The WNBA have this week announced that they intend to implement chartered flights for all teams, with commissioner Cathy Engelbert citing that it could start as soon as this season.
Expected to cost an estimated $25 million per year over the next two seasons, Engelbert ensures the measures will be provided "as soon as [they] can logistically get planes in place."
Now, should these travel measures be enacted, it’s hoped that they could have a profound impact on player welfare.
In fact, WNBA Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike went as far as to call the move "transformational.”
"Our league is growing, the demand for women's basketball is growing," she says, speaking with ESPN, referencing the increased attention to both the league and women’s basketball as a whole given the surge in popularity around newly recruited WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark.
"That means more eyes on us, which is what we want, but that means more protection from the organisation that we play for, the whole W that we play for,” she says.
.@Alysha_Clark shared her thoughts on the WNBA’s charter flights program for players this season:
“The fact that it’s finally here. Great. Now…let’s get this rolling and let it be here for the longterm.”
🎥: @AllisonCFried, Vegas Sports Today #WNBA | #LVAces pic.twitter.com/2DmlTc7vIc— Vegas Sports Today (@VegasSportsTD) May 9, 2024
"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," she adds.
Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier and Mercury’s Natasha Cloud echoed similar thoughts, although also mentioned that the increase in attention around the players also brings with it some unwanted consequences, consequences that could be alleviated through the introduction of chartered flights.
In one instance last season, Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner was harassed in an airport while waiting on a flight.
"All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it really is about that as much as it as about recovery," Collier says.
"Above everything else, I think it's the safety of our players," Cloud adds.
“We have a prime example with BG on our team that needs to be safe. At airports, it's like a madhouse. You see Caitlin Clark walking through airports, people following her, people trying to touch her, get pictures with her. It's just a safety measure, through and through. You would never have an NBA team walk through an airport."
Up until now, individual owners could independently provide their teams with private travel, but, would face fines for unauthorised charters, given doing so was seen to present a competitive advantage for one team over another.
For example, New York Liberty’s Joe and Clara Wu Tsai were fined as much as $500,000 and had to remove executive Oliver Weisberg from the league’s executive committee for doing so in 2022, Sports Illustrated reported.
The WNBA had previously committed to chartered flights for playoffs and back to back away games within the regular season, although this new proposal would see charters provided for all games.
"Our safety is being taken seriously now, finally. In no world should our security not be a priority," Griner says, in conversation with ESPN.
“If we want to be the league that we want to be and have the respect that we have, it comes with some risks.
“Sometimes people want to get close to you and it's not people you want, so I'm just glad that we don't have to deal with that anymore."
“Our safety should always have been high priority. As a league we’re more accessible to our fans … but we’ve hit the threshold where it can be an endangerment.”
Brittney Griner reacts to the news that the WNBA will charter flights for teams in 2024 pic.twitter.com/yt5WqyAU8X— Brendon Kleen (@BrendonKleen14) May 9, 2024
