Bueckers Drops 34 as Wings Set WNBA Attendance Record in Montreal
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Dallas Wings beat the Toronto Tempo 108-95 at the Bell Centre on Friday, with Paige Bueckers scoring 34 points on 13-of-22 shooting to go with six assists and six rebounds
- The announced crowd of 20,996 set a WNBA regular-season attendance record, surpassing the prior mark of 20,711 set in Washington on Sept. 19, 2024, against Indiana
- Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello framed the game as the expansion franchise's responsibility as Canada's only WNBA team, saying 'We're creating firsts'; the Tempo will also play two games in Vancouver and face New York in Montreal on Sunday
- Jessica Shepard added 20 points and 17 rebounds and Arike Ogunbowale scored 20 for Dallas (15-8), which swept a four-game road trip that included a win over the Tempo in Toronto
- Marina Mabrey matched Bueckers with 34 points for Toronto (9-13), hitting 6-of-9 from three-point range, and Laura Juskaite added 25 as the Tempo lost their fourth straight
- The Bell Centre previously hosted the largest crowd in PWHL history (21,105) on April 20, 2024, and the two largest WNBA crowds ever (22,076) came in Detroit's 2003 and 2007 Finals — figures the source notes as context for the new regular-season mark
Why it matters: The 20,996 attendance figure is the WNBA's largest regular-season crowd in league history, and the source underscores that it was set not at a Finals venue but by a first-year expansion franchise playing outside the U.S. — concrete evidence the league is converting international and curiosity-driven demand into ticket sales, not just buzz.
