If there is one thing that the general public had in common with WNBA players, it was the hassle of air travel. Since the league began play in 1997, the overwhelming amount of travel that women’s professional basketball players undertook in this country was via commercial flights.
However, keying on the explosion of popularity in women’s basketball over the past few years, the WNBA is committing to something that most professional athletes take for granted. The league announced this week that it will pony up $50 million over the next two years to provide its players charter flight service for road trips during the season.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert made the announcement with the league regular-season set to begin Tuesday, May 14. The move addresses a top issue among the league’s rank-and-file for a number of years.
Past WNBA Finances Forbade Charter Travel
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The WNBA had the financial wherewithal to offer charter flights for all playoff teams during the 2023 postseason. It was a first for a league that did not have the financial resources in the past to offer team flights.
In the past, teams were forced to fly to games on the same commercial flights as members of the general public flying for business or pleasure. Over the years, WNBA team members’ calls for charter flights have become greater. Players cited both safety and health concerns, with greater WNBA popularity leading to more recognizable players in public places among the complaints.
With several players from last season’s stratospherically popular NCAA women’s college season now turning pro, the need to sequester very familiar faces from the public in an airport setting became even more important. As Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told members of the media in a conference call this week:
“We’ve been on a wave. But this is like a bit more of a tsunami. If you think the status quo is going to work, you’re going to miss out on opportunities to capitalize. Having more of a forward-thinking mindset, being innovative — that time is now.”
The WNBA is projecting to cash in on the wave of women’s basketball popularity as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and others that fans came out in droves to watch play collegiately will now ply their trade in the pros.
Charter Flights Worked Out Between WNBA, WNBPA
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Continued use of commercial flights had been laid out in previous collective bargaining agreements between the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) for years. However, this past offseason, both the league and players association worked together to alter the agreement in order to allow full-time charter flights for the next two seasons — and likely beyond.
WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike, formerly of the Los Angeles Sparks, now of the Seattle Storm, told ESPN News Services:
“Chartering flights not only is a safety measure, the biggest thing, and then obviously what it means to be able to play a game and go home and rest and recover and be the elite athletes that we try to be every single night when we step out onto this court. It’s a great day for our league as a whole that we are able to get here and we’re going to continue to grow and continue to build and continue to push for even better.”
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Tom Carothers is a sportswriter with more than 20 years of experience covering sports at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Still longing for the return of his Minnesota North Stars, he has a high pain tolerance as a big fan of the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Browns, and Tottenham Hotspur.
Tom is the WNBA Content Manager for Total Apex Sports. He is also well versed in covering MLB, NFL, NHL, as well as MLS and EPL.
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