Flying High

Women's basketball has never been hotter.  Thanks to Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the NCAA Tournament has drawn record ratings in the last two years.  Now that they're in the WNBA, they're bringing their popularity with them, and the league is set for increased exposure.  And the WNBA seems ready for it!

Last year was the first time in WNBA history that teams were allowed to fly charter.  It was only for the second game of back-to-backs and during the playoffs, but it was still a major step after the league required its teams to fly commercial previously.  With flying commercial came all the pitfalls regular people endure while traveling.  It's certainly not the way professional athletes should be traveling.  And the WNBA players sure made their displeasure about it known.

Well, waiting in long security lines and spending hours at the airport during flight delays are a thing of the past.  The WNBA announced that starting this season, teams will be chartering to every road game (obviously going from New York to Connecticut or vice versa will be an exception).  It's a $50 million commitment over the next two seasons, an investment that's welcome and long overdue.

This is a huge step for the WNBA.  While Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese don't deserve all the credit, their presence in the league certainly doesn't hurt.  This was something a long time coming, though, and it seems likely it would've happened anyway.  It's something the WNBPA had been pushing for, and they're finally getting treated the way they should.  As professional athletes.

The players' concerns about flying commercial were legitimate, too.  It wasn't just having to go through the security lines and enduring the long travel days that come with flight delays.  It was the security concerns that come with traveling through the airport (Brittney Griner was repeatedly harassed last year), having to uncomfortably cram into regular airplane seats and having to get their own luggage and bring it to the bus themselves.  Certainly not ideal travel conditions, yet they were expected to perform at their best in a basketball game afterwards.

When the WNBA first started, flying commercial made sense and was practical.  It's expensive to charter a plane, and the fledgling league wasn't in a strong enough position financially to make that sort of investment.  As the WNBA grew, however, having the teams fly commercial made less and less sense.  In fact, it became more practical to charter.  And chartering is about to make the players' lives a lot easier.

Now they'll enjoy the same perks as NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB players.  They don't have to get to the airport hours early just to go through security anymore.  Instead, the bus will pull directly onto the tarmac and they'll walk right on the plane, then, once they land, it's right to the bus (or to their cars).  The time saved alone will be a massive improvement.  Not to mention the comfort that comes with flying on a charter plane.

You'd have to think having all of the teams charter will work wonders for the WNBA schedule, too.  They no longer need to schedule teams' road trips around flight availability.  More importantly, they won't need to deal with missed connections and/or long layovers.  A trip to play the Sun won't involve driving to Logan or JFK just to get a direct flight.  Now, they can fly from wherever directly into a regional airport near Hartford.

Details still have to be worked out.  All WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said was that they would launch the charter program "as soon as we can get the planes in place."  What that means is unclear, but I'd imagine that, at the start, there won't necessarily be a dedicated plane for each team.  Rather, I'm expecting a fleet of 6-8 planes that all of the teams share, at least at first.  Could that lead to individual team planes eventually?  I think that's a worthwhile goal.

Regardless of how it works this season, it's a huge step for the WNBA.  And one that's incredibly welcomed by the players.  Nneka Ogwumike, the President of the WNBPA, called it "transformational" and credited the league for working with the players to get it done.  She released a lengthy statement praising the move that concludes with: "It's a great day for our league as a whole that we are able to get here and we're going to continue to grow and continue to build and continue to push for even better."

Other players acknowledged how much it'll improve recovery, but stressed safety as the most important reason why charter flights aren't just preferred, but necessary.  The WNBA's popularity was growing before Clark and Reese joined the league.  Players like Griner and Breanna Stewart draw crowds as they walk through airports, which was a security concern for everyone.  Not just the WNBA players, but the other travelers, too.  Then you throw in Clark, who was mobbed at the airport last week when the Fever traveled to Dallas for a preseason game.

Not coincidentally, the WNBA's increased popularity because of Clark has already resulted in several Fever road games being moved to bigger venues due to such high demand for tickets.  Is this momentum fleeting?  It certainly could be.  But it seems more likely that it isn't.  The WNBA is growing and continuing to push boundaries.  Charter flights are just a part of that.

After this season, the WNBA's CBA is up for renewal.  The charter flights were a huge issue that the players fought for...and won!  Now they can move on to other things that are important to them moving forward.  They don't want it just for themselves, either.  They want to make the WNBA better for the next generation of players and make it so that they can take for granted the things that are being fought for now.  Things like charter travel.

Securing a commitment from the WNBA to provide full-time charter flight service is a huge win.  Both for the players and the league.  The league wouldn't be investing $50 million just because it's the right thing to do.  They're also doing it because it's worthwhile.  It shows confidence that this increase in popularity has lasting power.  And they want the players to reap the benefits.