The WNBA is about to complete its first season with 15 franchises, with the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire making their debut this year. The league has already planned further expansion and wants to reach 18 by 2030. However, it seems the interest from Canada is only growing.

The Tempo remain the only Canadian-based WNBA team, but that might change by 2031. A Vancouver-based group led by retired Deloitte executive Bill Bakk and former Canadian basketballer and Olympian Jodi Evans has publicly launched a campaign to bring a WNBA franchise to Vancouver.

While the group has been working quietly on the project for about a year, it has not yet submitted a formal bid. Instead, they intend to solidify their proposal and pitch the WNBA within the next two to three years, and for good reason.

“The WNBA has not announced expansion past 2030, and a source familiar with the league’s plans told @FOS it has no further plans beyond what has been announced,” Front Office Sports’ Colin Salao wrote in his report.

So if Bill Bakk and Jodi Evans plan to change the league leadership’s mind, they will need to make a strong case. Thankfully, the Canada-based group’s leaders have the experience to take on the task.

Bill Bakk, the primary architect and leader of the Vancouver bid committee, is a retired senior business executive who spent 29 years at Deloitte, serving as the Managing Partner for Financial Advisory Services in Canada and as a Global Leader for Financial Institution Reorganization Services. His deep corporate and financial expertise appears to be the commercial backbone of the proposal.

Jodi Evans, the group’s managing partner, also brings an equally impressive profile, currently serving as Vice Chair and Managing Partner at Deloitte Canada, where she specializes in retail strategy, corporate transformation, and public sector consulting.

But long before her corporate success, Evans was a standout basketball player. She was named the Canadian university Player of the Year while playing for the University of Calgary, and went on to spend eight seasons with Team Canada, culminating in a trip to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

With that combination of elite sports credentials and corporate leadership, Evans will definitely serve as a vital bridge between the worlds of basketball and institutional investment.

According to Front Office Sports, the group is seeking approximately $500 million CAD, roughly $350 million USD, to fund the venture. That figure is expected to be split between a $250 million expansion fee and the development of a state-of-the-art practice facility.

Exploratory discussions are also already underway regarding potential venues, with Rogers Arena, the home of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, being considered as the primary game-day home for the proposed team. Notably, the venue has hosted WNBA games before. The Pacific Coliseum, where the PWHL’s Vancouver GoldenEyes play, is also being explored.

Whether the WNBA has any appetite to expand beyond its officially announced 18-team target, however, remains unclear. The three confirmed future franchises, Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030, are currently the extent of the league’s publicly stated expansion plans. In fact, Sources close to the league have suggested the WNBA currently has no public plans to go beyond 18 teams.

That uncertainty has not deterred Bakk, who is spearheading the effort with a deliberately flexible approach.

“We want to be ready,” Bakk told Front Office Sports. “You never know in the world of sports as to when franchises move. I know that’s not something that will probably happen here. But nevertheless, our standing line is we want to be ready for whatever reason in that period of time.”

Ultimately, with the timeline Bak and the group have in place to submit its proposal, the decision to approve any new expansion team will primarily rest with the WNBA leadership and especially their future Commissioner. Cathy Engelbert, who has spearheaded that league’s growth in the past few years, will retire at the end of this year.