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LAS VEGAS – As the WNBA Finals roll across the country for Game 3 and Game 4, it’s all the way to Uncasville, Connecticut. .
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced in her 2022 All-Star address that the league will propose a charter. Teams fly in trades throughout the season and postseason, with short turnarounds like this week’s ugly constant nightmare and frustration.
There is one day off between Tuesday’s Game 2 in Las Vegas and Thursday’s Game 3 in Connecticut and 2,659 miles separating the two venues. Complicating matters, the Suns don’t play in a city with an airport, and the closest major hub is Boston, a two-hour drive away. The Suns have been drawn twice since this tournament, including once after their semi-final series went the full distance.
“It was huge for us, especially coming out of Game 5,” Suns forward Dewana Bonner told Yahoo Sports. “[The Aces] They were able to close their series a little earlier than ours, so they could give us a few days [in Las Vegas] It was good.”
The issue of charter flights is often shrouded in exclusivity, but it allows professional athletes to perform at a higher level for themselves, their teammates and their fans.
“It makes a big difference, especially for a tall guy like me,” Suns forward Jonkel Jones told Yahoo Sports. “Sometimes you get on a plane and you’re so crampy, the recovery starts all over again when you get off. Knowing we have a quick turnaround with the games and being able to get massaged before and still feel the benefits of getting off the plane.
It’s easier to fly on a charter than with commercial flights. Professional athletes get the daily flyers and maybe their height (Boehner is 6-foot-4 and Jones is 6-6) and recognizable status (people love Aja Wilson) all have the same headache.
For those flying from Vegas to Connecticut to follow the series, there weren’t many options. There were one or two flights without stops to Providence, Rhode Island, or Hartford, Connecticut. Each is about a 45-minute to an hour’s drive from the stadium. A scan on Monday showed one flight at 5:25 am PT that landed in Providence at 3 pm ET. Most of them came from early morning until late at night. And then there’s adjusting the time difference to consider.
Instead of getting on and off the plane in one day, the Suns and Aces flew on different charters immediately after Game 2.
“This way, I don’t know, we get to 6 o’clock and we’re going to sleep in the day, rest and get a full day in Connecticut to get another East Coast time,” Aces point guard Chelsea Gray said. .
Rest and recovery are the biggest issues every player Yahoo Sports spoke to mentioned about the benefits of chartering. Anyone who has flown all day knows the fatigue it carries. Airports and game schedules Imagine playing high-level basketball in 24 hours, months later.
“It’s the end of the season now,” 2022 Most Improved Player Jackie Young told Yahoo Sports. “I think rest is the most important thing.”
In the first playoff game, the Suns benefited from a charter as both they and the Dallas Wings struggled to get out of town in a three-day round. The WNBA stepped in to make the Charters difficult in the short term.
“I was really impressed with how they were able to activate two charter flights in two hours,” Sun Basketball operations coordinator Peter Feeney told Yahoo Sports.
Feeney meets with a travel agent to book and rebook flights, but still needs a “good clip” in his day to do so. It may also trigger other changes, such as staying an extra night at a hotel along the way. He said the 2021 season was the most difficult, but this year, with cancellations and delays, it still has its challenges.
That first-round Game 3 was a “nightmare” he seemed happy to avoid again. The Wings flight was canceled earlier in the night of the game and Sun was rescheduled for the morning. It was canceled and was on its way to Boston Airport. That’s when the league came in, but not everyone in the game could keep up. Neither did the tools. And he caught the rest on two flights the next day. One was set to take off at 6:55 a.m., but the team was forced off due to maintenance issues.
“Ours [equipment] Bags were on that flight, so we couldn’t get everybody on that flight because we had to stay with the bags,” Feeney said.
They arrived at 1pm local time and the team was unable to practice. That won’t be the case with charters already scheduled this week. If necessary, a similar short circuit will take place between Sunday’s 4th and Tuesday’s 5th game.
Commercial flights have caused many headaches for Feni’s counterparts around the league and players have taken the brunt of the injury. The Los Angeles Sparks had to sleep in the airport last month and the Aces lost their 2018 game against the Washington Mystics due to a difficult travel day and a late arrival to the district.
The league will not allow teams to charter flights as outlined in the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Even if team owners like the Aces’ Mark Davis and the New York Liberty’s Joe Tye can and are available, one team’s use of them when others can’t is considered a competitive advantage. Tsai was fined a record $500,000 for using charter flights during the 2021 regular season.
It’s an issue Aces head coach Becky Hammon wants to see change “immediately” because it’s a “tremendous issue” over All-Star weekend. Engelbert said using charters would be great, but at a cost of $20 million at this point, he said, “it puts the league’s financial health at risk.”
Granting charters to the playoffs may not seem like much, but it’s a big step forward for the WNBA and its financial coffers. As with every crucial game on the court this week, small moments matter.
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