The league isn't financially responsible to use charter flights now, as much as it would like, according to the commissioner.
It would cost more than $20 million a year to fund charter flights for the entire season of the league. We are not where we are if we can get it funded by sponsors and supporters. We don't have that.
All the major airlines have been asked. We have asked charter companies. I have been working on this since I joined the league. It is not in the cards right now because of the lack of sponsors. If we could get some kind of funding for it. I am all ears. Since we returned to our 12 markets, I have gotten a lot of calls about this. You never hear from them again when people price it out and they see it is $20 million-plus.
The New York Liberty were fined $500,000 for chartering flights to away games during the second half of the season and for other violations of league rules.
The Liberty was fined $500,000 for violating the rules in a portion of the letter sent to the team. Larger fines and the possibility of forfeiture of draft picks will be consequences of any similar violations in the future.
The league said the fine was $500,000 and not a larger amount that was reduced after negotiations with the Liberty.
Liberty owners Joe and Clara Tsai are co-founders of the Chinese tech company Alibaba Group. The Liberty's unofficial proposal of getting three years of comped charter flights for the entire league was rejected by the Board of Governors, according to the news first reported by Sports Illustrated.
On Tuesday, the WNBA said there was no proposal for the board to consider.
She said that it would have been supported if there had been.
If teams have just a day between games and are crossing time zones, the league supports the use of charters. The league would listen and be reasonable if a charter alleviated travel obstacles during the regular season.
We funded charter travel during the playoffs last year and this year, so I know what it costs.
The Liberty used unauthorized charter flights that violated the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players' union, according to the league. She said it could give New York an unfair competitive advantage since not all franchises can afford charters.
The cornerstone of the league is the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The league will come in and make sure teams follow the rules, and all the owners want that as well.
Rules exist to give every team an opportunity to compete for a championship under fair rules. There needs to be a level playing field as much as possible.
The business plan she began working on when she took over the role of the commissioner was disrupted by the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 and the need for the WNBA to play that season without fans. The amount of fans that could attend the games was limited last season.
The reason for the three-to-five-year business transformation plan is to grow revenue so that we can fund more things like charter travel in the next phase of the league. The Board of Governors room has good healthy debates about things. It is not something that we have been able to find, a sponsor to step up and fund charter travel.
There has been a question of whether there is a lot of conflict between the wealthiest owners of the WNBA and the other owners.
That was disputed by Engelbert. The board of governors meeting late last fall was the first meeting in person since the Pandemic and some owners were meeting for the first time. They have a strong working relationship.
All 12 owners are in this together, no matter what happened when they joined the league. Good governance has different viewpoints: new owners, owners that have been in the league for 25 years.
The issue of charters is getting all the attention. There are many other things we are trying to do, such as globalize the game, expansion, digital transformation, and merchandise, that we also talk about in the board room.
New investors and existing NBA and WNBA owners will be part of the capital raise. It was funded by selling equity in the WNBA and brought in $75 million, which was used for things like marketing and brand elevation.
She said that they have been around for 25 years and are growing. Two years ago, we signed a very progressive collective bargaining agreement that tripled the pay of the top players, put a $1 million into league-marketing agreements, and put together a half-a-million-dollar prize pool for the Commissioner.
A lot of things are going well. We cannot jeopardize the momentum here. We have to make sure that this league thrives for many years.
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