For reasons of sporting fairness, the WNBA prohibits its franchises from using private aircraft for travel. Some owners would be willing to spend money on it, when others couldn’t or wouldn’t. Thus, teams would be favored over others.
Joe Tsai, the owner of the Nets in the NBA and the New York Liberty in the WNBA since 2019, has nevertheless decided to provide a private plane for the franchise throughout the second part of last season, and in particular for a trip to California, in Napa.
Full-back Jazmine Jones then congratulated herself on having a boss who treated the players “like an NBA team”when her teammate Sabrina Ionescu wondered if all this was allowed…
Because Joe Tsai had contacted the WNBA in September 2021 to offer, informally before clearly displaying his intentions in October 2021 on Twitter, that private planes will become the default option for travel in the WNBA for some time. But the majority of owners were not convinced: some thought that the players would get used to this new “luxury” and no longer want to go back when needed, while others felt that they were waiting for increases first. of wages.
The owner of the New York Liberty did not wait for the league’s response to offer a private plane to his players for several weeks and until the playoffs.
$1 million fine reduced to $500,000
But one person tipped off the WNBA, as several executives questioned Liberty’s moves, and the league responded by fining Joe Tsai and New York $1 million, and expelling Oliver Weisberg. , an executive of the Liberty, of the league authorities, explains Sports Illustrated.
A penalty which was reduced to 500,000 dollars, after an agreement made directly between the boss of the league, Cathy Engelbert, and Joe Tsai.
“The focus on objecting to better travel terms seems to run counter to the spirit of what the league is trying to achieve under the leadership of WNBA boss Cathy Engelbert”wrote Oliver Weisberg in September to WNBA legal counsel Jamin Dershowitz. “We can’t start talking about gender equity until we address some pressing issues that have placed additional burdens on the health and well-being of WNBA players. In the spirit of improving working conditions for our female athletes, we strongly believe that WNBA teams should be allowed to conduct travel consistent with the fact that they are professional athletes. »
There is no doubt that this subject of the use of private planes instead of commercial flights will come back to the WNBA, because it has been present in the news of the league for several years now, and even more with the arrival of $75 million planned to financially strengthen the league.
“Travel by private plane represents, in the world of sport, a kind of confirmation, of success”explains Sue Bird, legend of the WNBA, who leaves for one more season at 41 years old. “It means that your league is so successful that it has the finances for private flights, which are very expensive. Companies that allow flights like that, right and left, do not run the streets. So it’s an indicator of financial success. »
