It will cost the league about $25 million to charter flights for its dozen teams, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said.
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.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.
