WNBA forfeit

[14Red]

This post is a little tongue in cheek...many who follow sports doesn't even know the WNBA is in session, let alone that their season is nearly over.

So the back story is this. As you may have guessed, the WNBA teams don't fly charter flights. This league is largely supported by the NBA. No one would ever say, but I'm sure the WNBA loses money, but in today's PC world, the NBA supports it.

So the Las Vegas Aces, a team in the WNBA, due to flights being cancelled and delayed...was late enough for a game in Washington that they decided to not play the game. Due to not many game dates, arena availability, etc. it was decided by the league that the game would be forfeited by the Aces. Now supposedly they were traveling up to 24 hours straight at this point was was extremely tired.
Seriously, I'm not making this up.

Thoughts...

 

[arizonawildcat]

I would have taken the court and then completely dogged it.

 

[14Red]

I would have taken the court and then completely dogged it.

Two things that struck me as odd in this whole story, and we didn't get the whole story immediately.
1. While yes, they were traveling for a long time, but they were in an airport, on planes, they did have a chance to rest. It's not like they were driving cars or were sitting on a plane on the runway for 15 hours.
2. As I understand, they have 5-6 games left in the regular season and are 2 1/2 games out of the last playoff spot? Wouldn't you play no matter what??

Also lost is who actually made this decision? Was it the coach/ players/ organization...what were they hoping to gain by this. Is this some kind of ploy to take a swipe at WNBA officials and make a play for charter flights??

This again goes into a category where professional athletes forget what they do and where they come from? My guess is alot of these players played AAU / college ball, maybe rode busses for hours and played the same day, so this just really doesn't look good for the team, players and the league as a whole.

 

[nwwarrior09]

Weird story. Considering the playoff ramifications, I'm very surprised they didn't just play as they had the following day off as another travel day. As far as player health, etc. goes, they play like a 34-35 game regular season. The game total is basically the same as playing on a good college team, albeit on a slightly more compressed time frame. This should have been reasonably manageable for pros IMO.

I hope this wasn't some type of idiotic statement to try to get chartered flights. The WNBA would be screwed if they didn't get money from the NBA, and if they weren't an add-on on the NBA's ESPN deal. The NBA money ALLOWS them to have things like commercial flights and salaries ranging from $50k-120k.

 

[brianwr112]

Shocking that 14Red was quick to jump on a story that involved females or someone of any race but his own. From every story I've read the players contacted their players union and the league about their concerns about playing. The league didn't agree but the player's and their union agreed not to play the game as scheduled. I don't think it was ever to get more from the league in terms of chartered flights or better amenities. They simply want some sort of travel guidelines. There are AAU teams that would refuse to take the court under the same circumstances. But you're only answer to anything is that it's a PC culture now and everyone's so weak. Coming from a Keyboard Cowboy I always laugh.

For you info the WNBA made at least $50+ million last year. Those dang NBA officials are sooo dumb for investing into a league that brings fans and coverage to their brand. All because they want to be PC.

 

[14Red]

Shocking that 14Red was quick to jump on a story that involved females or someone of any race but his own. From every story I've read the players contacted their players union and the league about their concerns about playing. The league didn't agree but the player's and their union agreed not to play the game as scheduled. I don't think it was ever to get more from the league in terms of chartered flights or better amenities. They simply want some sort of travel guidelines. There are AAU teams that would refuse to take the court under the same circumstances. But you're only answer to anything is that it's a PC culture now and everyone's so weak. Coming from a Keyboard Cowboy I always laugh.

For you info the WNBA made at least $50+ million last year. Those dang NBA officials are sooo dumb for investing into a league that brings fans and coverage to their brand. All because they want to be PC.

Ok, I'm not going to discredit you, but i'm pretty sure there is some creative accounting going on and part of the tv contract for the NBA included WNBA games. I honestly follow alot of sports and no one, and i mean NO ONE talks about WNBA games. I mean the only reason the WNBA has been in the news this season is because of this forfeited game.
Can you name anything else significant that's happened in the WNBA this season? Do you know the playoffs are about to start?

So what would you propose the WNBA "travel guidelines" be? They don't have the $$'s to charter flights, so should they get preferential flight accommodations over the general public at airports?? Let's see how that flies.