TORONTO – Fans began arriving at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto Tuesday afternoon, hours before tip off between the Toronto Tempo and the Indiana Fever.
Despite it being a home game for the Tempo, many fans were decked out in Caitlin Clark jerseys, excited for the WNBA superstar’s first game in Canada.
“It’s like a dream,” said 11-year-old Joey Parr, who came to the game with her mom Sherri. Both were wearing Clark jerseys and Tempo hats to the game, excited to watch high-calibre basketball in person.
“The passing is phenomenal, the teamwork, the shooting,” said Sherri. “It is unbelievable to be a female athlete and be coming to this game today.”
The popularity of women’s professional sport continues to surge, with the Tempo tipping off its inaugural season in May. While the team usually plays at Coca-Cola Coliseum, Tuesday’s game was moved to the larger Scotiabank Arena to accommodate demand for tickets.
“I want her to see these professional women playing sports, and hopefully she gets inspired,” said Steve Vair, who brought his six-year-old daughter Everly to the game.
But stealing some attention away from the play on the court are comments made by Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who has spoken out against transgender women participating in women’s sport.
“I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in a sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” she told ESPN in July.
‘It’s a culture war’
Those comments have been met with both praise and criticism. Outside Scotiabank Arena, some people were seen holding flags showing their support for Cunningham, while others were seen waving transgender pride flags and wearing shirts that read “trans kids matter.”
“I think she brings, like, a different edge to the game, and she kind of speaks her truth,” said fan Shayla Turner. “Everything kinda in life, especially right now in society, isn’t gonna work with everybody’s vision. But she holds her truth, and I think at the end of the day, she’s preaching love.”
Meg Fenway, who was carrying a trans flag, called Cunningham’s comments “fear mongering.”
“It’s a culture war that essentially gets away from recognizing people’s humanity,” she said. “Trans women are not the reason that so many people right now are struggling, but they’re such an easy target to pick on, to give somebody an argument to make themselves feel better.”
The WNBA says there are no immediate eligibility matters pertaining to trans athletes, but they have set up a working group to discuss this issue, part of its response to the fall-out from Cunningham’s comments.
“They are sort of fabricating, I think, this discourse to get people riled up around an issue that that doesn’t exist,” said Charles Macaulay, an assistant professor at the University of Guelph, who researches sport sociology and athlete activism.
“The conversation should be on the fact that people are lining up for a WNBA game in Toronto,” he said. “The fact that we are having to focus on these sort of other political discourses around the WNBA and women’s sports, I think is just detracting from all the really exciting things that are happening in women’s sports around how these leagues are growing.”
