wnba charter travel

Griner, WNBA travel and charters: What's allowed? What could change?

• Covers women's college basketball and the WNBA
• Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
• Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner was harassed by a social media personality at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Saturday, once again bringing the issue of WNBA travel to the forefront.

Griner's safety during air travel for road games has been a concern because of her circumstances: Griner was detained in Russia from February 2022 to December 2022 after Russian customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She was freed in a prisoner exchange to which some people objected. Griner's travel provides a logistics challenge that the Mercury and the league are apparently still working out.

The WNBA has never faced anything like Griner's situation: a player reacclimating to her job having been in a high-profile global diplomatic situation. And at 6-foot-9, Griner is recognizable wherever she goes.

Saturday's incident also prompted more calls from Griner's agent, the WNBA players' union and several players leaguewide to move to all charter flights for players' health and safety. But for now, other than Griner's situation and some other exceptions -- including Thursday's news that teams this season are allowed to fly on a public chartering service called JSX -- WNBA teams will continue to be on commercial flights. Here's a look at the league's travel situation.

How are teams allowed to travel in the WNBA?

The WNBA, founded in 1997, has always traveled mostly via commercial air. That is paid for by the individual franchises during the regular season, while the league reimburses teams for travel expenses during the playoffs. There have been certain upgrades since Cathy Engelbert became commissioner in 2019.

Starting that season, Engelbert allowed for the possibility of charter travel during the playoffs for teams that had just a day between games while crossing more than one time zone. Last year, the league moved to all-charter travel for the WNBA Finals.

This season, the league will pay for charters when teams play regular-season games on back-to-back days that require air travel, for the visiting team in the Commissioner's Cup final and for all rounds of the playoffs.

Other than that, travel has to be commercial, as stated in the 2020 WNBA collective bargaining agreement: "All air travel provided by the Team (including, but not limited to, travel between games) will be, if available on the Team-chosen flights at the time of booking, premium economy (or similar enhanced coach fare). Teams are required to reimburse players for the application cost of obtaining Global Entry membership as part of the Trusted Travelers Program of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security."

Engelbert has said on numerous occasions that traveling to all games via charter flights at this point isn't financially feasible for the league as a whole. And individual teams are prohibited from going to all charter flights even if they decide they can afford it because it is deemed a significant competitive advantage in the 12-team league. To that end, the New York Liberty were fined $500,000 last year after using charters in 2021 against league policy.

Player safety while traveling should be at the forefront. People following with cameras saying wild remarks is never acceptable. Excessive harassment. Our team nervously huddled in a corner unsure how to move about. We demand better. — Brianna Turner (@_Breezy_Briii) June 10, 2023

Engelbert has also said many times that no one wants charter travel any more than she does, but she won't jeopardize the league's financial health for it. Several WNBA owners and general managers have acknowledged more gradual moves make sense.

"My hope is the league may open the door and say you can charter five in 2024, you pick which one," one WNBA executive told ESPN. "And we gradually move to full charter."

What else do we know about teams using JSX as a travel option?

Teams are allowed to fly JSX with certain protocols in place, league sources told ESPN this week. According to its website, JSX is a "hop-on jet service that's faster on the ground and more comfortable in the air." It's "a taste of what chartering will be like," one league executive told ESPN.

But JSX isn't available in most WNBA cities, and unlike charters, the airline's flights have preset routes and times, which the league has told teams they cannot change.

JSX usage varies by team, league sources told ESPN, depending on factors such as availability of flights and preexisting travel booked. Mercury guard Shey Peddy's Instagram video from last month included a shot of the interior of a JSX plane from when the team took a JSX flight to Los Angeles for its season opener.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shey Peddy (@sheyp11)

JSX planes can hold about 30 people, providing teams the option to buy out an entire flight. Passengers access planes through private terminals and can easily check their bags before boarding. Perhaps most convenient for teams, JSX advises customers to check in no later than 20 minutes before a domestic flight, and per JSX's website, each plane is equipped with business-class legroom.

Tickets for JSX standard routes for the most part are not drastically more expensive than commercial flights. But the price goes up for "created routes," which might be one of the things that is allowed for the Mercury because of Griner's unique security situation.

Do WNBA teams travel with security?

The league as a whole and several teams independently elevated security measures heading into the 2023 season. New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve revealed publicly that their teams are now traveling with security detail, something several other franchises confirmed to ESPN they have incorporated this year as well. That was allowed by the league lifting travel-party-number restrictions, sources told ESPN.

As of the start of this season, teams on the road can also coordinate additional "away market-local security" with the home squad.

Should we expect a leaguewide change to travel midseason?

This is highly unlikely to happen. There might be incremental moves to more charters next season, as there have been since Engelbert took over. But as she has stated many times, a wholesale change to all charter flights right now isn't feasible.

The issue of WNBA travel is on a perpetual news cycle. It comes up every time there is any difficulty in WNBA travel, including airport delays. It's an issue talked about frequently by some of the high-profile players, prominent agents such as Griner's representatives at Wasserman, and the union. The situation Griner faced at DFW prompted familiar responses from those who are convinced charters can be done sooner rather than later, despite what Engelbert and certain owners insist.

The situation is more complicated by the fact other owners are ready now to charter because they can afford it. The league has said that would create a competitive advantage issue among WNBA teams. If all parties -- the league, the board of governors and the union -- were to agree to make any significant travel changes before the next CBA, that could be done via attaching a letter to the current CBA. But the league would not comment on whether such a process would require a majority or unanimous vote by the board of governors.

The concept of "competitive advantage" can be tricky. Does a team potentially have competitive advantages based on the city it is in, the arena it plays in and the practice facilities it has? Yes, and those are all factors for drawing free agents. But travel is an issue the league has stood firm on regulating for fiscal and competitive advantage reasons.

There are no longer any WNBA players who finished college with no American pro league to go to. The oldest active player is 41-year-old Diana Taurasi , who was in high school when the WNBA launched in 1997. The majority of today's players also went to Power 5 conference schools where they were used to flying charter for college games due to Title IX. Players come to the WNBA now with different expectations than they used to.

But considering Engelbert's firm statements on this and the fact that it will be on the table for the next CBA negotiations, a full move to charters doesn't seem in the cards right away.

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WNBA adding charter flights for playoffs, back-to-back games

FILE - WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert waves to the crowd before Game 2 in the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs between the Las Vegas Aces and the Phoenix Mercury Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021, in Las Vegas. The WNBA is adding charter flights for the entire playoffs this season as well as for teams that have back-to-back games in the regular season, the league announced Monday, April 10, 2023.(AP Photo/David Becker, File)

FILE - Basketballs sit in a rack during practice for the WNBA All-Star basketball game in Chicago, Saturday, July 9, 2022. Even the handful of players selected in the upcoming WNBA draft will find it difficult to continue their pro careers. There are only potentially 144 WNBA roster spots available and most of those are filled with returning players. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier competes in the skills challenge during the WNBA All-Star festivities Friday, July 26, 2019, in Las Vegas. March Madness may have been the last time for fans to see many of the talented college women players compete. Players’ options for professional basketball careers are limited, whether in the U.S. or overseas — the jobs just aren’t there. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

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NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA is adding charter flights for the entire playoffs and back-to-back regular season games this year, the league announced Monday.

The league will pay for all of the flights.

“It’s significant dollars,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The Associated Press. “Now that we have best of three and five in the semifinals and finals. ... You add it up it’s a lot of flights.”

The cost is expected to be around $4.5 million, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because details haven’t been publicly released.

Last year, the league chartered for the WNBA Finals as well as for the road team in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game. Since taking over in 2019, Engelbert has slowly added a few more charter opportunities for teams. She allowed playoff teams that were traveling for more than one time zone to fly charter if they only had a day between games in the past.

“It’s something I’ve been working on since I came into the league,” she said. “It was never coming up with money for one year, but creating a sustainable model for the charter program to continue in perpetuity. Once you do it, you have to do it every year.”

Engelbert said that there will be five charters needed during the regular season . Most of them are short trips between Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. The longest one takes the Seattle Storm from Washington to Atlanta.

“As we continue to work on our growth as I’ve said we would chip away on this,” she said.

Engelbert also said that the league has had discussions with the Mercury and Brittney Griner about her travel arrangements.

Griner is back in the WNBA after her nine-month legal fight in Russia, during which she was detained when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage, then later arrested before being released in a high-level prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia.

“We’ve been working with Brittney and Phoenix since she signed and our security experts,” the commissioner said. “Working on a plan, but we want it to be confidential. She wants to travel with the team sometimes. Work as much as we can making sure we are following advice of our team. We have a very good plan, but I’m not going to share more specifics.”

Chartering flights for games on consecutive nights this season is easier then next year. With no Olympic break or condensed schedule for the World Cup this season there are less teams playing on consecutive nights. Next season that will change because of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Engelbert said that it will be more challenging.

“Next year we can’t do all of them,” she said.

The commissioner hopes that charters in the future can be funded in part by the next TV deal.

“Longer term, if we can get a really good media deal we can do something more fully for these players,” she said.

WNBA teams have flown commercially during the regular season since the league’s inception in 1997. The league typically doesn’t allow teams to charter because it could create a competitive advantage for teams who can afford to pay for them.

The WNBA has come down hard on teams in the past that have broken that rule and flown charter .

Engelbert has said in the past that it would cost the league about $25 million each season for each of its 12 teams to charter flights to every game. That number has increased about $5 million from previous estimates by the commissioner due to the new 40-game WNBA schedule this season, fuel costs and other factors.

To charter for the whole season the estimated cost per franchise would be approximately $2 million. Air travel expenses currently for each team is about $150,000, according to two people familiar with the costs. The people spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly address the issue.

The playoffs are where there could be a major increase in spending with teams potentially flying across country pending the postseason seeding.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Free Pizza and Easy Sleep: W.N.B.A. Upgrades Travel for Finals

For the first time ever, the W.N.B.A. is providing charter flights throughout the finals. Aces and Sun players are loving it — and hope it becomes permanent.

By Kris Rhim

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — There were “oohs and aahs” of excitement as the Connecticut Sun players entered their chartered plane on the way to Las Vegas for Game 1 of the W.N.B.A. finals, guard Nia Clouden said.

Waiting for them were pillows and blankets, seats that fully reclined and a generous menu of complimentary food. Clouden typically never eats the roasted salted almonds, cookies, chips and other snacks offered on the team’s commercial flights. But on that night, she ordered a pepperoni pizza.

Sun center Jonquel Jones pointed to the long legs that make up part of her 6-foot-6, 215-pound frame to show how the leg room on the charter flight made a difference for her. She usually tries to find the exit row seat on flights, but the space is never enough. Jones said she was also happy to avoid “all the unnecessary stuff that happens at airports.”

“Sometimes after a game, you don’t really feel like talking, and you go to the airport and people want to talk about the game,” Jones said while laughing. “Or they want to ask you how tall you are — constantly — all the time. ‘How’s the weather up there?’ And it’s just like, dude, I’m just trying to get to the next destination.”

She added: “As much as we love our fans — we appreciate them — sometimes it does really get a little exhausting, and it makes the season a little bit tougher.”

This season, for the first time ever, the league agreed to provide charter travel throughout the W.N.B.A. finals. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has said that the league does not have enough revenue to cover travel for all teams during the regular season and playoffs, which she estimated would cost more than $20 million . Teams fly commercially during the season and playoffs, with rare exceptions for extreme travel difficulties.

Athletes in major professional sports leagues like the N.F.L., N.B.A. and M.L.B., and even many men’s and women’s Division I athletes, have grown accustomed to charter travel. But those men’s leagues have been around much longer than the W.N.B.A. and have billions of dollars of revenue, while the women’s league regularly operates at a loss.

The W.N.B.A. hasn’t committed to offering charter flights for next year’s finals or expanding them to the regular season or any other part of the playoffs. Engelbert said the league was able to provide charters for the finals because of its efforts to increase revenue.

“As we focus on growing this league by adding more corporate partners, increasing media exposure and disrupting the outdated media rights valuations of women’s sports,” Engelbert said in a statement, “it would be our hope to continue offering these opportunities when possible.”

The W.N.B.A.’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union prohibits teams from chartering flights without league approval. The Liberty were fined $500,000 for secretly traveling to several games by charter last season.

So players fly commercially, dealing with the delays, Covid risks and the many flight challenges that everyday customers also deal with. If you’re wondering why professional athletes should have different travel standards anyway, many W.N.B.A. players said it started with rest.

Having a relaxing night’s sleep is paramount for playing in a 36-game regular season — with half of those games on the road — when a player’s future salary and place in the league depend on their performance each night, players said. Rest can be especially challenging on a commercial flight for the tall humans that occupy women’s basketball teams. But more important, delays and flight cancellations can result in teams’ having to forfeit games.

The Aces forfeited a game in 2018 after dealing with over 25 hours of delays and layovers on their way to Washington, D.C., to play the Mystics. They arrived just four hours ahead of their game. The Aces cited health concerns as the reason not to play and were the first team in league history to forfeit a game . Las Vegas missed the playoffs, finishing one game behind the Dallas Wings.

“I definitely think having charters is a trickle-down effect to people being able to take care of their bodies better and rest,” Aces guard Sydney Colson said. “And then you have better games to watch because people are rested and injury free.”

For those players who played college basketball for major programs in the United States, the special finals travel is a welcome return to the norm, as many of their schools provided charter flights to all games.

“There aren’t many times that I can remember at all that we flew commercial,” said Aces forward Theresa Plaisance, who played at Louisiana State University. “And when you get to the W.N.B.A., and you’re going to your middle seat on Southwest — sometimes it’s really hard to swallow that pill and think like: ‘Oh, this is my progression. I went from college to make it to a professional league, and I have to go backward.’”

For Peter Feeney, the basketball operations manager for the Sun, who has handled all flight logistics for the past four years, the simplicity of the travel blew his mind, he said. Feeney typically arrives at airports an hour before the team to ensure that they can pass through security without any hiccups. But on their two charter flights, they’ve arrived at the plane less than an hour before takeoff, and the flight staff handled almost everything.

The moment made Feeney realize that if the league switched to charter flights for the entire season, he would become less useful in his role. But he also serves as a video coordinator, so he welcomes the idea. “That’s a good problem, right?” he said with a laugh.

Aces forward A’ja Wilson, who has been outspoken about the W.N.B.A.’s travel woes , said that the players had talked about what life would be like if chartered flights were normal after they comfortably made the cross-country trip to Connecticut from Las Vegas for Game 3 on Thursday.

“We need it. Ain’t nothing else,” Wilson said. “We need to be able to fly like that after every game. I can only imagine how my body would feel if we did. So, I think it’s a huge deal for us to do it. We need to continue to push it.”

Kris Rhim is a sports reporter and a member of the 2022-2023 New York Times fellowship class. More about Kris Rhim

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WNBA Announces Expanded Charter Flights for 2023 Season

• Author: Madison Williams

The WNBA announced Monday that the league will be expanding its use of charter flights this year.

Previously, the league only provided chartered flights for the WNBA finals and WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game, along with selected games during the regular season. Now, charter flights will be provided for all 2023 WNBA playoff games and for regular-season games in which participants are playing back-to-back games.

“We continue the hard work of transforming the business of the league, and the ability to expand this program is a direct result of that,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a press release. “Since joining the league a few years ago, a goal of mine has been to enhance the overall player experience and, in that regard, make incremental improvements where we are able to do so and when we believe the economic model would support it for the long-term. I’m pleased that we are able to broaden the program this year for the players. As the league continues to grow, we will look to do more in the future.”

Travel has been a hot topic around the WNBA in recent years , starting back in 2021 when the Liberty were fined $500,000 for chartering flights against league policy.

Last year, various WNBA stars such as Breanna Stewart and Natasha Cloud , discussed how their health and safety was compromised when they flew commercial flights despite the threat of COVID-19. Stewart was one of the WNBA players who tested positive shortly after flying commercially.

Stewart pledged to help improve the WNBA’s charter flight situation in January, and numerous fellow WNBA players showed support for her stance.

The additional charter flights are expected to cost the league about $4.5 million this season, according to the Associated Press .

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WNBA Expands Private Travel for 2023 After Player Pressure

By Emily Caron

Emily Caron

Sports Business Reporter

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The WNBA will expand its charter flights program—a point of contention during the offseason and a major priority for many of its biggest stars—for the upcoming 2023 campaign, the league announced Monday.

Charter flights, long grounded by insufficient revenue to pay for them, will now be provided for all postseason games, starting with this year’s WNBA playoffs, as well as a select number of regular-season contests. Private travel during the regular season will be accommodated when teams have back-to-back games scheduled. Teams competing in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game will also continue to be chartered, as was approved in 2022.

While the steps announced for 2023 still fall short of player demands for private travel all season long, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league will “look to do more in the future,” as it continues to grow. Engelbert previously estimated that ditching commercial flights for private planes over the entirety of the WNBA’s season could cost as much as $30 million per year.

“We continue the hard work of transforming the business of the league, and the ability to expand this program is a direct result of that,” Engelbert said in a statement. “Since joining the league a few years ago, a goal of mine has been to enhance the overall player experience and, in that regard, make incremental improvements where we are able to do so and when we believe the economic model would support it for the long-term.”

Charter flights have long been a top player priority but were sidelined during the 2020 CBA negotiations in exchange for better pay and benefits increases. Engelbert said she was pleased with the league’s ability to make some progress this season.

WNBA superstar Breanna Stewart brought private travel back into the narrative during her free agency this offseason when she publicly pushed for a solution. The WNBA has held that it cannot afford the costs yet and is also against allowing owners to choose how their players travel, which it says could create competitive imbalances. That didn’t dissuade at least one from trying. Stewart ultimately signed with Joe Tsai’s New York Liberty, which was hit with a record $500,000 fine after Tsai chartered flights for his team in 2021.

Tsai has been one of the most vocal supporters of charter travel for WNBA teams since he bought the Liberty in 2019.

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WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert says charter flights, which would cost $25 million annually, must be 'feasible'

Few, if any, issues loom over the WNBA's relationship with its players like charter flights, and league commissioner Cathy Engelbert again addressed the demand in an interview with ESPN's M.A. Voepel published Friday.

Engelbert reportedly told ESPN that such transport, for both a 40-game regular season and playoffs, would cost the league $25 million annually, a price tag she indicated was too steep for the league's current finances:

"And the thing some people are missing is that this isn't a one-year funding," Engelbert told ESPN. "This is something you've got to fund — I want to say in perpetuity — but let's say you have to make sure you have a business model to fund it for at least a decade.

"So even if you brought a sponsor in to fund it one year ... sponsors can come and go. So you've got to make sure you have an economic model that is feasible to fund it long-term."

WNBA players have long chafed at having to fly commercial, with the league even forbidding teams from footing the bill themselves due to a supposed unfair advantage, but the issue has received new urgency due to the situation surrounding Brittney Griner .

If the Phoenix Mercury star opts to play next season, some reportedly believe she will require private flights due to security concerns after her stay in Russian prison last year. That would create a conundrum for the league since you would imagine Griner's Phoenix teammates would come along for the ride.

Recently signed New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart reportedly made air travel a major factor in her free agency and spoke out last month, calling for a deal that would subsidize charter travel for the WNBA . She pledged her own resources to help the cause and received public commitments from the likes of Sue Bird and Ja Morant , but Engelbert told ESPN she saw the most viable path would be a new media rights deal:

"The way that all the leagues that do have charters get funded is through enormous media rights deals," Engelbert said. "This is why we're working so hard to transform the economics of our league. We want to build a revenue stream - at the league plus the team level - where we have bigger corporate sponsorships stepping up.

"I'm obviously very vocal about the fact that there's a huge undervaluation in women's sports of our media rights. We've got to right-size that in our next round of media negotiations."

The WNBA's current media rights deal with ESPN and ABC reportedly runs out after the 2025 season, though the league also has games aired through CBS Sports, Amazon Prime, Twitter, Facebook and NBA TV.

That year will loom large for the WNBA's future, as the league has seen impressive ratings growth but will still need a network to bet big on its future.

The WNBA is pushing to change its travel arrangements

WNBA revenues totaled a reported $60 million last season, and viewership was at its highest point in 14 years. But teams still travel like families on a strict budget.

"Travel is always a pain point," said Terri Carmichael Jackson, executive director of the WNBA Players Association. "Unfortunately, I'm in this role seven years, and I have seen it for seven years."

While their male counterparts in the NBA travel in style aboard private charter jets,  WNBA  players have to fly commercial — dealing with everything from middle seats to long delays and cancellations.

"For years, the requirement was that WNBA players travel coach class, kind of period, end of sentence," Jackson said.

New York Liberty owner Joe Tsai flew his team charter five times in 2021. That violation of league rules earned the Liberty a $500,000-dollar fine.

"There's a first time for everything," said Nneka Ogwumike, forward for the Los Angeles Sparks. "This is the first time in my 11 years I've had to sleep in the airport."

After a big win by LA  in Washington last season, to keep their playoff hopes alive, the Sparks tried to fly home but couldn't. About half the team wound up sleeping in the airport.

"What happened was our flight got delayed from 10 pm to 1, and at 1, they canceled our flight," said Chiney Ogwumike, forward for the LA Sparks. "We got rebooked for first thing in the morning. Hard to book hotels last minute."

Why do WNBA stars like Brittney Griner play abroad?

In this segment of "Scoreboard," Newsy's "In The Loop" explores the underlying pay issues in the WNBA that push some players abroad.

In 2018, the  Las Vegas Aces  wound up stuck in two airports trying to fly from Nevada to Washington. After a 26-hour travel nightmare, the team landed just hours before tipoff and were asked to play. They didn't and had to forfeit.

Another issue with WNBA travel is security, especially surrounding Phoenix Mercury's  Brittney Griner's return  after she missed last season due to being held in Russia. While she hasn't officially requested charter flights, the league could face an ongoing problem if she can't.

When it comes to cost, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert recently told ESPN that charter travel would cost the league $25 million a year.

"We don't have to slay the dragon on this one," Jackson said. "We don't have to look to solve it in one fell swoop. Now is the time. We can do this. We can phase this in. We've seen it done — MLS. And their players association negotiated something very much like what I'm describing."

Major League Soccer has allowed teams to go from four charters per year to eight, and starting in 2024, it will expand to 16. In the post-season, teams must use charters for all matches.

"Phased in, reasonable approach did not disrupt the financial model of their league, and it wouldn't do it for us," Jackson said.

Then there's the NBA, which retains 50% ownership of the WNBA. NBA players have taken note of the horrors of WNBA travel.

"I'm with them no matter how much it costs, per se,"  said Kyrie Irving , guard for the Dallas Mavericks. "I think collectively we all come together and make something very doable happen, and we just want our ladies to have peace of mind while they're playing."

"Our player leadership at the WNBA along with the player leadership at the NBPA, they've been talking over the last few months," Jackson said. "And I am hopeful, I'm very hopeful, that coming out of their CBA negotiations, we will see something that helps us address this pain point in a meaningful way."

The current labor deal between the NBA and its players expires after next season, but there's an opt-out option this June. If the WNBA can take that first step in getting charter travel off the ground, then the WNBA and  its players  will be able to make the league really take flight.

South Carolina Tops Women's Basketball Preseason Rankings

South Carolina went wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team last year and have been the top team for 20 straight weeks.

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Brittney Griner is a target, and the WNBA’s solution wasn’t good enough

Brittney Griner is easy to pick out from a crowd. In a public space — let’s say, walking to a commercial flight — she’s the one at 6 feet 9 inches, towering over almost every average-sized adult in a busy terminal, including the man assigned as her security.

She also has a recognizable face. Again, for kicks and giggles, let’s pretend she’s so distinguishable that maybe an idiot would be able to find her, follow her around and spew incendiary nonsense her way — all because her image has been plastered throughout right-wing media for the last year and a half.

Griner’s size, the public nature of her detainment in Russia, and the subsequent high-profile prisoner swap made between the White House and the Kremlin made her a target. But by taking a confusing and inadequate step, the WNBA allowed open season on the player it needed to protect.

Griner, the Phoenix Mercury center, isn’t controversial sometimes . Her life — as a Black woman, a queer woman, a woman aided by a Democratic administration and a woman who once dared to protest police brutality in this country by not standing on the court during the playing of the national anthem — is a constant affront to those who hate her. Her critics don’t even take Saturdays off, as proved last weekend when a spiteful man with a warped sense of patriotism pulled out his phone and tried his best to denigrate Griner as she walked through Terminal A of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. And why exactly was Griner so accessible in the fourth-busiest airport in America ? Because her league said it would protect her all the way — but only to an extent.

Man confronts and shouts at Brittney Griner at Dallas airport

After Griner was freed from a Russian prison in a prisoner swap involving Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, she got on with her life and returned to basketball, a complicated matter, because how do you safeguard a basketball player who has become a lightning rod in this contentious political climate?

The WNBA does not permit its teams to fly charter flights all the time, citing financial reasons. Before this season, however, the league expanded its limited charter policy to include all of the postseason and longer flights for select back-to-back regular season games , an approximate $4.5 million expense shouldered strictly by the WNBA . (The league already allowed teams to fly charter for the in-season Commissioner’s Cup and during the finals .) Additionally, the league told the Mercury to make any travel arrangements, including charter flights, it felt were necessary for Griner — and for Griner alone.

Following the incident Saturday, the WNBA released a statement: “Given her special situation, the WNBA approved charter flights for BG for the 2023 season. We informed the Phoenix Mercury earlier this year to move ahead with any arrangements they felt were appropriate and needed including charter flights.”

If Griner had been approved to fly a private charter, then what happened Saturday? When I asked a league spokesperson why Griner was walking through DFW, I was directed to seek those details with the Mercury. Welp. About that:

“League rules mandate that I can’t speak about travel, but I can speak about safety,” Mercury Coach Vanessa Nygaard told reporters in Indianapolis on Sunday. “We will be making adjustments that maybe should’ve happened before, but right now we’re going to prioritize the safety of our players, and we’ve seen that our organization has supported us.”

The league’s statement, intentional or not, threw the Mercury under the charter bus. But this shouldn’t be the Mercury’s fault, according to Lindsay Kagawa Colas , Griner’s agent. Colas told the Wall Street Journal the airport incident spawned from a “league plan that included a mix of charter and a select number of commercial flights with security protocols that failed.”

This also should not be on Griner: She had been approved for charter flights, while the rest of the Mercury was not. Wouldn’t someone who had been locked away for 10 months want to rebuild connection and camaraderie with her teammates and not be alone on an empty plane?

There’s context to the charter conundrum: More than a quarter-century into its existence, the WNBA still lacks the gobs of money from media rights deals that the top four American leagues possess. (MLS played its first game in 1996, but its teams do not exclusively fly charter, either.) The WNBA views chartered flights as a competitive advantage issue because some owners are willing to pay while others don’t want the cost burden. In 2021, the New York Liberty booked charter flights for the second half of the season. The rogue act cost the franchise a whopping $500,000 fine for violating league rules. And this year, the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces tried to work within league rules while booking all travel with JetSuiteX, a public charter carrier .

According to a person familiar with the team’s plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the arrangement, the Aces worked with JSX to make public accessible routes that just so happened to coincide precisely with their road schedule. The Dallas-based airline did so, creating limited available “pop up” routes for anyone to book, but the creative plan allowed the Aces to have semiprivate travel without waiting in long security lines and wandering around airports. (JSX offers private terminals and planeside baggage pickup, unlike American, Delta or Southwest.)

The Aces booked a JSX route from Vegas to Atlanta to Indianapolis to Hartford, Conn., for a recent three-game road trip, but the league told the Aces to cancel the June 4 flight from Indianapolis to Bradley International Airport at the last minute, forcing the team to scramble to find middle seats on another airline, according to the person familiar with the ordeal. An Aces spokesperson did not return messages, and a media representative with JetSuiteX declined to comment. Asked whether the WNBA forced the Aces to cancel the June 4 flight and if so why, a league spokesperson responded: “The WNBA approved that all teams can book JSX flights with certain protocols in place. Since this is a new program this year, we had to address a few matters with teams earlier in the season.”

And one more thing: Terri Jackson, the executive director of the WNBA Players Association, had an ambitious idea for the entire league to fly charter, but it never took off.

Jackson’s son, Jaren, plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, and a few years ago, when she noticed the fines the NBA levies against its players go to charities , Jackson proposed that some of that money be earmarked for the WNBA. If the NBA collected $5 million in fines in a season, what about repurposing $1 million of that to fund WNBA charters and reimbursement for mental health services? (Players’ insurance does not always cover therapy.) According to Jackson, she had conversations with several players within leadership ahead of the NBA and National Basketball Players Association’s recent negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement. She said the players were enthusiastic — the NBPA already financially supports the WNBA Players Association — and felt further investing in their sisters would be a worthy enterprise. It was never formally brought to the table, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion. Eventually, the WNBA shot down the proposal and the NBPA moved on.

“The league said, ‘We don’t want to look like charity,’ ” Jackson told me.

“The league has said when players were posting on their social media or talking in interviews about the issues that they face when traveling, they’ve been told that that’s bad for the brand,” Jackson continued. “And when in reality, the league and some teams — because I don’t believe it’s all teams … their refusal to adopt policies, their refusal to adopt these reasonable and flexible rules in favor of player health and safety, that is what is damaging the brand.”

By vocalizing their reality, the players aren’t burning down their own house. They’re putting public pressure on team owners to work harder, with more creativity, to find a travel solution. And putting Griner alone on a charter plane was a nonsensical, wasteful solution so certain owners wouldn’t cry over the Mercury’s so-called competitive advantage.

We no longer need to come up with hypothetical situations about what could happen when the WNBA’s most polarizing player is exposed in an unwelcome space. Outside of the fans in the arena who love her, everywhere Griner goes, she is a target. She needed her league to protect her and her mental state, not the priorities of stingy multimillionaires.

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Brittney Griner faced 'excessive harassment' at Dallas airport. Mercury, WNBA respond.

Several WNBA athletes are calling for the league to do more for player safety while traveling after Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner was subjected to "excessive harassment" at a Dallas airport on Saturday.

The Mercury were traveling to Indianapolis from Dallas Saturday morning following a 90-77 loss to the Dallas Wings on Friday when an "inappropriate and unfortunate" confrontation occurred, the league said.

Phoenix forward Brianna Turner said people were following the Mercury with cameras while shouting "wild remarks" at them. "Our team nervously huddled in a corner unsure how to move about," Turner recalled on Twitter.

The WNBA said the incident "was orchestrated by a social media figure and provocateur" who singled out Griner, the six-time All-Star who was detained for nearly 10 months in Russia after being found guilty of carrying hash oil in her luggage while playing overseas.

Twitter user @alexstein99 shared a photo of himself "calling out Brittney Griner" in the airport and posted a snippet of the encounter, where he yelled at her that she "hates America." He teased the release of the full video.

The Mercury said they're "reviewing the incident." In a statement, the team added: "We are committed to our support of BG and advocating for all American hostages abroad.  We will continue our support of marginalized communities and fighting the kind of hate that targeted us today.  No one, regardless of identity, should ever fear for their safety. We will be coordinating with the WNBA on next steps.”

The WNBA said "the safety of Brittney Griner and all WNBA players is our top priority."

"Prior to the season, the WNBA worked together with the Phoenix Mercury and BG’s team to ensure her safety during her travel, which included charter flights for WNBA games and assigned security personnel with her at all times," the statement said. "We remain steadfastly committed to the highest standards of security for players.”  

The incident resurfaces the issue of charter flights for WNBA teams for player health and safety. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert previously said it's "just not in the cards right now" without sponsors or backers to offset costs. Engelbert estimated it would cost more than $20 million to charter all 12 teams for the entire season.

“We've asked all the major airlines. We've asked charter companies. I've been working on this since the moment I came into the league. ... If we could get it sponsored or funded in some way ... I'm all ears," she said earlier this year.

The Women's National Basketball Players Association, however, said "every commercial flight forced upon our players is a threat to their health and safety," primarily Griner, who faces security concerns after being released from Russian detainment in December.

"What BG and all of her PHX teammates experiences today was a calculated confrontation that left them feeling very unsafe," the WNPBA said in a statement Saturday. "Everyone who was paying attention knew this would happen. We could have and should have been more proactive. ... We implore the league and the teams to not wait another day to change the rule regarding travel."

After Saturday's incident, Turner concurred: "Player safety while traveling should be at the forefront. People following with cameras saying wild remarks is never acceptable. Excessive harassment."

In April, likely in response to significant inside and outside pressure to improve travel, Engelbert and the WNBA announced an increased charter program for the 2023 season. This year teams will charter for the entire playoffs, the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup game and “select” regular season contests where teams have back-to-back games scheduled.

Contributing: Lindsay Schnell

WNBA players could earn more money, but it will take big changes to make that happen

It will take some time for the Caitlin Clark effect to be felt across the WNBA.

Clark enters the league as a budding superstar who is already widely recognized as having been the biggest figure in a sea change for women's basketball. Shortly after she helped the NCAA women's Final Four set broadcasting records, she went first overall in the WNBA draft, helping the event draw a bigger TV viewership than the most recent MLB and NHL drafts . Tickets for the Indiana Fever, who drafted Clark last weekend, are the hottest in the sport. Clark’s jersey has already sold out — though Dick's Sporting Goods intends to sell Clark name and number T-shirts in all 724 of its locations, according to a company spokesperson. Last year, it sold WNBA merch in only a fraction of its stores.

But even as women’s basketball surges broadly, Clark comes into a league that has faced steep financial shortcomings, leaving its players well short of being compensated at the levels of their male counterparts.

“It’s not good enough,” Nancy Lieberman, a Hall of Fame basketball player, Olympic gold medalist and NCAA champion, said in an interview. “It has to get better.”

It could take several years for all the crucial deals among players, the league, broadcast partners and other business interests to renegotiate the way money flows.

Right now, WNBA players remain locked into the collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, they signed in 2020, which dictates their overall pay terms.

Since the deal was signed, the revenue generated by the WNBA has grown — yet it still pales in comparison to those generated by the NBA.

Last year, a Bloomberg News report found the WNBA was projected to make $180 million to $200 million for the 2023 season.

A WNBA spokesperson declined to comment on the report, which NBC News hasn’t verified. The spokesperson also declined to discuss league financials.

The WNBA's revenue compares with about $10 billion for the NBA in the season ending in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.

The WNBA’s lower revenue is a key reason for the pay disparity between the leagues that has now drawn national headlines, and it is why rookies, including Clark, will earn a base salary of just $76,000 this season.

Of course, Clark will earn much more than that through outside sponsorship deals. And she is eligible for a suite of performance-based bonuses and marketing arrangements with her team, the Fever, and the league itself that are worth at least $500,000.

But that would still most likely be less than the NBA’s current league minimum of about $1 million. Technically, NBA rookies make slightly more than that. Players in the NBA’s lower-level G League are the exception; they typically earn a season salary of about $40,000.

The gap between male and female basketball players isn’t only about the level of pay.

NBA players enjoy about a 50-50 split of so-called basketball-related revenues — like broadcast money and jersey sales — with owners.

The CBA that WNBA players signed allowed for revenue sharing only if certain revenue thresholds were met. And so far, they’ve fallen short, a WNBA spokesperson confirmed.

WNBA players can opt out of their CBA after this season — and it’s likely that they will, given the enormous growth the women’s game had been experiencing even before Clark captured America’s attention.

The hope is that with Clark and other young stars entering the league, there will soon be more money and better terms for its players.

In particular, the WNBA is poised to negotiate a new set of broadcasting rights that will increase the value of the league — enough to the point that the revenue sharing threshold would become moot, assuming the thresholds even remain.

Ironically, the fate of the WNBA remains in the hands of the NBA, which controls more than 40% of the women's league.

That's why Terri Carmichael Jackson, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association executive director, has called on the NBA to put the WNBA front and center.

"It’s time the NBA recognizes the indispensable role of WNBA players in shaping the league’s future success," Carmichael Jackson said in a statement to NBC News.

She continued: “They must acknowledge that valuing WNBA players and paying million-dollar salaries requires a stronger broadcast deal, one that absolutely necessitates players at the negotiating table to strengthen the business case and drive home their value."

Asked for comment, an NBA spokesperson referred NBC News to the WNBA.

In a statement, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said: “We continue to find ways to return some of the growth we have been experiencing to the players beyond what the CBA requires," referring to the collective bargaining agreement.

We’re “increasing playoff bonuses by over 50% and providing a $4 million budgeted charter [flight] program for full playoffs, all back-to-backs requiring air travel, and the Commissioner Cup Championship Game,” Engelbert added.

WNBA players aren’t necessarily asking to be paid at the same levels as their NBA counterparts. Rather, as Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plum said on an episode of the Vegas-centric “ The Residency Podcast ,” “We’re asking to get paid the same percentage of revenue shared.”

Lieberman, the Hall of Famer, said there has been unwillingness to make the kinds of investments necessary to put the game front and center, on TV or elsewhere.

"Being the first, it can be very lonely," she said, adding that, in many cases, her success had come from decision-makers — mostly men — who had "taken a leap of faith."

Lieberman's comments echoed those of University of Connecticut women's coach Geno Auriemma, who was much more explicit in his criticism of the WNBA's growth efforts.

“The WNBA is going to have to do a great job of marketing these guys,” he said at a news conference this month, referring to players like Clark and Huskies star Paige Bueckers. “And the WNBA I don’t think has done a great job of marketing their individual stars.”

CORRECTION  (April 22, 2024, 9:54 a.m. ET) A previous version of this article misstated which Clark merchandise sold out at Dick’s Sporting Goods. They were T-shirts, not jerseys.

Rob Wile is a breaking business news reporter for NBC News Digital.

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Breanna Stewart Reacts to WNBA Salary Discourse: ‘Not Something That’s Going to Change Overnight’ (Exclusive)

The WNBA star tells PEOPLE that she hopes that the league will reach another "turning point" soon to increase player salaries

Julie Mazziotta is the Sports Editor at PEOPLE, covering everything from the NFL to tennis to Simone Biles and Tom Brady. She was previously an Associate Editor for the Health vertical for six years, and prior to joining PEOPLE worked at Health Magazine. When not covering professional athletes, Julie spends her time as a (very) amateur athlete, training for marathons, long bike trips and hikes.

Ivan C. Rodriguez/NBAE/Getty

Amid the discourse surrounding player salaries in the WNBA, New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart says that realistically, change for the women's basketball league will take time.

Stewart, 29, speaking to PEOPLE at the U.S. Olympic Committee's Media Summit in New York City, says, "I think that the changes have been happening. The WNBA has been around for 28 years, which is really small compared to any other league in professional sports."

The WNBA hosted its first season in 1997, while the NBA has been playing games since 1946. The NFL was founded in 1920 and the MLB played its first game in 1876.

"And before 2020, when we played in the bubble, we had to sign a brand new CBA, which increased the pay and had more benefits for moms and those types of things," Stewart, a mother of two , adds.

According to the WNBA and NBA Players Associations, a CBA, also known as a collective bargaining agreement, "sets out the terms and conditions of employment for all professional basketball players," to "get the best deal possible for all players."

"A new collective bargaining agreement is negotiated approximately every four years," per the WNBA.

With a new CBA on the horizon, Stewart, who is almost guaranteed to be playing in her second Olympics this summer in Paris, says, "Hopefully soon again, we'll be at another turning point where we'll have another CBA and that'll also increase player salaries."

But the WNBA star, and many who have followed the WNBA before the increased attention on the league in the last year, says the process of paying players isn't an overnight fix.

"You can talk about opportunities for pensions and charters and all these things, but it's not something that's going to change overnight, and it's the mix between us continuing to be great on the court and taking advantage of the things happening off the court," says Stewart.

David Sherman/NBAE via Getty

And the revenue between the NBA and WNBA is vastly different, making comparisons between the league's player salaries arguably irrelevant.

According to Forbes , the NBA brings in $2.6 billion each year from roughly 165 games on Disney's ESPN/ABC and Warner Bros. Discovery's TNT under their current streaming rights agreement.

In comparison, the WNBA will bring in around $65 million total this season in its media deals with ABC-ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, CBS and ION, per Front Office Sports .

WNBA commissioner  Cathy Engelbert spoke to PEOPLE about the topic just before the start of the 2023 season.

“People ask why we aren’t in the same place as the men’s league...What will help is expanding the number of teams. I haven't been shy about talking about expansion," Engelbert told PEOPLE, citing gripes from fans and players  regarding commercial travel  and the shortage of roster spots forcing top draft picks out of the league.

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“You’ve got to build an economic model to fund everything they want; higher pay, travel benefits, etc. It’s important our players understand where we get our revenue, where all the expenses are going and their questions around that,” the commissioner continued.

"We're trying to change the narrative — that we are a sports, media and entertainment property, growth property, that will deploy this capital and marketing stars, building rivalries and globalizing the game," she said.

With new faces like Caitlin Clark , Angel Reese , Kamilla Cardoso and Cameron Brink entering the mix this season, the league is certainly on track to increase viewership and sales in tickets and merchandise.

The reigning champion Las Vegas Aces announced they're moving their preseason matchup with the Indiana Fever from Michelob Ultra Arena's 12,000 seat capacity to T-Mobile Arena to accommodate an additional 8,000 fans looking to see Clark play in person, as did the Washington Mystics over to Capital One Arena.

Sarah Stier/Getty

And the Fever, who only had a single game televised during the 2023 season, will play 36 of their upcoming 40 games this season to a televised audience. Additionally, the Fever confirmed to ESPN that they've seen a "surge" in ticket sales since Clark joined the team.

What's more, fans who have been following players like Clark and Reese, 21, have begun campaigning for fans to support their favorite WNBA players with jersey sales.

A post on X (formerly known as Twitter) from former LSU star Reese promoting her jersey has over 40,000 likes and 2.7 million impressions. "Had to cop that Big Reese jersey," one user wrote .

"My jersey already being sold is crazy," Reese wrote after fans began posting photos in their Reese jerseys.

And after Clark was drafted, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told Arash Markazi of the Sporting Tribune that her Indiana Fever jersey sold more than any player in any sport in the company’s history.

The WNBA 2024 season officially kicks off on May 14 after all 12 teams compete in preseason games. Clark will play her first preseason game with the Fever on May 3 against the Dallas Wings.

On May 4, Reese, Cardoso and the Chicago Sky will take on the Minnesota Lynx in their first preseason matchup.

Related Articles

WNBA to charter flights to Chicago during finals

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Sunday morning in a news conference that the league will charter flights for the Phoenix Mercury and Chicago Sky to Game 3 of the league finals in Chicago.

New York Liberty owner Joe Tsai tweeted earlier this month he has been working with Engelbert to find the league a charter sponsor. The current CBA bars charter travel in the WNBA as a way of keeping a few teams with better economic cashflow from having an advantage. The league provided some charter flights during the 2019 WNBA Finals.

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“There’s nobody want that wants this more than me,” Engelbert said Sunday. “But we’ve got to chip away at this transformation, build viewership, build more sponsors, build better media rights fee deals, and then I think there’ll be a point in time where we can have an economic model for (charter travel). … I think some of our owners have been helpful in thinking about how to do it and how to approach airline executives, but as you know charter travel again requires enormous amount of investment by someone. And so obviously we’re totally open to partners and sponsors stepping up to help us with this issue.”

WNBA players have criticized travel conditions as delays, inconvenient trips and other issues pop up.

Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said the ease of charter flights would make a major difference.

“To get on a charter flight makes it much easier,” she said. “It’s convenient. So obviously hats off to the WNBA in getting this done and hopefully it will continue to grow because obviously the NBA (has it); I know they have so much more money than we do but it does make it easier to be able to fly after a game and sleep in your own bed and use that extra time to recover. So I think we’re all, both teams are excited about that.”

Engelbert addressed other topics before tipoff between the Mercury and Sky in Phoenix:

On playoff format:

With two rounds of single-elimination games, there’s been plenty of discussion about the logistics and fairness of this format style. Englebert said it’s “great” there’s so much discussion about the format.

She said they’re looking at whether they would retain first- and second-round single elimination games or if one would go to a three-game series. Englebert referenced the last playoff format change in 2016. “I’m sure whatever we change it to in three-(to)-five years, we’ll be looking at it again because there’s pros and cons to every different playoff format. So we want to be very thoughtful about what we do.”

She said WNBA leaders have been meeting with the competition committee, and there’s a subcommittee around the playoff format. They’re gathering input and feedback, including the broadcasting and arena logistics if games were added. Englebert said she thinks the league will be in a position to make a decision over the course of the next few months.

On securing home arenas during playoffs:

Games 1 and 2 of the WNBA Finals will be hosted in Phoenix, a team that had to play two of its playoff games away from its home at Footprint Arena.

The Mercury played one “home” playoff game at Grand Canyon University and another at Arizona State. Engelbert said that it’s an issue of supply and demand, in terms of drawing in more in-person fans in order to make it a more lucrative opportunity for arenas to hold those specific dates for playoffs, knowing that the payoff from ticket sales could be worth the risk of holding that date (knowing that there’s a chance that no playoff game is played on that date).

“It’s always a balance for these arena operators and we, the league, don’t control them. We do try to get those playoff dates,” Engelbert said. “But you’re asking 12 teams to hold a lot of dates maybe nine to 12 months in advance.”

The Athletic’s Kavitha Davidsson recently wrote about how this issue highlights inequities for the WNBA .

(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

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Beyond the Box Score: Caitlin Clark’s Impact Driving New Viewers to the WNBA and Women’s Sports

C ivicScience’s pre-tournament data hinted at a surge in anticipation for NCAA women’s March Madness. That bore out in record fashion in the championship game which saw Dawn Staley-coached University of South Carolina cap off its undefeated season by besting the Caitlin Clark-led University of Iowa. Despite the loss, it was a record-breaking season for Clark that culminated in her being selected first overall in the WNBA draft last week. 

Clark-mania has seemingly only just begun as WNBA ticket prices balloon and an opposing team has been forced to relocate to a bigger venue in anticipation of her arrival. But was she the sole reason for the jump in women’s basketball interest? What does her arrival to the pro ranks mean for women’s sports as a whole? Here are a few key consumer insights with the WNBA season just weeks away:

Caitlin Clark was the overwhelming draw, but she was far from alone in generating interest.

CivicScience data highlight Caitlin Clark as the driving force behind increased viewership of women’s college basketball this past season – 64% of U.S. adults who tuned into the NCAA more than they typically would this past season said Clark was the main reason for doing so. However, it’s worth noting that other standout players from the WNBA draft also contributed to this surge in interest. Angel Reese, who was picked seventh overall in the WNBA (27%), Kamilia Cardoso, drafted third overall (18%), and Cameron Brink, who followed Clark as the second pick in the draft (15%), each played a role in captivating audiences as well. Additionally, the leadership of coach Dawn Staley from champion South Carolina also sparked excitement.

Join the Conversation: Would you travel to see Caitlin Clark play?

Looking ahead to May 14, when WNBA action begins, additional CivicScience data find 37% of Americans report they’re at least ‘somewhat’ likely to watch the WNBA with Caitlin Clark now in the league. This compares to 23% of U.S. adults who said they followed the WNBA at least ‘somewhat’ closely in April of 2023. Forty-one percent of men say they’re likely to watch the WNBA this year with the addition of Caitlin Clark, seven percentage points higher than women who say the same.

Clark’s impact on the game will bring new opportunities for brands and advertisers. Here are just three insights about consumers who are likely to watch the WNBA now that Caitlin Clark is in the league:

• Among those anticipated to tune into the WNBA after Clark’s debut, the majority (54%) currently dedicate 1-5 hours per week on average to watching sports on TV, while 25% who watch 5+ hours per week.
• Forty-four percent of those likely to watch the WNBA as a result of Caitlin Clark prioritize brand over price when shopping fo r health and beauty products, 22 points higher than those unlikely to watch. 
• Likely WNBA viewers are more than three times as likely as non-viewers to have an interest in non-alcoholic beverages, such as mocktails and NA beer.

Clark’s influence is reshaping women’s sports landscape as a whole.

It’s clear that Caitlin Clark can drive viewership and excitement, but what about the sports she’s not playing in? Among those who watch sports, a noteworthy 41% report an increased interest in watching a women’s sport as a result of Caitlin Clark – nearly half of those (21%) say they have a greater interest in watching women’s sports overall. 

Take Our Poll: Is Caitlin Clark lifting women’s sports?

It’s impossible to deny that Caitlin Clark is already an impactful figure on the game of basketball before she even steps foot on a WBNA court, though she’s not alone in generating an elevated level of excitement for the game. Those consumers likely to tune in to watch her play have distinct tastes and preferences that should not be overlooked as the season begins and beyond. 

Want more in-depth, forward-looking insights like these? CivicScience clients have access to the InsightStore database of over 500K questions that help them stay ahead of the game. See it in action here .

The post Beyond the Box Score: Caitlin Clark’s Impact Driving New Viewers to the WNBA and Women’s Sports appeared first on CivicScience .

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Griner, WNBA travel and charters: What's allowed? What could change?

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner was harassed by a social media personality at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Saturday, once again bringing the issue of WNBA travel to the forefront.

Griner's safety during air travel for road games has been a concern because of her circumstances: Griner was detained in Russia from February 2022 to December 2022 after Russian customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She was freed in a prisoner exchange to which some people objected. Griner's travel provides a logistics challenge that the Mercury and the league are apparently still working out.

The WNBA has never faced anything like Griner's situation: a player reacclimating to her job having been in a high-profile global diplomatic situation. And at 6-foot-9, Griner is recognizable wherever she goes.

Saturday's incident also prompted more calls from Griner's agent, the WNBA players' union and several players leaguewide to move to all charter flights for players' health and safety. But for now, other than Griner's situation and some other exceptions -- including Thursday's news that teams this season are allowed to fly on a public chartering service called JSX -- WNBA teams will continue to be on commercial flights. Here's a look at the league's travel situation.

How are teams allowed to travel in the WNBA?

The WNBA, founded in 1997, has always traveled mostly via commercial air. That is paid for by the individual franchises during the regular season, while the league reimburses teams for travel expenses during the playoffs. There have been certain upgrades since Cathy Engelbert became commissioner in 2019.

Starting that season, Engelbert allowed for the possibility of charter travel during the playoffs for teams that had just a day between games while crossing more than one time zone. Last year, the league moved to all-charter travel for the WNBA Finals.

This season, the league will pay for charters when teams play regular-season games on back-to-back days that require air travel, for the visiting team in the Commissioner's Cup final and for all rounds of the playoffs.

Other than that, travel has to be commercial, as stated in the 2020 WNBA collective bargaining agreement: "All air travel provided by the Team (including, but not limited to, travel between games) will be, if available on the Team-chosen flights at the time of booking, premium economy (or similar enhanced coach fare). Teams are required to reimburse players for the application cost of obtaining Global Entry membership as part of the Trusted Travelers Program of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security."

Engelbert has said on numerous occasions that traveling to all games via charter flights at this point isn't financially feasible for the league as a whole. And individual teams are prohibited from going to all charter flights even if they decide they can afford it because it is deemed a significant competitive advantage in the 12-team league. To that end, the New York Liberty were fined $500,000 last year after using charters in 2021 against league policy.

Engelbert has also said many times that no one wants charter travel any more than she does, but she won't jeopardize the league's financial health for it. Several WNBA owners and general managers have acknowledged more gradual moves make sense.

"My hope is the league may open the door and say you can charter five in 2024, you pick which one," one WNBA executive told ESPN. "And we gradually move to full charter."

What else do we know about teams using JSX as a travel option?

Teams are allowed to fly JSX with certain protocols in place, league sources told ESPN this week. According to its website, JSX is a "hop-on jet service that's faster on the ground and more comfortable in the air." It's "a taste of what chartering will be like," one league executive told ESPN.

But JSX isn't available in most WNBA cities, and unlike charters, the airline's flights have preset routes and times, which the league has told teams they cannot change.

JSX usage varies by team, league sources told ESPN, depending on factors such as availability of flights and preexisting travel booked. Mercury guard Shey Peddy's Instagram video from last month included a shot of the interior of a JSX plane from when the team took a JSX flight to Los Angeles for its season opener.

JSX planes can hold about 30 people, providing teams the option to buy out an entire flight. Passengers access planes through private terminals and can easily check their bags before boarding. Perhaps most convenient for teams, JSX advises customers to check in no later than 20 minutes before a domestic flight, and per JSX's website, each plane is equipped with business-class legroom.

Tickets for JSX standard routes for the most part are not drastically more expensive than commercial flights. But the price goes up for "created routes," which might be one of the things that is allowed for the Mercury because of Griner's unique security situation.

Do WNBA teams travel with security?

The league as a whole and several teams independently elevated security measures heading into the 2023 season. New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve revealed publicly that their teams are now traveling with security detail, something several other franchises confirmed to ESPN they have incorporated this year as well. That was allowed by the league lifting travel-party-number restrictions, sources told ESPN.

As of the start of this season, teams on the road can also coordinate additional "away market-local security" with the home squad.

Should we expect a leaguewide change to travel midseason?

This is highly unlikely to happen. There might be incremental moves to more charters next season, as there have been since Engelbert took over. But as she has stated many times, a wholesale change to all charter flights right now isn't feasible.

The issue of WNBA travel is on a perpetual news cycle. It comes up every time there is any difficulty in WNBA travel, including airport delays. It's an issue talked about frequently by some of the high-profile players, prominent agents such as Griner's representatives at Wasserman, and the union. The situation Griner faced at DFW prompted familiar responses from those who are convinced charters can be done sooner rather than later, despite what Engelbert and certain owners insist.

The situation is more complicated by the fact other owners are ready now to charter because they can afford it. The league has said that would create a competitive advantage issue among WNBA teams. If all parties -- the league, the board of governors and the union -- were to agree to make any significant travel changes before the next CBA, that could be done via attaching a letter to the current CBA. But the league would not comment on whether such a process would require a majority or unanimous vote by the board of governors.

The concept of "competitive advantage" can be tricky. Does a team potentially have competitive advantages based on the city it is in, the arena it plays in and the practice facilities it has? Yes, and those are all factors for drawing free agents. But travel is an issue the league has stood firm on regulating for fiscal and competitive advantage reasons.

There are no longer any WNBA players who finished college with no American pro league to go to. The oldest active player is 41-year-old Diana Taurasi , who was in high school when the WNBA launched in 1997. The majority of today's players also went to Power 5 conference schools where they were used to flying charter for college games due to Title IX. Players come to the WNBA now with different expectations than they used to.

But considering Engelbert's firm statements on this and the fact that it will be on the table for the next CBA negotiations, a full move to charters doesn't seem in the cards right away.

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