Harmonic Convergence of Aces’ Travel Woes, McGregor/White and Wild Bill Shows Power of The Mighty Dollar

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

After the Las Vegas Aces travel headaches, you have to wonder how many metal dollies would have Conor McGregor tossed if he had to endure the plane flight cancellation and delays experienced by the Aces Friday.

 

And as usual. Friday’s events of a McGregor UFC fight announcement and a cancelled Aces game in Washington, D.C. came down to the money.

 

In less than 24 hours, the Aces cancelled a game in Washington, D.C. after commercial travel nightmares (charter air flights not allowed in the WNBA because of some teams can afford them and gain a competitive advantage); Las Vegas-based UFC ringmaster Dana White announced moonlighting boxer/metal dolly tosser Conor McGregor returns to the Octagon for a championship fight in Las Vegas Oct. 6; and Nice Man of the Flowing Hair on Skates, William Karlsson, even reached a one-year deal with the Vegas Golden Knights for $5.25 million to avoid arbitration hearing.

 

The McGregor case is especially attention-grabbing because four months ago a video documented the UFC’s biggest name hurling a hand truck through a bus window with UFC fighters and staff on the bus at Barclays Center in Brooklyn after a UFC 223 media day event April 5.

 

McGregor faced 12 criminal charges, but a recent plea deal allowed the UFC star to avoid jail time. Friday when White announced the McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov championship fight for Oct. 6, he hardly mentioned in an ESPN interview McGregor’s metal dolly toss at the arena loading dock in Brooklyn, referring to the hothead’s behavior as, “All the stuff that went down in New York.”

White was in a different mood April 5 when he talked about McGregor and 20 of his pals storming the bus at the arena. White called it the most “disgusting thing” to happen in the history of the company and described McGregor and his fellow attackers as “thugs.”

But four months later, White the UFC showman was in a jovial mood when he announced the UFC lightweight championship between McGregor and Nurmagomedov.

 

The lucrative pay-per-view buys for UFC 229 in October were just too much for White and UFC to pass over — even if White thought McGregor’s behavior was disgusting only four months ago.

 

The juxtaposition between UFC and professional women’s basketball was there for everyone to see Friday, when the Las Vegas Aces players said they would not play the Washington Mystics after a commercial plan trip was cancelled and the journey suffered other plane delays.

 

“Given the travel issues we faced over the past two days—25+ hours spent in airports and airplanes, in cramped quarters and having not slept in a bed since Wednesday night—and after consulting with Players Association leadership and medical professionals, we concluded that playing tonight’s game would put us at too great a risk for injury,”  the Aces players said in the statement.

 

Here’s the statement in its entirety:

 

 

Unlike the other major league sports teams, clubs in the WNBA are not allowed to fly on charter flights because some teams can afford charter flights and others can’t and it would give an unfair competitive advantage to the teams that can afford charter flights, the WMBA’s reasoning goes.

 

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So, the Las Vegas Aces players travel on commercial flights just like other common denizens and are subject to the same nightmarish flight cancellations and delays endured by the traveling public. The Aces dealt with a cancelled flight after it was delayed eight hours and didn’t get to the Washington, D.C. area until 3 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game that was moved back to 8 p.m. before the game itself was cancelled.

 

The Aces’ All-Star shooting guard, Kayla McBride, tweeted about the travel mess.

 

Saturday morning, more news broke that the Vegas Golden Knights and their star forward, William Karlsson, reached a one-year deal of $5.25 million to avoid an arbitration hearing.

 

The Karlsson case was intriguing because of the extremes of Karlsson’s goal-scoring performances of 2016-17 when he scored six goals for the Columbus Blue Jackets compared to 2017-18 when he scored 43 times during the Knights’ miracle season.

 

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