WNBA Caves On Charter Flights for Players

Well, the Caitlin Clark effect has made its way to WNBA travel. Today, the league finally announced that its 12 teams would be traveling via charter flights going forward. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the league's plans to start the program this season.

"We intend to fund a full-time charter for this season," Engelbert said Tuesday in a meeting with sports editors.

She said the league will launch the program "as soon as we can get planes in places."

Engelbert said the program will cost the league around $25 million annually for the next two seasons. She previously said before the WNBA draft that the league needs to be in the right financial position to charter planes.

In the past, the WNBA has taken a tough stance against team owners who have acted independently to preserve competitive balance. In 2022, when the Liberty violated CBA rules by chartering flights for their players, the league fined them $500,000, reduced from the initially proposed $1 million penalty.

The upcoming WNBA season is set to start next Tuesday, May 14, exactly one week after Engelbert announced the revised travel arrangements.

THE UNDERRATED OPINION
Well, apparently, Caitlin Clark is already having an effect on the WNBA's willingness to cave on some of the long-standing issues the league has been dealing with. Certainly, in the past, the WNBA did not want to be out of pocket $20 million plus. Still, the excitement around Clark joining the league represents an immediate boost in revenue for the WNBA, which is why the announcement was made today.