MONTREAL — The Toronto Tempo didn’t get the win Friday night, but they did get to be part of a WNBA record.
Paige Bueckers scored 34 points to lead the Dallas Wings to a 108-95 victory over the Tempo at the Bell Centre in front of 20,996, the highest attendance for a regular-season crowd in the league’s 30-year history.
That broke the regular-season mark of 20,711 set on Sept. 19, 2024, when the Washington Mystics hosted the Indiana Fever at Capital One Arena.
The league’s two largest crowds of all time — both 22,076 — came in WNBA Finals games hosted by the Detroit Shock at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The first instance was when the Shock faced the Los Angeles Sparks in Game 3 of a best-of-three title series on Sept. 16, 2003; the second was when they faced the Phoenix Mercury in Game 5 of a best-of-five title series on Sept. 16, 2007.
“Being the only team in Canada, it’s a responsibility for us, and how cool is that,” Tempo coach Sandy Brondello said. “We get to be seen all over Canada. We want to make sure we can come out tonight and celebrate the WNBA and celebrate the Tempo with our new fans.”