🤝 Meet Teresa Resch. She’s the president of the Toronto Tempo, the WNBA’s newest team, and spent a decade as Masai Ujiri’s right hand in the Raptors front office. We sat down with Teresa to talk about the Tempo’s inaugural season, how the Raptors almost had a champagne-free championship celebration, and what she’s learned from over a decade in Canadian basketball.
What were some of the lessons you learned from your first season?
Where do we start? We were really reactionary, so I think being able to be proactive and think through things is going to be a huge benefit next year. Also, we were the first team in Canada, and the majority of the people working for the team had never worked in the WNBA, and very few had worked in sports. To be able to take a breath after and realize, “Okay, that’s what a season feels like,” and apply that to next season is going to be really valuable.
We learned a lot about positioning this team as Canada’s team, and how we can continue to evolve and grow that. And maybe some steps we took didn’t get the results we needed them to, to equate to the investment we made. So we’ll be continuing to evolve that strategy and that platform too.
You sold out pretty much every home game. How did you build so much excitement around a team that’s so new?
I would say there was an incredible fan base for the WNBA and women’s sports before the Tempo existed, and that really served as our core. From there, those people shared their excitement, and we delivered a great product. We were very fortunate to be in a league that’s 30 years young, which is pretty established for a women’s sports league, and we definitely believe we’re enhancing the league as a whole. But really, it’s continuing to ride that wave of momentum the league has had since the pandemic.
When you got the call for this job, were you reluctant to leave the NBA or was it kind of a no-brainer?
I would say it always was a goal. I didn’t realize this was really an opportunity until more recently. I had an incredible time at the Raptors and was in a role that was very comfortable. So this was definitely an opportunity to be a little uncomfortable and do something I’d never done before, and I was looking for something like that. When the opportunity came, there was no hesitation that this was something I wanted to do.
You were one of Masai Ujiri’s first hires when he came to run the Raptors. How did working in that front office help prepare you for running the Tempo?
With the Raptors, I started as director of basketball operations and player development and ended as vice president of basketball operations. I was there for 10 seasons, and it was an incredible learning process, both within the sports industry and personally. Moving into this role, there were definitely things that prepared me really well, but in general, the goals are very different. Being a startup expansion team in its first season, in what’s still a growth league, is very different from being an established team in an established market. So there were a lot of differences. But it’s all perspective — it’s not like going from being a doctor to a pilot. It’s within sports, within team sports, within the same sport of basketball.
What are a few of the lessons you learned from working in that front office?
What we did at the Raptors — playing preseason games across the country, winning a championship — to become Canada’s team, we knew that was an incredible opportunity to position ourselves from the start with the Tempo. So that was one key takeaway. I also had the opportunity to sit at the table with the business leadership at MLSE and learn how they positioned the Raptors in the marketplace, especially against some of the other properties under the same umbrella, like the Leafs, TFC and the Argos. That was a great learning opportunity. The fact that I was able to connect with and touch every part of the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment business side through the Raptors lens was very beneficial for this role.
What are some of your favourite things about Toronto and Canada that you’ve discovered since moving here?
I grew up in rural Minnesota, then worked in New York City, then moved to Minneapolis, then moved to Toronto. I find that Toronto is an incredible combination of New York and the Midwest. It has some Midwest charm and is very community-based, but it’s also an incredibly diverse urban centre. So it felt like home — like a lot of the places I’d lived before — but it has its own character. I’ve enjoyed my time here. I just became a Canadian citizen, so I’m a new Canadian, like a quarter of the population here. I feel like I’m just trying to fit in like everybody else. But it’s great. I love it. I’ve really gotten into the city — I go to all the sporting events, concerts, theatre, any sort of live events, and the food scene is incredible.
I know you grew up in a farming town near Minnesota. What, if anything, did farming teach you about running a professional basketball team?
It was a good place to learn a lot of life skills that I’ve definitely applied. We raised livestock, so I learned a lot of responsibility. You’re feeding these animals and keeping them alive. Farming is also so incredibly dependent on things outside of your control. Being able to do the things you can control, be okay with the things you can’t, and not be too rattled by it. Have a plan, think ahead, and make sure one bad hailstorm doesn’t bankrupt your farm.
The town was 1,200 people, and my grandparents’ farm was just 20 minutes outside of town, so I spent a lot of time there. What did I learn? So many things. Where should I start? The value of hard work, of course. My dad is retired, but he still farms. His day job is now out of the way of his true passion, which is farming with his brothers and sisters. My grandfather farmed until the day he physically could no longer, at 91. It’s hard work, but it’s very rewarding.
Can you walk me through the logistics of trying to build an NBA practice facility in a Marriott ballroom during the pandemic?
It’s so funny you say that. It’s been six years now, and you kind of gloss over those details, but it was kind of crazy. The only reason that worked was because the team had spent the summer in the bubble at Disney, and they had played and practiced in those ballrooms with courts. If they hadn’t had that experience, there’s no way they would have even considered that as an option.
For Tampa, we knew we just needed a medical space, courts with a high enough ceiling, a weight room, and some office spaces. I put it together, reached out to the vendors and hoped it all came together. It’s crazy, and it did. Luckily, that Marriott had never been opened. When we moved in for practice, that ballroom had never been used before. So we laid our court right on top of the plastic film that the concrete still had on it. They didn’t have occupancy yet, and when they did get occupancy, nobody was staying there because of the pandemic. No one was travelling, so they welcomed us.
How did you celebrate the 2019 Raptor Championship win?
There’s actually a funny story. We had the draft the next week, so the front office actually did a draft workout with players in Toronto and then flew out with a bunch of other people to get to Oakland for Game 6. We came with literally just the clothes on our backs and what we were going to wear to the game, because we knew we were coming back no matter what: either champions or for Game 7. The ops team was there just ahead of us and realized they needed to buy stuff for the celebration. So they took the team bus to the liquor store, and it was closed. They knocked on the door and begged them and said, “We need bottles of champagne.” It was like buy one, get one $5 or something like that, and they said, “We need 250 of them.” Then they brought it to the arena and they were ready for the locker room celebration.
The celebration was awesome because there was so much family there, and it felt really intimate because it wasn’t the entire city celebrating with us at that moment. They were having their own party in Toronto, for sure. But it was pretty cool to have the people who were part of the very tight circle, who had been through the highs and the lows, celebrate together at that restaurant. It was a fun night. And then the parade on that Monday was a whole other experience.
What is your number one goal for the 2027 Tempo season?
That’s hard to define. What I will say is we learned a lot in season one. We’re really happy with how it all went for an inaugural season. I think we’ve done an incredible job of building a foundation for our brand and what the Tempo is about. We have incredible partners on board with us too, who are supporting and activating in ways that really elevate the nation. So honestly, season two is going to be more of the same — more of the same with the lessons now incorporated. We’re looking forward to more wins on the court. We learned a lot about performance and team strategy as well.
We have two goals: to be a championship team and to be Canada’s team, and those are going to permeate through everything we do.
What would you hope your legacy will be when you’re done with Canadian basketball and Canadian women’s sports?
I said this before when we were starting the team: I really wanted to create a space, a place, a team, an environment, a community where everybody felt like they could belong and be part of it. That’s a big part of the community we’re trying to create, and I think we achieved that in the first year.
They say it’s hard to get to the top, but it’s even harder to stay there. We know our fans trust us. Those are things that are really hard to gain but can be lost really quickly. So it’s about continuing to make strides and live up to the expectations our fan base has for us, and creating a place where people feel like they belong. Not just our fans, but also our players and all the people who work here. So the legacy, I guess, is creating a space where people look forward to being part of it and feel like they’re not just bystanders, but participants in history — in the WNBA, in Canada.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
