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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Las Vegas Aces coach Bill Laimbeer highlighted more WNBA team travel problems when he recently said it was “not acceptable” for the Aces team to show up at a hotel in Chicago Friday and have to check in amid 400 people — many of whom were not wearing masks — who were mingling in the hotel lobby.
The scene was at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in downtown Chicago before the Aces lost to the Chicago Sky Sunday.
“The hotel situations we have right now are just terrible. We check in last night and there were 400 people in the lobby. In this time of a pandemic situation, that’s not acceptable for the players.” Laimbeer said in a media video posted by Aces beat reporter Jose Volonte on Facebook today. Laimbeer’s comments were after the team checked in Friday and before the Sunday road game in Chicago.
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Laimbeer also said the players have to wait 20 minutes on line to get a lukewarm breakfast among more hotel guests who were — again — not wearing masks.
“You can’t get any breakfast. If we do, it’s a stay in line for 20 minutes with people with no masks. That’s not how the players should be treated at all,” L:aimbeer said on the video. “We should be staying at much better hotels.”
Here are the Laimbeer comments:
You would think the WNBA would be concerned about team players being potentially exposed to COVID-19 by staying at hotels where people are not wearing masks and are being physically close to players. After staging the 2020 season in the pandemic bubble in Florida, the WNBA also had one of the strictest sets of protocols of any sports league in 2021.
In fact, the Aces only last week played their first home game at Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay with fans who were not season ticket holders.
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Travel problems are nothing new for the Aces. You might recall the Aces forfeited a game against the Washington Mystics in 2018 after flight delays and 25 hours of travel from Las Vegas.
The Aces play a crucial game Wednesday when they host the Minnesota Lynx at 6 PM.
Winning as many games as possible is crucial to getting a high seed for the upcoming playoffs in the WNBA because, as you can tell, if you’re a team in the league you want to travel as little as possible.
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