WNBA to begin full-time charter flights this season, commissioner says
The WNBA plans to spend $50 million over the next two years to provide full-time charter flights for its teams during the season, the league’s commissioner announced Tuesday. This addresses years of concerns about player safety.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a meeting with sports editors that the league will launch a charter program “as soon as we can get planes on site.” She said it is expected to cost about $25 million per year for the next two seasons.
That means no more long security lines, bodyguards in public areas, cramped legroom or layovers for the professional athletes who have been lobbying for better travel long before Caitlin Clark’s celebrity sparked renewed interest in the competition.
Most importantly, says Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, it means safety for the players.
“All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it’s really as much about that as it is about recovery,” Collier said, noting how Brittney Griner was harassed last season by what the WNBA called a “provocateur” while promoting .
The WNBA had already announced plans to once again pay for charter flights for the entire playoffs and for back-to-back games during the upcoming season. The league introduced that program last year, spending about $4 million on charter flights. Engelbert said at the time that the league had to be in the right financial position to operate full-time charter flights.
The WNBA has never been more popular thanks to newcomers like Clark, who helped the NCAA achieve the best viewership in history for women’s basketball, with nearly 19 million fans watching the title game, along with Angel Reese who attended the Met Gala on Monday night and Cameron Brink.
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said it’s not business as usual anymore: It’s time for the league, franchises and women’s sports to be innovative.
“We’ve had moments in the league,” said Reeve, who called the current momentum a tsunami. “But this is clearly a movement. And if you think that is not the case, you will be left behind.”
Clark turned heads as she walked through the airport with her new Indiana Fever teammates last week for a preseason game with the Dallas Wings. That exhibition was sold out and fans lined up to get in.
WNBA teams have also moved games against Clark and Indiana to larger arenas due to increased demand. Defending champion Las Vegas Aces in March became the first WNBA team to sell out its allotted season tickets after leading the league in 2023.
Flights have been an ongoing problem for the WNBA, which only increased last year when the league began working with the Phoenix Mercury and Griner following the All-Star center’s 10-month detention in Russia.
The league had not allowed teams to use charter flights except when they had back-to-back games.
That forced players like Breanna Stewart, the 6-foot-4 forward for the New York Liberty, to squeeze past fellow travelers on commercial flights to fit into her assigned window seat. WNBA players not only had to pick up their own luggage, but also endure travel days that could last as long as 13 hours, with delays.
Charter flights allow WNBA players to go straight to buses or their own cars when they return home via private air terminals. Avoiding layovers will also help with recovery between competitions, which is even more important with this season’s schedule surrounding the Olympics.
WNBA coaches and players waited Tuesday for details about the charter flights.
Stewart spoke to reporters via Zoom just before the commissioner spoke in New York. Stewart shared a plane emoji with a question mark on social media for the attention of the WNBA account.
Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon, whose Aces already had security to protect players, knows what will make everyone ecstatic.
“Everyone is very happy that they don’t have to stand in the security lines as often or as long,” Hammon said.
Two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, who now has an endorsement deal with Gatorade, said the growth of women’s soccer was a “whirlwind” that was only a matter of time. Wilson said it’s up to the players and teams to put the best product on the field with so many people watching right now.
“That’s what keeps bringing in more eyes and more people and more investors, and then we end up with charter flights, and then things take off and people leave, and now we’re having a great time,” Wilson said.