-
Michael Voepel, ESPN.com
With charter flights to games a persistent problem within the WNBA, particularly when it comes to ongoing free agency signings, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert reiterated Friday that the WNBA must consider caution long-term financial situation regarding any chartering decision.
Chartering all flights for a 40-game season and playoffs is estimated to cost about $25 million for the 12-team WNBA.
“And what some people are missing is that it’s not one-year funding,” Engelbert told ESPN. “It’s something you have to fund — I mean it 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 bring in a sponsor to fund it for a year…sponsors can come and go. So you need to make sure you have a feasible business model to fund it long term.”
Breanna Stewartwho left the Seattle Storm sign with the Freedom of New York on Wednesday, talked a lot about the Charter issue. Multiple sources also told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne in January that it was assumed Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner She may have to take a private flight for security reasons after spending 10 months in a Russian prison after authorities at a Moscow airport found a small amount of hash oil in her luggage.
However, Griner — a free agent expected to re-sign with the Mercury if she plays in the 2023 season, as she indicated — made no specific travel requests.
Stewart – who has the same agent as Griner and another high-profile free agent from Liberty, Courtney Vandersloot — tweeted that she wanted “to be part of a deal that helps subsidize charter travel for the entire WNBA. I would contribute my NIL, publications and production hours to ensure we all travel from a way that prioritizes the health and safety of players, which ultimately results in a better product.”
Engelbert said the league has long been open to sponsorship deals, including obviously from airlines, to try to offset the cost of charter flights. But apart from that, this is a long-term approach. Engelbert said the focus on evolving the league as a business goes hand in hand with any discussion of issues such as charter flights.
“All the leagues that have charters are funded by huge media rights deals,” Engelbert said. “That’s why we’re working so hard to transform our league’s economics. We want to create a revenue stream – at the league and team level – where we have larger corporate sponsorships that intensify.
“I’m obviously very open that there is a huge undervaluation of our media rights in women’s sport. We need to scale this up in our next round of media negotiations.”
The WNBA’s current deal with ESPN/ABC ends after the 2025 season. The league also offers games on CBS Sports, Amazon Prime, Twitter, Facebook, NBA TV and its own streaming service.
“I’m thinking very seriously about how we can make this happen,” she said of charters. “And all of that depends on the next round of media negotiations and the involvement of larger corporate partners, because that’s how we – the teams and the league – could finance it.
“I know a lot of people say, ‘OK, let’s take $25 million to $30 million and divide it by 12.’ But that’s not how it’s actually going to work, because we don’t want to jeopardize the financial viability of this league by putting all the blame on the league or the owners. We’re all in this together. »
The charter issue also came to a head last year when the league fined the Liberty $500,000 for chartering flights to away games during the second half of the 2021 WNBA season. The flights were purchased by Liberty’s owners, Joe Tsai, co-founder of Chinese technology company Alibaba Group, and his wife Clara.
In March 2022, Sports Illustrated reported news of the fine and that the Liberty had made an “unofficial proposal” to get three years of free charter flights for the entire league, but that it was rejected by the WNBA Board of Governors. However, Engelbert countered in a league statement and in an interview with ESPN that there was no such proposal for the board to consider.
The WNBA prohibits unauthorized use of charter flights by teams because it violates the collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and the players’ union and could provide a potentially unfair competitive advantage over franchises that cannot afford charter flights. .
However, since Engelbert took over as commissioner in 2019, the league has supported the use of charters during the playoffs if teams have only one day between games and cross time zones. And since last season, team flights to the WNBA Finals have been chartered.
Engelbert also said the league would “listen and be reasonable” if teams encountered significant travel obstacles during the regular season that a charter could alleviate.
WNBA travel is collectively negotiated, with the most recent CBA being signed in January 2020 as an eight-year deal with an option to opt out after six years, which would follow the 2025 season.
The breakdown of ownership of the WNBA is as follows: 42% by the NBA’s 30 NBA teams, 42% by the 12 WNBA teams and 16% by investors from the league’s capital increase in 2022 .Ownership, investors and the players union will all be involved. , of course, during subsequent CBA negotiations, including travel.
And without a substantial sponsorship investment and/or a significantly increased media rights deal, a full charter flight season would be a major challenge to finance.
“I suspect that, as we have done it, it is more of a piecemeal approach,” Engelbert said. “We funded (charters) for the final, we funded them for the Commissioners Cup, we funded them where it makes sense. But I’m not going to jeopardize the financial viability of this league and do something something that doesn’t make sense.
“And as far as the potential expansion teams, with everyone we’re in discussions with, I’ve been very transparent on the charter issues: what the business model is, how we want to finance it and what that we’re going to do it.” when economically feasible. I don’t think that scares anyone.
Engelbert reiterated what she has said in the past: that she firmly believes the WNBA Board of Governors is “all rowing in the same direction on this topic.”
Without naming New York, which clearly appears to be using its support for the charter as a carrot for Stewart, Engelbert also said, “Some are using it as a talking point to try to build teams to compete for a championship.”
“That’s why you need people like me in the league, who are not biased towards any team and who are going to make sure that whatever we do, it’s fair and that we prepare the league for the Next 50 years. more years.
“The one thing I want to make very clear – and the Board of Governors knows this – is that no one wants charter trips for these players more than Cathy Engelbert. That’s why we are working so hard on the transformation. “I learned from my 33 years of activity before coming here. I know how to grow a business, give me time. We will get there. “
