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In this editorial article, Regan Moran will cover why the New York Liberty was fined because of their flying scandal.
Women's national basketball association Plane Scandal
Women's national basketball association Plane Scandal
By Regan Moran
By Regan Moran
On Mar. 1, 2022, Joe and Clara Tsai flew their WNBA athletes with charter instead of commercial flights to away games. Once the league found out about this, the New York Liberty, an American professional basketball team based in Brooklyn, New York City, was fined $500,000 for violating the WNBA collective bargaining agreement. This amount was originally $1 million, but was reduced to half. Because the cost of charter flights are so expensive (being as much as $20 millions dollars for 12 teams to fly for an entire season), the league banned the use of charter flights.
Their reason was that not all owners may be able to offer such luxury flights. However, the NBA players fly charter flights constantly for away games. The WNBA players should receive the same treatment as the NBA players enjoy.
The Tsais were concerned about the COVID-19 regulations, so they reserved the charter flights. Most modern-day teams fly using charter airfare. The article Deadspin mentioned that the WNBA alarmed the New York Liberty by saying they were going to break off the entire franchise (brand trademarks, trade name, business system, and distribution of products) or remove “every draft pick they’ve ever seen.” Instead of taking away all of the New York Liberty’s franchise, the WNBA enforced the $500,000 fine.
Credit: SI
People that are involved in the industry have some strong opinions on the New York Liberty being fined. On Twitter, the WNBA players’ association tweeted, “Fining the teams for standing up for equity, standing up for the players, harkens back to a league that fined the players for standing up for social justice.” An article from The New York Times mentioned Lexie Brown’s comment on the situation was: “We deserve nice things.” Others will soon back up her statement.“What a joke,” said Sabrina Lonscu (The Liberty Guard). A member of the Portland Trail Blazers of the N.B.A tweeted, “This is trash and @WNBA yall got to get better.”
After investigating this fine, Deadspin introduced the fact that the fine that was placed on the New York Liberty is more than double the individual salary cap of the players (players’ average pay is around $230,000). In years prior, Liz Cambage (who is measured to 6’8)" stated that she paid “out of my own pocket” to upgrade her plane ticket. Multiple players have complained about the small seating when flying commercial airfare.
Credit: Wikipedia
The WNBA teams should be allowed to fly just the same as any other team without being penalized. They are no different from the NBA. Because of the WNBA punishing the teams, they have now made airplanes their biggest scandal. If the organization allowed the teams to fly charter, it would make the WNBA a better company to work for.
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