Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever were seen flying to the season opener against the Connecticut Sun on a chartered plane, but not every WNBA team did so before the start of the 2024 season.
Chicago Sky 2024 draft pick Angel Reese hopes this will be his last commercial flight.
Reese posted a selfie on his Instagram account Tuesday night on a flight to Dallas, where the Sky will face the Wings. She was very direct in her caption.
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Chicago Sky No. 5 Angel Reese looks on before a game against the Minnesota Lynx on May 3, 2024 at Target Center in Minneapolis. (David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
“I hope this is one of the last commercial flights operated by Chicago Sky,” she wrote. “Like the wind [Sky teammate Brianna Turner] “We are practicing a spirit of gratitude and patience as the league introduces charter flights for all teams.”
This has long been a hotly debated topic for the WNBA, as it was previously not allowed to charter teams to away games.
WNBA plans to offer full-time charter flights for teams starting this season
Joe Tsai, owner of the New York Liberty and Brooklyn Nets, was fined by the league in 2022 for providing charter flights to teams. The fine was due to a violation of the league’s collective bargaining agreement, which said it could give a potentially unfair competitive advantage to teams that cannot afford to pay charter fees.
As a result, WNBA teams primarily fly commercially, sometimes taking entire days to travel across the country. But for last season, the league expanded its charter flight policy to allow private flights for all postseason games, back-to-back games and some regular-season games.
Now, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a meeting with sports editors last week that the league will begin plans to operate full-time charter flights for teams “as soon as the planes can arrive.”
Chicago Sky No. 5 Angel Reese looks on before a game against the Minnesota Lynx on May 3, 2024 at Target Center in Minneapolis. (David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
Engelbert added that the expected cost of the charter plane program is about $25 million annually over the next two seasons.
Player safety has always been a concern on commercial flights, and the WNBA has embraced this since its inception in 1997. But Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner made national headlines when she was released from a Russian prison amid a controversial exchange with the United States. officials.
Six months after that exchange, Greiner was the target of “inappropriate and regrettable” behavior by a “social media figure and provocateur” at a Dallas airport. Alex Stein walked next to Greiner and asked why he “hated” and “still wanted it.”[s] She was walking with her teammates to boycott America.
Greiner later called the WNBA situation “rock bottom.”
A number of WNBA players voiced their opinions on the commercial flight, including Clark, who said it would have been an “adjustment.”
Chicago Sky No. 5 Angel Reese prepares to take a free throw during a WNBA preseason game against the Minnesota Lynx on May 3, 2024 at Target Center in Minneapolis. (David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
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As Reese said, she plans to practice gratitude and patience while the WNBA implements new programs. She clearly hopes that happens sooner rather than later.
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