NEW YORK — The wait for full-time charter flights for WNBA teams is finally over with commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing the league’s plans to start the program this season.
“We intend to fund a full-time contract 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 the planes in place.”
Engelbert said the program will cost the league about $25 million a year over the next two seasons.
The WNBA had already announced at its draft last month plans to once again pay for charter flights for all playoffs, as well as for consecutive games during the upcoming season that require air travel.
The league schedule features more back-to-back sets this season, with the WNBA taking an extended break for the Olympics in late July and early August. The league spent $4 million on charters in 2023.
Engelbert said before the WNBA draft that the league needs to be in the right financial position to charter planes.
The WNBA is attracting more attention than ever thanks to newcomers like Caitlin Clark, who helped the NCAA achieve its best viewership in women’s basketball history with nearly 19 million fans watching the title game, along with Angel Reese, who was to the Met Gala on Monday Night and Cameron Brink.
Clark turned heads walking through the airport with his new Indiana Fever teammates for a preseason game with the Dallas Wings last week. The exhibition was sold out and fans lined up eager to get in.
WNBA teams have also moved games against Clark and Indiana to larger arenas due to increased demand.
Flights have been an issue for the WNBA, which only increased last year with the league working with Brittney Griner and the Phoenix Mercury. They had to go on commercial air, and the All-Star center, who had been detained in Russia for nearly 10 months, was harassed by what the WNBA called a “provocateur.”
The league did not allow teams to use charter flights except when they had back-to-back games.
Many teams used the public charter airline JSX. These flights were permitted by the WNBA with certain protocols in place, including that teams fly in 30-seat planes using predefined routes and times.
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