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Next year, Canada鈥檚 first WNBA team, the 海角社区官网Tempo, will make Coca-Cola Coliseum its home court, growing the arena’s new lease on life as a hub for professional women鈥檚 sport. But updating a 20th-century building for the needs of 21st-century sports teams and fans isn鈥檛 without some challenges.

People are quick to applaud the character of the historic building, its location, the great view from the seats and the lively atmosphere a full house creates. They also point to the long lines to get in the building and for washrooms, too few food, beverage and merchandise opportunities and other amenities for professional teams that are the hallmark of newer buildings.

Much of that comes down to space 鈥� there just isn鈥檛 any more in the 鈥渕axed out鈥� building, says Don Boyle, chief executive of Exhibition Place, the City of 海角社区官网agency that manages it and other city-owned buildings on the grounds. (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment has operated the arena since 2005 when its AHL team, the 海角社区官网Marlies, moved in.)

Still, some changes are coming.

The biggest is a dedicated locker room for the Tempo. The Sceptres use the Marlies鈥� visitors dressing room, but the WNBA is decades farther down the professional sports path and being able to invest in building their own player space was an important factor in choosing the location, said Tempo president Teresa Resch.

American WNBA franchises have been upscaling facilities, especially practice venues, to the point that it鈥檚 been called an arms race between teams. But Resch calls it 鈥渃atching up and delivering the spaces that the players have always deserved鈥� now that team values have risen to the point where they鈥檙e able to provide them.

“For a long time in the W, the athletes have been secondary in a lot of their facilities, so it鈥檚 incredible to see that they get this prioritization,” she said.

Boyle says it wasn’t easy to carve out the some 10,000 square feet of space needed, but nobody wanted to miss the opportunity to get the Tempo in the building.

As the scale and scope of events increases, other long-standing arena users such as the Royal Winter Fair and concert acts also benefit, he said, adding that upgrades to the kitchen facilities are planned to provide more varied and elevated food offerings for suites.

Longer term, there’s hope the nearby Food Building can become a pre-game hub, offering dinner and drinks and a place to meet with friends, Boyle said. Right now, it鈥檚 the top attraction for the 18 days of the Canadian National Exhibition but shuttered as storage for the rest of the year. That lease is up for renegotiation in 2027 and given the growth of nearby Liberty Village聽鈥� and over 2,000 entertainment, sports and convention events held last year at Exhibition Place 鈥斅�“consideration for the Food Building to be a year-round offering is on the table,” he said.

Inside the arena, Resch is thrilled with the atmosphere she’s witnessed as a Sceptres season-ticket holder and what she thinks they’ll be able to deliver for Tempo fans next year. 鈥淲e think we can build an incredible hub for sport there, especially with the Sceptres being a neighbour 鈥� a roommate,” she said.

“It’s a 100-year-old building, so it has a ton of character and also has some infrastructure things that come with it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it an incredible place to play. I mean, Wrigley Field is still one of the best places to play baseball,” she said of the Chicago Cubs ballpark that has a few years on the 1921 coliseum.

The challenge is providing the expansive food and beverage services, merchandise sales and premium spaces found in newer buildings, she said. Those spaces just didn’t exist when the coliseum was built, “so some of those things are never going to be there, but that’s also part of the uniqueness and the quality of this facility that is kind of charming.”

All that history adds up to some quirks, too.

In one of many renovations over the years at Exhibition Place, one entrance was attached to the Enercare Centre convention complex. That shared entry is not available when other events are booked, leading to long lines聽鈥� especially for the capacity crowds the Sceptres have attracted and the Tempo expect. That attached but unavailable space also draws the ire of fans when it comes to washrooms.

That issue of overly long lines was聽raised by Sceptres fans this time last year聽when playoff games were held at Coca-Cola Coliseum, and it hasn’t gone away.聽

At the Sceptres’ penultimate regular-season game this week,聽11-year-old Molly Haight, who was waiting in line to buy a Sarah Nurse jersey, summed up that sentiment: “the lines are too long 鈥� for the merch, some of the food and just, like, getting in.” Season-ticket holder Barb Balls, waiting in line just behind her, added: “The one later will be for bathrooms.”

Boyle knows all about that particular fan frustration, but says washroom lineups, especially at peak intermission times, aren’t related to the building’s age and are 鈥渘ot something that you can build your way out of.鈥�

“It’s really about prime time, right. You don’t want to tell people when to go, but the same thing happens at Scotiabank,” he said of the arena聽where the Maple Leafs and Raptors play. “At a hockey timeout, you go to the washroom and come right back. But if you go at intermission, there’s a lineup down the hall 鈥� and that’s for the men’s washroom.”

MLSE holds a long-term lease to run and operate Coca-Cola Coliseum and is responsible for upgrades. It has previously acknowledged that venue access with capacity crowds can be difficult, but declined to discuss any changes planned to better accommodate Sceptres and Tempo fans.

For all the niggling annoyance of the lines, long-time women鈥檚 hockey fan Balls says the PWHL “blew expectations out of the water when it came here,” delivering a big second-season upgrade after just one year in the much smaller Mattamy Athletic Centre.

In the last week and a half, the PWHL announced expansion teams in Vancouver and Seattle, bringing the league up to eight for next season. Amy Scheer, executive vice-president of business operations, said the quality of facilities for fans and players was a key element in those decisions. At Pacific Coliseum, the Vancouver team will be the primary tenant 鈥� a first for the league 鈥� and will get more control over scheduling, branding and the opportunity to rebuild locker rooms for players, she said.

Dedicated locker rooms at practice venues is already standard in the league, and the Sceptres dressing room, support offices and lounge at the Ford Performance Centre is a sea of blue and yellow.

Though they don’t have a similar permanent space at Cola-Cola Coliseum, Katie Hinton, the team鈥檚 assistant equipment manager, makes it seem like they do. That means arriving with a 24-foot box truck at 7 a.m. on game day full of equipment to set up player stalls and transform the AHL visitors room.

鈥淲e make sure everything has our logo. We have signs that say Sceptres on them 鈥� coaches room, medical room, equipment room, players dressing room,鈥� Hinton said. 鈥淪o the moment the players walk in, it’s like they’re walking into their home.鈥�

It鈥檚 impressive, says Sceptres defender Megan Carter.聽

“You walk in and get to relive that you’re here playing pro hockey and living the dream. It just sets the stage to get you going for the game ahead.”

Down the line, having their own venue dressing room would be “awesome” but “given the growth already, you don’t get too greedy because it’s really exciting for what we do have.鈥�