's fun to debate whether Tempo works as a nickname, and discuss whether the blue-and-red colour scheme is appealing, and dream about what a mascot may be for a team branded more as an idea than a tangible object or living being.

But what will ultimately determine the team's ability to reach its fans is on-court success.

Just look at a home game for this year's 15-32 Toronto Raptors and you'll see a crowd that's thinned out and quieted down from its 'We The North' heyday in the late 2010s.

For the Tempo, roster-building may still be 10 months away — there is no date set for the expansion draft, but the Golden State Valkyries selected their first players in early December — but planning begins now.

On Saturday, free agency for the league's active 13 franchises will officially open, though some league-altering moves have already been reported. The entry draft, which the Tempo will also sit out, is set for April 14.

Meanwhile, the Tempo have hired Monica Wright Rogers as general manager, per multiple reports. CBC Sports has reached out to the team for confirmation.

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Wright Rogers, 36, is a former second overall pick of the Minnesota Lynx who transitioned to coaching, and then the front office, after her playing career ended in 2016. She won a pair of championships with the Maya Moore-led Lynx teams of 2011 and 2013, earning significant minutes in both instances.

After four years as a college assistant at Liberty and her alma mater Virginia, she took a job in the league office for a year before being hired