At Toronto Life,our annual debate over the Most Influential list is usually a rip-roaring affair. Our editors, who know Toronto and Torontonians better than anyone, pitch the people they believe belong at the top of the list and then defend their selections like a prime-years Matlock.
This year, the most persuasive case was for the Toronto Sceptres. The team, about to enter its second season, stands at the head of a global movement in professional sports: a Canadian soccer start-up called the Northern Super League will soon launch with a slate of six teams including AFC Toronto, and in 2026, Toronto will inaugurate a WNBA team led by Larry Tanenbaum and Teresa Resch. Women’s sports are technically impressive, fast-paced and fun to watch. Yet so many women’s hockey leagues have come and gone, always with the same dashed hopes.
So what makes this moment demonstrably different? We put that question to the general manager of the Sceptres, Gina Kingsbury, and she believes that three factors coincided: a collection of smart, committed “hockey ops” people came together with a common vision; they were carried along by the momentum created by women’s Olympic soccer and the WNBA; and, crucially, they had the financial backing of Mark Walter, the CEO of Guggenheim Partners, a private equity firm with a $325-billion (US) portfolio that includes the LA Dodgers and Chelsea Football Club. Walter is willing to invest cash and take a loss in the short term, which gives the league time to get rolling.
What’s more, tennis icon Billie Jean King is on the league’s advisory committee. She dropped the puck at the first game in front of a rabid fan base, a moment that still resonates with Natalie Spooner. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much electricity go through my body,” she told Toronto Life features editor StéphanieVerge. Read Verge’s roundtable discussion with the stars of the Sceptres here.
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