The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that when news emerged last fall that Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment would not bid for an expansion franchise in the Women's National Basketball Association, it came as a surprise. Guest columnist Scott Stinson writes that MLSE had hosted a sold-out crowd of more than 19,000 fans at Scotiabank Arena for a preseason WNBA game months earlier. Toronto had long been rumoured as an expansion site for a league that had operated mostly in NBA cities for more than 25 years. It is a big market, and a Canadian franchise was a natural fit for a league that included Canadian athletes such as Kia Nurse and Natalie Achonwa. Reports suggested that holdouts at the MLSE board, specifically the Rogers wing of it, had killed the WNBA bid. This month brought news that Larry Tanenbaum was preparing to pursue a WNBA bid on his own. It suggests that Mr. Tanenbaum has a better reading on the potential growth opportunities in women's professional sports than his MLSE partners. It also suggests he could end up making them look silly. The WNBA is set to play its second preseason game in Canada in May, this time in Edmonton. It will do so amid unprecedented interest in the women's league.