The WNBA prioritizing the Fever in its initial charter flight rollout plan isn’t going over well

When the WNBA announced on May 9 that all teams would have flights chartered this season, it felt like the end of a problem that existed for far too long. But what was missed by some in that announcement is that the charters for every game would not start until May 21.

That, unfortunately, left some wiggle room for controversy in the final days of the old policy, because with the season starting on May 14, only the Indiana Fever and Minnesota Lynx were going to receive charter flights to open the year.

For Indiana, it was a result of Caitlin Clark being a star attraction and having her in airports created safety concerns. For Minnesota, a trip from Minneapolis to Seattle either crossed multiple time zones and may typically require a connecting flight, the explanation used by Engelbert to the players in a town hall meeting, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

However, a quick scan around the league showed the flaws in that plan. The most obvious example was a trip by the Atlanta Dream to Los Angeles to face the Sparks on the second night of the season. Despite crossing multiple time zones, there was no charter flight.

Since there was no public explanation for this, it quickly devolved to the point that players began accusing the league of favoritism on Twitter/X in either subtle or not-so-subtle ways.

Brittney Sykes, a guard for the Washington Mystics, pointed out that because the Mystics traveled across the country a day before the charter flight program went into place, they would be flying commercially for more than five hours, while Clark and the Fever would be chartered for their shorter flight from Indiana to Connecticut:

Or there was Aces forward Alysha Clark, who reacted to the WNBA beginning an investigation on the $100,000 payments the team was set to receive from the Las Vegas tourism authority by asking to start an investigation into Englebert’s choices over who would get to fly charter before the new program, and who wouldn’t:

This comes a little over a week after Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve also raised an eyebrow at potential Clark-based favoritism by the league during the preseason.

It’s hard to watch this during what should be a moment to celebrate the new season and this historic win for the players, because had the league better or more clearly implemented this charter rollout plan, had a better explanation for who they initially chose to participate, or just simply had it in place for all teams to start when the season opened and not a week into it, this wouldn’t have led to the latest bout of Clark-centric criticism.

Instead, we have subtweet-fueled controversy pitting players against each other.

In reality, it was going to be unsafe for Clark and the Fever to fly commercial this season because of her level of fame. It makes sense for them to receive charter flights. But it was unsafe last season when Brittney Griner was confronted by a YouTuber at the airport, too, and the league still didn’t put this program in place until this season, so it’s easy to understand why some players appear to be unhappy.

In the end, the conclusion the league reached that it was time for this change to its flight policy was the correct one, but it’s resulted in accusations and perceived favoritism that never would have happened if the league had just treated every team the same from the start — or simply started every team’s chartered flights on the 21st — rather than this haphazard rollout.

Ultimately, it might have been a no-win scenario for the league regardless of which option it chose, but on the bright side, at least the controversy will be over soon.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.