New York Liberty fined $500,000 for taking chartered flights against CBA rules

Howard Megdal of "Sports Illustrated" reported Tuesday that the Liberty's 2021 Labor Day weekend trip to Napa violated the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) "a benefit that vastly exceeded the allowable compensation to players."

"So, too, did the charter flights Liberty owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai bought and provided to their team repeatedly throughout the second half of the WNBA season, a competitive advantage for New York that led to a league-record $500,000 fine of the team -- originally floated by the league at $1 million, reduced on an appeal, itself an irregular process -- and the removal of Liberty executive Oliver Weisberg from the league’s executive committee, sources told Sports Illustrated. The league confirmed these details, as well." Megdal wrote.

Megdal further reported that when the league was alerted of the violations, WNBA general counsel Jamin Dershowitz floated "possible remedies" ranging 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 reviewed by SI." Founded nearly 26 years ago, the WNBA "features a mix of aggressive new owners eager to signal their optimism for the future and old-school owners who prefer the conservative approach that defined the league’s past," per Megdal.

"This is happening within a broader landscape of massive investment across women’s sports, really, for the first time in the U.S.," Megdal wrote. "Born from it is a unique scandal, in which a prominent franchise stands accused of treating its players too well."

It was only last week when Los Angeles Sparks' newly-signed four-time All-Star Liz Cambage spoke out on CBA issues in the WNBA.

The 2022 WNBA season begins on May 6.