WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert Says League Can’t Fund Charter Flights for Full Season

Engelbert: “We’re not going to jeopardize the financial health of the league and be irresponsible.”

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league is not financially in a place to fund team charter flights for an entire season, according to ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel. 

Engelbert’s response comes several days after a Sports Illustrated report by Howard Medgal revealed that the WNBA considered terminating the Liberty due to the team’s owners chartering flights for players. While Engelbert claims she would like to see the league carry out the idea, she said the WNBA simply lacks the funds.

“It would be more than $20 million a year to fund charter flights for an entire WNBA season,” Engelbert told ESPN in an interview. “… We’re not going to jeopardize the financial health of the league and be irresponsible... If we can get it funded by sponsors and supporters, great, but that's not where we are. We do not have that.”

Medgal: How Airplanes Became the WNBA’s Biggest Scandal

New York owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai purchased charter flights both during a Labor Day weekend to Napa and the second half of the 2021 season. The league’s current collective bargaining agreement doesn’t allow for such travel accommodations, saying that it is considered an unfair competitive advantage. 

When the WNBA caught wind of the violations, Jamin Deroshowitz, the league’s general counsel, considered possible punishments that included stripping the team of every draft pick to suspending ownership and even “grounds for termination of the franchise” according to a Sept. 21, 2021, communication between the league and the Liberty reported by SI.

In addition to Liberty purchasing chartered flights for players, the team’s ownership proposed a plan of getting three years of charter flights to the WNBA. But, the league’s board of governors rejected the proposition. 

However, Engelbert claims there was no proposal for the board to consider, telling ESPN that if there had been one, it would have been supported.

New York was fined $500,000, the largest such fee in WNBA history, for purchasing charter flights. The original penalty was a $1 million fine but that was reduced after an appeal. However, per ESPN, the league said Thursday that the fine was always $500,000 and not a larger amount that was reduced after discussion with the Liberty.

Engelbert—who stated she had been working on this initiative since she became commissioner in 2019—said the league has reached out to major airlines and charter companies. However, without sponsors, chartered flights do not fit into the budget.

“If we could get it sponsored or funded in some way ... I'm all ears. I've gotten lots of calls over the past year about this since we've been back in our 12 markets,” Engelbert said. “Then when people price it out, and they see it's $20 million-plus, you never hear from them again.”

The WNBA has previously implemented the use of charter flights during the WNBA playoffs when franchises have only one day in between games and when teams travel across time zones.