The New York Liberty got thrown in the WNBA’s penalty box for having the audacity to provide their players with better flight accommodations.
Sports Illustrated reported the Liberty were fined $500,000 for breaking league rules by providing the team with charter flights paid for by Joe and Clara Wu Tsai. A team trip to Napa was also deemed an impermissible benefit.
“Can your owners do this????” Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu asked on TikTok, sharing a video of the Napa trip.
The fine is not altogether substantial for the Tsai family — Joe Tsai has an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion, and he bought a $157 million Brooklyn condo last July.
However, the Liberty were threatened with more dire consequences.
“After someone alerted the WNBA to the Liberty’s violations, possible remedies floated by the league’s general counsel, Jamin Dershowitz, ranged from losing ‘every draft pick you have ever seen’ to suspending ownership, even ‘grounds for termination of the franchise,’ according to a Sept. 21, 2021, communication between the league and the Liberty,” SI reported.
The issue at hand is that the WNBA collective bargaining agreement forbids charter flights, calling it a competitive advantage.
According to SI, about half of the league’s teams are profitable. There’s somewhat of a divide between old guard owners and new ones like the Tsais (who own the Brooklyn Nets) and Mark Davis (owner of the NFL’s Raiders, who also controls the Las Vegas Aces), who own other professional sports teams and appear to be flabbergasted at constraints on player amenities.
The economics of the WNBA would be surprising to many.
The Tsais bought the Liberty, in America’s biggest market, for somewhere in the range of $10-14 million in 2019, according to CNBC.
The entire WNBA salary cap is $1.3 million, which is why it raised eyebrows when Davis gave Becky Hammon seven figures annually to coach the Aces.
“[A]hhh yes the @WNBA where a head coach can get paid 4X the highest paid players super max contract. lmao and y’all think imma spend another season upgrading my seat on a flight to get to games out of my own pocket,” WNBA All-Star Liz Cambage tweeted in February.
Many observers will think it’s wild that a charter flight is an issue. It sounds more like something fans have become accustomed to hearing about in NCAA circles rather than professional sports. It might be a big enough story to cut through and generate some awareness about WNBA player compensation and the lack of other amenities.
“WNBA owners should be able to invest in their team by providing better working conditions,” tweeted SNY anchor Maria Marino. “If other owners don’t want to, and it puts their club at a competitive disadvantage, that’s on them. This comes down to valuing women’s athletes.”
