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Toronto Tempo CMO Whitney Bell on Bringing a New WNBA Team to Life
Upstart squad hits the court next May
When a recruiter called Whitney Bell to see if she would be interested in the post of CMO of Toronto’s WNBA expansion team, she thought it was a prank at first.
“It was honestly my dream role,” Bell tells Muse. But it was not necessarily an offer she ever expected. That’s because she spent her career in marketing at Kraft and Unilever and Lyft (as it launched in Canada), as well as the tech-company Clutch.
Yet it was exactly that combination of brand building and entrepreneurship that helped her land the post with the Toronto Tempo, which will begin playing in May 2026. Bell proudly notes, “I was employee No. 4 of our entire organization.”
While she didn’t come up in the pro sports world, Bell did lead strategic partnerships for Unilever’s Dove and Axe brands with the NBA, the Toronto Raptors and Montreal Canadiens.
Plus, she grew up as a competitive athlete, playing varsity soccer in college. She dabbled in basketball, too, and had been a fan of the WNBA since age 10. “I remember watching the first games on TV. So I absolutely jumped at the opportunity to join this team.”
Here, Bell talks about the camaraderie she enjoys with marketing pros from other WNBA teams and the importance of giving fans a role in building Toronto’s hometown franchise:
MUSE: How does it feel to be part of launching the first WNBA team outside of the U.S.?
Whitney Bell: Toronto and Canada in general have been ready for a WNBA team for a long time. Toronto is the fourth-largest city in North America. It’s the most diverse city in the world. There’s a massive sports population and a lot of fans. I think we’re set up for success. Now, it’s up to us to execute and make sure it’s a really great experience for all the fans.
You didn’t come from the sports marketing world. But you’ve worked with brands like Dove, which has elevated the beauty space. You’ve launched startups, and you played sports. Your background as an athlete must be valuable.
I think so. I obviously never made it to the professional level. But I think there is something about growing up and playing sports that helps build confidence, and you learn how to work on a team. A stat I have seen is that 92 percent of women in leadership have played sports.
I understand you attended a New York Liberty game recently. What was that experience like for you?
Lisa Leslie was there, and I had a bit of a fan girl moment. Because when the WNBA launched in 1997, I was like 10 years old, and it was Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Rebecca Lobo—those were the players that I really loved. And getting to see them in real life was very exciting.
The Liberty really have it down. The way they do everything at the games is so exciting. I assume seeing how they operate must have been inspirational for you as a marketing person. Have you been going to other teams’ games?
Oh yeah. Our team has been trying to see games. I’ll be at the All-Star Game next weekend and have plans to visit a couple of other markets this year. But the Liberty for sure have set the bar. I think it was one of the best sporting experience I’ve ever been to. Just the crowd—they were cheering until the very last basket. It was incredible. So yeah, we’re looking to them for inspiration.
Did you consult with other CMOs in the WNBA for tips when you started your job?
I had this idea that all the teams were going to be really competitive and not want to share information. And I was pleasantly surprised when I reached out to the Valkyries—because they were in our shoes, a year ahead of us—and their team was so amazing about sharing information, telling us the good, the bad, the ugly. I also talked to Phil Cook, the CMO of the league, and he’s been incredibly helpful. And since that time, I’ve gotten to meet a lot of contacts with other teams. So, I always say we will be competitive on the court. But off the court, we want this league to grow and every team to win.
What’s in your purview as CMO, and what kind of marketing team do you have?
We are small but mighty. We have six people on our marketing team. I’m overseeing things like brand content, PR and comms, community and lifecycle digital. The main focus up to now has been building out community. But we all wear a lot of hats. It’s an organization where you have to leave your ego at the door. There’s no job too big or too small. We’re gritty, but it’s been extremely collaborative.
The team was named by fans through an online initiative. Tell me why it was important to let the fans do that.
I give kudos to team president Teresa Resch. “Name Your Team” was rolled out shortly before I joined. The idea behind it was: How will we think about the legacy of this team in 10, 20, 30 years. How do we want to tell the story later on of how the team was formed and the name?
Teresa was like, “I want the fans to be a part of this. I don’t want it to be an agency or a couple of team members in a boardroom.” We had over 10,000 submissions from 90 countries. It was open—essentially a text box where you could put in anything—so a name, a logo, colors. Ninety-nine percent of the responses were positive. It showed that people were invested, and they cared.
That focus on transparency with our fans—we’ve seen that they love it, and we’re going to continue with that. Whether it’s our mascot or other decisions that we’re making down the road, we want to bring them along for the ride and involve them in the process.
What‘s it like starting all this from scratch?
It’s a challenge but also an opportunity in that everything is a blank slate. Everything is a choice that we have to make. We have nothing foundational in place. We’re not inheriting these legacy systems that we feel aren’t working for us.
But things are moving extremely fast. We’re building the plane while we’re flying it. We’re going to make mistakes. We have to learn things really quickly and iterate, but I also see it as something exciting.
Do you still play basketball?
We’re actually playing a pickup game later this afternoon. Our parent organization challenged us to a friendly game. So, the Tempo team are going to be playing, and Monica Wright Rogers, our GM, is going to be coaching. I’m a little nervous, because I’m definitely out of practice. But it does bring up memories. Sports was such a big part of my life growing up.
