Caitlin Clark 'Thankful' for WNBA Starting Charter Flights: 'Makes Life a Lot Easier'

Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark is "thankful" she is entering the WNBA at a time where it seems like teams will be traveling with charter flights in the near future.

She spoke to reporters Wednesday and said she is "excited" and believes the changes "makes life a lot easier for a lot of people."

Clark also said, "I'm happy for the players that have been in this league a really long time and have really deserved this for years and years and years."

While the WNBA already had plans in place for charter flights for back-to-back games and the playoffs, this represents a change that will make travel safer and more comfortable for the players at a time when women's basketball is exploding in popularity in part because of the influx of high-profile rookies such as Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink and more.

ESPN noted WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Tuesday the league will commit $50 million for the 2024 and 2025 campaigns to allow teams to travel via charter flights.

She said the program will be implemented "as soon as we can get planes in places."

WNBA players have been pushing for charter flights long before Clark arrived in the league.

As the ESPN report highlighted, the topic drew national attention last season when the WNBA worked with the Phoenix Mercury regarding travel after Brittney Griner returned following a 10-month detainment in Russia.

"Our safety is being taken seriously now, finally. In no world should our security not be a priority," Griner said. "If we want to be the league that we want to be and have the respect that we have, it comes with some risks. Sometimes people want to get close to you and it's not people you want, so I'm just glad that we don't have to deal with that anymore."

Women's National Basketball Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike highlighted the benefits of charter flights as well.

"Our league is growing, the demand for women's basketball is growing," Ogwumike said. "That means more eyes on us, which is what we want, but that means more protection from the organization that we play for, the whole W that we play for.

"Chartering flights not only is a safety measure, the biggest thing, and then obviously what it means to be able to play a game and go home and rest and recover and be the elite athletes that we try to be every single night when we step out onto this court. It's a great day for our league as a whole that we are able to get here and we're going to continue to grow and continue to build and continue to push for even better."

It's surely not fully coincidental that these changes are happening as Clark enters the league.

Her games at Iowa consistently set television ratings records, as did the WNBA draft when the Fever selected her with the No. 1 overall pick. Teams around the league are moving their scheduled home games against Indiana to larger venues to accommodate the ticket demands.

The arrival of Clark will only make the league and its players more popular, which makes the safety measures of charter flights all the more important.