Topline
The WNBA’s commissioner announced Tuesday the league will begin chartering flights for its 12 teams “as soon as” it can this season, following increased criticism around the previous league policy that required teams to take commercial flights in most scenarios.
Chartering flights will cost the league about $25 million for its dozen teams, Commissioner Cathy ... [+]
Key Facts
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters Tuesday the league would join most other major sports leagues—including the NBA, NFL and MLB—and start chartering flights “as soon as we can get planes in places,” multiple outlets reported.
Previously, the WNBA only chartered flights for the playoffs and certain situations in the regular season when teams had back-to-back games scheduled that required air travel, though the rise of stars like the Indiana Fever’s No. 1 draft pick Caitlin Clark led to concern around the safety of commercial travel.
Charter flights are expected to cost the league about $25 million a year for the next two years, breaking down to about $2 million a team per season, Engelbert said, according to the Associated Press.
The decision comes as demand and interest in the WNBA have been increasing, in large part due to attention on women’s college basketball stars like Clark and Angel Reese who made the college game popular.
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Crucial Quote
“Why now?” USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The explosion of interest in the league, business growth and anticipated future revenue from the next media deal.”
Tangent
ESPN announced Tuesday that the first two games of its season—one of which will feature Clark’s regular season debut—will air live on Disney+ next week. That will mark the first time the opening night double header will be available on Disney+, ESPN2 and ESPN+.
Key Background
So far, ahead of the start of its normal season, the WNBA has seen increased demand and ticket sales, with StubHub reporting last week that sales for this year were up 93% compared to last year. The heightened interest follows a similar trend that women’s college basketball saw in recent years, which culminated this season with the women’s national championship game drawing in more viewers than the men for the first time. Before last season when it expanded its charter flight policy to include certain back-to-back regular season games, the WNBA—which has much lower revenue and salaries than the NBA—had only chartered flights for playoff games. The WNBA reportedly spent about $4 million on chartered flights last year when allowing them for post-season and back-to-back regular season games. Earlier this month, Clark—who largely took chartered flights as a student athlete at Iowa—told reporters it would be “an adjustment” to fly commercial, but that “it is what it is.” Clark added: “I'm sure everybody would say that they would love to be flying charter all the time. That definitely would help a lot of problems.”
