Joe Tsai, team owner, gives a high-five to the New York Liberty players. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Joe Tsai, Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman, is the owner and operator of the WNBA's New York Liberty.
After a series of disasters, the billionaire businessman hopes to improve the team travel experience for the league.
He tweeted October 1, that he was working with the WNBA in order to find sponsors for chartered flight charters.
For more stories, visit Insider's homepage.
Joe Tsai puts his money and connections where his mouth is.
He is the billionaire businessman and executive vice chairman of Chinese tech giant Alibaba. He also owns the WNBA's New York Liberty, as well as the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. Since he purchased the Liberty in January 2019, he has been an advocate for women's equity and is now trying to channel resources to his franchise and other leagues to benefit all of them.
Tsai's latest target Commercial plane travel.
WNBA teams have been experiencing travel disasters in the midst of trying to travel from one city to another for their games for years. Curt Miller, the Connecticut Sun's Coach of the Year in 2021, spoke out about the grueling schedule his team had to follow during the Sun's WNBA semifinal match against the Chicago Sky.
ESPN's Mechelle Voipel reported that Miller's team split to fly three flights from two airports in preparation for Sunday's Game 3 matchup. The team wanted to make sure its eight players, who are more than six feet tall, didn't have to squeeze their long legs into the middle seats days before a crucial contest.
Tayler Hill, a former Washington Mystics player, and Maurice, her son, sleep on the shoulders of Tierra Ruffin Patt, while sitting coach on a commercial flight in 2015. Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Miller stated, "I want you guys hear this," in his postgame news conference held at Mohegan Sun Arena after Connecticut's Game 2 win. That's what the league goes through. This is what these incredible women, the best at what they do, go through.
Continue the story
Tsai considers this unacceptable. Tsai took to Twitter to respond to Voepel’s report on October 1, and stated that it was "time to find constructive solutions to this problem!"
Tsai replied to Tsai's tweet, "League states you can't fly charter as different owners have different financial situations." "I'm working closely with Commissioner [Cathy] Englebert in order to find a charter sponsor."
He said, "Conversations going well with airline CEOs." They get the idea that equity is important for women athletes.
Tsai's comments suggest that he and the league’s top brass are working on something. The semifinals will be played Wednesday night with all four teams taking on each other. Both the Sky and Phoenix Mercury have a chance to reach the finals. The Sun and Las Vegas Aces will be eliminated.
The finals will feature teams from different parts of the country and are set to begin on October 10. Although it is possible, if not probable, that teams will still have to deal with travel issues while they are competing for a title in the finals, the league may intervene.
The WNBA offered to pay the charter flight costs for two semifinal teams in 2019 It is possible that scheduling pressure or public pressure will force the league to act again this season, especially if two franchises separated by thousands miles are scheduled to meet in the finals.
Insider has the original article.
