Toronto city council unanimous in approving Tempo’s $1 lease

The mayor and every councillor present approved the deal, which hands over a parking lot near the waterfront to the WNBA team, owned by billionaire Larry Tanenbaum.

Published Jul 29, 2026  •  4 minute read

Marina Mabrey of the Toronto Tempo celebrates after tying the WNBA single-game scoring record at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto in June. Photo by Tara Walton/Getty Images files

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Toronto city council is united and emphatic in its approval for a $1-a-year lease for the city’s expansion WNBA team, owned by billionaire Larry Tanenbaum.

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Mayor Olivia Chow and every councillor present Wednesday afternoon approved the deal, which will see the Toronto Tempo build parkland and a $100-million practice facility on a parking lot near the waterfront.

Councillors Lily Cheng, Vincent Crisanti, Paula Fletcher and Jamaal Myers were in the council chamber when discussion about the Tempo deal began but were absent by the time the vote was called.

As part of the deal, the city will forgo roughly $500,000 in parking revenue and take on an estimated $800,000 in new annual costs. It’s expected the Tempo will make a one-time payment of $2 million in Year 5 of the lease.

While the city has refused to publicly put a value on the land involved, an executive who works in Toronto’s real estate industry previously told the Toronto Sun that a conservative estimate would be between $10 million and $15 million. (The Sun has agreed not to name the executive or the executive’s employer to protect the firm’s relationship with the City of Toronto.)

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While that executive questioned the upside to taxpayers in the deal, not one Toronto councillor had a negative word about it in the council chambers.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow marches in the Toronto Pride Parade along Yonge St. on June 28, 2026. Photo by Nick Kozak/For Postmedia Network files

‘There is not money changing hands’

City manager Paul Johnson suggested that because the Tempo is building “amenities,” Toronto is getting a better bargain with the 40-year $1 lease than if a “land deal” saw the parcel sold for millions of dollars.

Johnson called the deal a “market-based lease even though for a period of time there is not money exchanging hands,” as the Tempo will build a practice facility with a value that exceeds what the city might get for rent.

“It is public land, which we are not selling,” Johnson said.

“From the city’s perspective, we are getting access to both indoor amenities — guaranteed community use hours, particularly in the off-season of the WNBA, which is much longer than other professional leagues, and some during the season as well.

“There are outdoor amenities that would be available to the city throughout the year, and those include also access to washrooms as well as public space.”

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Johnson made those remarks in response to questions from Councillor Michael Thompson, who asked Johnson to confirm the deal is “not a giveaway.”

“I ask the city manager these questions because, on occasion, I’ve heard that this is a giveaway and not a good deal for the city,” Thompson said.

But when Thompson asked Johnson if city hall had looked at the economic benefits of the deal over a 10-year span, the city manager conceded: “I don’t know.”

That didn’t dissuade Thompson. The representative for Scarborough Centre was one of the 21 councillors who voted with Chow to approve the deal.

The City of Toronto’s land deal with the Toronto Tempo would see the WNBA team pay $1 for 40 years. Photo by Toronto Sun illustration /City of Toronto/Getty Images

‘Parity, equity’: Thompson

“We did it for the Raptors as well,” Thompson told Johnson.

Later in the meeting, Thompson called the deal an investment “in women’s sport, professional sport.”

“I think that’s extremely important,” he added, “and so we have not only parity but equity in terms of the investment in this facility.”

The closest thing to criticism about the deal heard Wednesday was a brief tirade from Eglinton-Lawrence Councillor Mike Colle. While he said the deal “is obviously a good investment,” his issue is that the practice facility will be built downtown.

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The lease was clearly dear to the heart of Mayor Chow, who broke the city’s rules of procedure at a recent committee meeting to applaud her own deal.

On Wednesday, she invoked the memory of the World Cup as one of the reasons why the Tempo deal was so important — perhaps ironic, given that council will hear on Thursday that more than half of the premium tickets for the city-run Fan Fest went unsold.

“Sports has a way to unite us,” Chow said, “and we saw that at soccer and football at World Cup, and Tempo is doing exactly the same — and I’m so proud of a city that hosts a WNBA (sic) following, of course, a women’s hockey league, hockey team.”

The parking lot to be leased by the Tempo, at 701 Fleet St., sits between Coronation Park, the Princes’ Gates and condo towers on Fort York Blvd. It’s a short walk from Coca-Cola Coliseum, where they play 22 home games a season and have thus far drawn capacity crowds of about 8,200.

The lease won’t begin until Sept. 15, allowing the parking lot to be used during this summer’s CNE.

The Tempo are owned by Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports Ventures. Kilmer’s 25% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment was recently bought out by Rogers Communications for a reported $4.35 billion.

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