Beginning with the start of the regular season on May 14th, the WNBA will gradually begin offering league-wide charter flights to all of its groups, according to the group, with Delta Airlines acting as the program’s principal carrier.
Earlier this week, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told a group of sports editors that the program would cost about$ 25 million over the course of the next two seasons.
In a speech announcing the Delta information, Engelbert stated,” We are thrilled to announce the start of a full contract system as soon as practicable for the 2024 and 2025 times. This is a testament to the continuing growth of the WNBA.”
Sophie Cunningham, the player representative of the Phoenix Mercury, welcomed the charter flight news during the team’s media day interview sessions at Footprint Center.

” I will say the charter flights are key”, Cunningham said. ” I do n’t know why it has n’t happened sooner. It should’ve. It’s ridiculous that it’s taken this long. Fans ask why we are n’t flying charter.’ The attention is on you.’ But it was finally completed. We’re super excited”.
Prior to this, teams had primarily flown commercial aircraft. Brittney Griner, a Mercury employee, was harassed at an airport in Dallas last year while the team was traveling on a road trip, claimed that the change promotes comfort as well as safety. After a drug-related incident at an airport in Russia where she was playing basketball and she was detained for months, she was arrested in 2022.
” Our safety should always have been high priority”, Griner said. ” As a league we’re more accessible to our fans, but we’ve hit the threshold where it can be an endangerment”.
Next week, Cunningham said there will be a conference call with the player representatives for all 12 WNBA teams to discuss details of the charter plans.
” We have n’t had that conversation yet with the union”, she said. ” I do n’t know the ins and outs of it. That meeting is coming on Monday. So, next time you can ask me. But I just want to say we’re grateful that we’re going to be treated like we should’ve been the past 10 years”.
Engelbert claimed that the league intended to launch its charter flight program entirely once more aircraft can be built.
In Thursday’s announcement, she added,” We have been hard at work to transform the business and build a sustainable economic model to support charter flights for the long term”.
That kind of expense should be incidental, according to Mat Ishbia, who purchased the NBA Suns and Mercury last year for$ 4 billion. In 2022, the league raised$ 75 million to fund a number of initiatives, including travel.
” Everything matters. Every inch matters”, he said. ” I do n’t know if it’s the middle seat, whether it’s walking through a big airport, whether it’s having a bus somewhere, I do n’t know what the inch is, but we want to fix all the inches to give us a best chance and that’s what we want to do.

We’re going to make sure we do everything in our power to improve the experience for our women, giving them the best chance to perform at their best, according to the statement.
The arena behind the new office complex’s new office complex is being constructed by Ishbia, which will also house the WNBA players ‘ new separate from the Suns practice and performance center. It is anticipated to debut on July 1.