WNBA to begin full-time charter flights this season

The WNBA plans to commit $50 million over the following two years to offer full-time constitution flight service for its groups throughout the season, the league’s commissioner introduced Tuesday in a transfer that addresses years of participant security considerations.

“We intend to fund a full-time constitution for this season,” commissioner Cathy Engelbert mentioned in a gathering with sports activities editors.

She mentioned the league will launch this system “as quickly as we will get planes in locations.”

Engelbert mentioned this system will value the league round $25 million per 12 months for the following two seasons.

The WNBA already had introduced at its draft final month plans to as soon as once more pay for constitution flights for your complete playoffs in addition to for back-to-back video games throughout the upcoming season that require air journey.

The league’s schedule options extra back-to-back units this season with the WNBA taking an extended break for the Olympics in late July and early August. The league spent $4 million on charters in 2023.

Engelbert mentioned earlier than the WNBA draft that the league must be in the proper monetary place to constitution planes.

The WNBA is attracting extra consideration than ever due to rookies like Caitlin Clark, who helped the NCAA attain its finest viewership in historical past for ladies’s basketball, with almost 19 million followers watching the title recreation, together with Angel Reese who went to the Met Gala on Monday evening and Cameron Brink.

Clark attracted consideration strolling by way of the airport along with her new Indiana Fever teammates for a preseason recreation with the Dallas Wings final week. That exhibition bought out with followers lined up wanting to get inside.

WNBA groups even have been transferring video games towards Clark and Indiana to greater arenas due to elevated demand.

Minnesota Lynx ahead Napheesa Collier mentioned flying by way of constitution planes is a security subject because the names, stars and followers develop. She famous video exhibiting Clark having bodyguards surrounding her on the airport and making an attempt to guard Brittney Griner final 12 months whereas touring.

“All these gamers and these faces have gotten so fashionable that it truly is about that as a lot because it as about restoration,” Collier mentioned.

Flights have been a difficulty for the WNBA that solely elevated final 12 months with the league working with Griner and the Phoenix Mercury. They needed to go business air, and the All-Star heart who had been detained in Russia for almost 10 months was harassed by what the WNBA known as a “provocateur.”

The league hadn’t allowed groups to make use of constitution flights apart from after they have back-to-back video games.

That compelled gamers like Breanna Stewart, the 6-foot-4 ahead for the New York Liberty, to squeeze previous fellow vacationers on business flights to suit into her assigned window seat. WNBA gamers additionally needed to not solely retrieve their very own baggage however endure journey days that would stretch 13 hours with delays.

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