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WNBA travel issues resurface early for Washington Mystics and Las Vegas Aces

WNBA travel issues resurface early for Washington Mystics and Las Vegas Aces

The Mystics defeated the Aces Tuesday on the strength of a dominant 24-7 third quarter to earn perhaps the most impressive win of the young WNBA season. But before and after the game, the conversation turned to the league’s travel policy.

This isn’t the first time travel has dominated the discourse between Washington and Las Vegas, but at least this time, the game went on as scheduled.

Four years ago, during their inaugural season in Las Vegas, the Aces spent more than 24 hours traveling to Washington, a harrowing day that involved flight delays and cancellations, sleeping overnight in a Dallas airport terminal, and splitting up from there on the way to D.C. Las Vegas ultimately forfeited the game, even after it was pushed back an hour, because the Aces didn’t believe they were physically fit to play.

(Frankly, nothing ever goes according to plan when these two teams play, but we’ll stick to travel for now.)

The next season, in one of her first acts as WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert decided to charter planes for Las Vegas — and the Los Angeles Sparks — who were both flying cross-country to Washington and Connecticut, respectively. The Aces and Sparks were contesting playoff games on a Tuesday on the East coast after each playing on the West coast that Sunday.

At the time, it seemed like chartering flights might become a more regular part of the WNBA travel experience. But other than when the New York Liberty covertly chartered flights a year ago in violation of the collective bargaining agreement, charter planes have only been used within the rules once, when the Sky and Mercury had to travel between games 2 and 3 of the 2021 WNBA Finals.

It’s worth noting that the league has played its last three seasons, including the current one, during a global pandemic, making commercial flights even more of a sticking point. That is particularly true since the mask mandate ended, as Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud became acutely aware of…

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