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WNBA to allow charter flights for the entire playoffs and more

The league will permit teams to charter flights for the playoffs, Commissioner’s Cup championship game, and select regular season games.

Basketballs sit in a rack during practice for the WNBA All-Star basketball game last July in Chicago.
Basketballs sit in a rack during practice for the WNBA All-Star basketball game last July in Chicago.Read moreNam Y. Huh / AP

Charter flights are now permitted in more cases by the WNBA.

The league announced Monday that it will permit teams to charter flights for the duration of the WNBA playoffs, beginning this season, for the Commissioner’s Cup championship game, and for “select regular-season games where teams have back-to-back games on the schedule.”

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, a Collingswood native, said in a news release that the league “will look to do more in the future” as it continues to grow.

The announcement comes a few hours ahead of Monday’s WNBA’s 27th draft, one in which a pair of City 6 players — Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist and Drexel’s Keishana Washington — were up for selection. Siegrist, the nation’s leading scorer who broke numerous school and conference records this season, was picked No. 3 overall by the Dallas Wings. Washington, who was the nation’s third-leading scorer, was not selected. The WNBA season begins May 19.

» READ MORE: Analyzing Villanova star Maddy Siegrist’s WNBA draft stock. Where is she the best fit?

The league previously approved charter flights in certain instances, which last year included the Commissioner’s Cup championship game and WNBA Finals.

The strict rules around charter flights had caused controversy in recent years, notably when New York Liberty owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai repeatedly chartered planes for their team during the second half of the 2021 season and were hit with a league-record $500,000 fine, according to a 2022 story by Sports Illustrated.