Posted on 06/15/2023 8:38:05 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
As the WNBA faces increased pressure to move away from commercial airline travel, the league has allowed teams this season to fly on a public chartering service called JSX with certain protocols in place, league sources told ESPN this week.
The league's travel situation has come under increased scrutiny after the Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner -- who was detained in Russia most of last year and subsequently released in a high-profile prisoner exchange -- was harassed in a Dallas airport this past weekend while flying commercially with the team.
WNBA teams primarily fly commercial, citing cost. Some franchises and players have increasingly pushed for the use of charters, and the New York Liberty incurred a $500,000 fine for illicitly flying charters to some away games in 2021.
This year, the league expanded charter use to postseason play and regular-season games played on back-to-back days that require air travel.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.com ...
Why not? The NBA can afford it, and the WNBA exists to buy political protection for the NBA, which has some longstanding problems regarding the players’ treatment of women.
As do other professional sports, to be fair, but the NBA is probably the worst.
The #metoo movement did not really impact the NBA players at all. Interesting.
Now would be a good time for the NBA to sell the WNBA to somebody like Oprah.
Boo hoo the big man Brittany got a baaaad question.
So you think the male NBA should keep sponsoring lesbians to play basketball and lose millions a year.
The wnba is a non entity. It is not self sustaining. No one cares to see lesbian women play basketball when high school boys teams can beat them. They are CARRIED bythe tens of millions each year the nba just gives them.
They dont deserve it. The nba deserves it. They put the asses in the seats. The wnba does not.
And before you blame men, where are all the women supporting the wnba? Why aren’t they going and taking their daughters to games? To see the lesbians play?
You know why? Because women don’t care about the wnba other than to try to use it as a wedge issue against men.
And yes almost all of the players are lesbians. Its been so stated by the few former straight women wnba players who uttered this truth.
An example here....Atlanta Dream tickets start at $5, and they typically average around 2,500 to 3,000 per game. Now, this is at the end of the spectrum...Vegas Aces average 5,000 per game and the low-end tickets run $6, and better tickets at $15.
Even off TV rights....I just don’t see any real income.
The Cavinder twins aren't going into the WNBA because there's no money in it for them.
Is the WNBA too good for trains and buses...
I guess I should have used the /s tag.
Of course you are right. The WNBA is a fake league. The big test for women’s professional sports will be to cut the subsidy ties and stand on their own financially. Women’s golf and tennis are self supporting but those are individual sports that market via a tournament circuit. Fans will come out once or a few times a year to watch a tournament, with the top players as the draws. Selling league play is a different proposition as fans have to be invested in the teams on a long term basis.
Right-sizing the enterprise — and right-sizing expectations — are the key. There is a big threshold point that has to be faced. Players come up through a youth and school sports system, largely supported by the schools. What happens post-graduation? Whatever the sport, a lot of players love the game and would like to continue playing if they can. Does the professional league attract enough paying fans to pay salaries high enough to allow full-time training and the maintenance of professional level training staffs and infrastructure? If not, the post-college leagues will drift into part-time, pro-am arrangements with the players earning next to nothing. They may do it for a few years for the sheer love of the game, but most will drop out and get on with their lives. Or the leadership will go hunting for cash cows and subsidies, which is the WNBA model.
In the U.S., I think soccer will be the first women’s team sport to achieve self-sufficiency and sustainability at a serious professional level. Two earlier women’s leagues failed for financial reasons — and they failed while the U.S. Women’s National Team was winning the Women’s World Cup and Olympic gold medals. The current NWSL leadership seems to be committed to building in the right way. I hope they can stay on track. Professional sports are ultimately an entertainment product. There is absolutely no justification for government support for things like stadium construction.
And still, womens golf and tennis don’t pull in as much as mens golf and tennis. And neither would exist if men didn’t create and fund womens golf and tennis. Men built and funded those organizations for women. Women didn’t create them. There are no professional sports at that level that were solely just created by women and funded with womens money.
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