It’s no secret that the treatment of the WNBA players should be better. They are the best women in the world at their profession, and they don’t get treated like it at all.
The latest example comes from the LA Sparks. The ladies of the Sparks had a game yesterday against the Washington Mystics and headed to the airport after. As most people know, they have to fly commercial because the WNBA won’t charter them flights for some reason.
Because of that and how there are current issues with airlines and pilots, they had to spend the night in the airport due to a canceled flight. This comes about five months after a report that said WNBA owners voted against the temporary plan on upgrading team flights because they feared they would get used to it.
On Sept. 13, according to a source familiar with the call, the WNBA Board of Governors considered an unofficial proposal from the Liberty to make charter flights the default travel option for WNBA teams—the Liberty said they’d found a way to get it comped for everyone in the league for three years—but it lacked majority support. (In a statement, the WNBA said: “At no point was there a New York Liberty proposal for the WNBA Board of Governors to consider offering three-years-worth of charter flights for WNBA teams. It was agreed that the Liberty would explore opportunities regarding charter flights and present it to the Board. To date, that has not happened.” SI confirmed this took place from a source who heard the exchange directly.) Some owners worried that players would get used to it, so there’d be no going back, and others wondered whether players might just prefer a salary hike instead.
In a Sept. 21 reply to Dershowitz, Liberty alternate governor Oliver Weisberg wrote in a letter later reviewed by SI: “The focus on objecting to better travel arrangements seems to go against the spirit of what the entire League is trying to achieve under the leadership of WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.” He continued, “We cannot begin to talk about gender equity until we solve some pressing issues that have put extra burdens on the health and well-being of WNBA players. In the spirit of improving working conditions for our female athletes, we are of the strong belief that WNBA teams should be permitted to arrange travel that is consistent with the fact that they are professional athletes.”
A week later, even as the Liberty were facing potential discipline for the CBA violation, Joe Tsai went public with his support of charter flights on Twitter.
This is a really bad look on the WNBA because no team should ever have to spend the night in the airport for any circumstance. It’s hard to imagine the WNBA being successful until they start treating the players the way they should be treated.
And maybe it’t not all on the WNBA. It’s probably also a societal thing because we don’t treat women how they should be treated, but something needs to change.
Flip the page to see more.
