- WNBA owners declined the opportunity to provide teams access to chartered flights for games.
- Some owners voted against due to fears "that players would get used to" the higher-quality treatment.
- Teams currently fly commercial, with the league's rather tall players often crammed into coach seats.
WNBA teams have long traveled from game to game on commercial flights, a reality that's created countless nightmarish trips and endless hours crammed into coach for the world's best basketball players each season.
Ever since billionaire businessman Joe Tsai purchased the New York Liberty in January 2019, he has been working to change that. For a while, the league argued that it'd give the Liberty an unfair advantage if Tsai bankrolled private flights for only his team; not every WNBA franchise owner can afford to charter planes for a 36-game regular season.
But when the Alibaba executive — who also owns the NBA's Brooklyn Nets — came up with a plan to give all 12 teams chartered flights for the next three years, the WNBA Board of Governors still wasn't on board.
According to a bombshell Sports Illustrated report written by WNBA insider Howard Megdal, most of the board voted down the September 2021 proposal to upgrade teams' travel itineraries.
"Some owners worried that players would get used to it, so there'd be no going back," Megdal wrote. "And others wondered whether players might just prefer a salary hike instead."
The news comes after countless players have spoken up about the absurdity of commercial airline travel for professional athletes of their caliber. Los Angeles Sparks center Liz Cambage, who is 6-foot-8, recently devoted a portion of her introductory press conference to addressing the issue.
"It's frustrating because I played overseas, and I know the treatment and the standard of how athletes, period, should be treated," Cambage said. "It's hard to come here and fly economy, fly exit rows. I'm 6-foot-8, borderline 6-foot-9."
"It's tough, especially when this league is full of owners and GMs that want to do more," she added.
Mark Davis, the owner of the Las Vegas Aces and the NFL's Raiders, also argued that WNBA players "don't need to be flying on commercial flights" during a press conference in early February.
"These women are very tall," Davis said. "It's very cramped and everything else. We should have charter flights."
But owners like Davis and Tsai may have to wait several years before a change on the charter flight front. Until 2027 — when the WNBA's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expires — travel arrangements will likely be "premium economy (or similar enhanced coach fare)" as dictated by the agreement.
Whether the players will push back — or flee to better-resourced leagues overseas — remains to be seen.