The check-in: The WNBA charter flights are here!!!
Plus? The whip-around. (Title should be read in Pauly D voice)
Well, friends, the day has finally arrived: WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has announced to the Associated Press and other sports editors that the WNBA will begin providing full-time charter flights for its teams this season!
This is the culmination of a fight that has been brewing between players and owners, fans and management, player health and pocketbook health since the WNBA launched 28 seasons ago. It’s a big fucking deal.
Now, of course, because this is the WNBA, there are a couple of important caveats and asterisks to explore.
First off, we don’t know when, exactly, this will happen. The WNBA season tips off in less than a week, on Tuesday, May 14. Will the four road teams on the slate that night — the New York Liberty, Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury, and Minnesota Lynx — be chartering flights to Washington, D.C., Uncassville, Las Vegas, and Seattle, respectively? We can’t say for sure!
Engelbert told reporters on Tuesday that the charter program will launch “as soon as we can get planes in places,” which is one of the funniest turns of phrases I’ve ever heard, but I take it to meant that some logistics still need to be worked out. The Athletic reports that many general managers around the league were surprised by today’s announcement, and it was clear by social media that players were finding out about it at the same time that the rest of us did — and processing the unintended consequences, at that.
So yeah, the roll-out of this news could have been a little cleaner, and there’s still some key information that we’ll hopefully be getting soon. But still: Celebrations are warranted.
Engelbert has repeatedly said that the WNBA would not start a full-time charter program until it was financially feasible to do so not just for one year, but for the foreseeable future. The WNBA will reportedly be paying $25 million a year for this year and next year for the charter program. Previously, the league was only paying about $4 million a year to charter teams for back-to-back games and in the playoffs. So this is a big increase in investment.
It’s significant that it’s happening now, two seasons before the new TV deal is signed that is expected to bring in a massive influx of cash to the league; it must mean that the sponsor dollars and business deals are already flooding in along with this new draft class, and that every owner in the league feels comfortable enough financially to take this big step. (This isn’t something sources have told me, it’s merely an educated guess based on following and reporting on and studying this league for over a decade; you can call the WNBA a lot of things, but “hasty” isn’t one of them.)
It’s also significant that it’s happening before the current collective bargaining agreement is even officially opted out of; what an absolute relief it is that the league is not holding back charters to use it as a bargaining chip at the negotiation table.
Now, look, if anyone understands skepticism, it’s me. I’m going to completely pop my bottle of champagne in solidarity until the plans are in the right places and wheels are up. But I’ve got it on ice and ready to go.
The whip-around
Thank you so much for your support of Power Plays! I drove down to Atlanta last week to watch and report on a Pro Volleyball Federation game — the Atlanta Vibe beat the Columbus Fury in straight sets in their regular-season finale — and you’ll see the results of that trip in a future newsletter. That type of in-person reporting is invaluable and only possible because of paid subscribers to this newsletter.
Now, we’re well overdue for a semi-regular whip-around, where we look in on women’s sports happenings around the country, primarily, and the world, occasionally. Like usual, this whip-around will not be comprehensive, because it’s impossible to get to everything, and it will not be extensive on any one topic, because that’s not the point, but it will be a lot! And, hopefully, it’ll be fun.