The WNBA’s travel woes have carried over into the 2022 season. Many players have blasted the league for refusing to arrange or even allow charter flights.

Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud took to Twitter to call attention to the issue after airlines dropped their mask mandates in April.

“On commercial flights, trying to have a Covid free season…while being surrounded by random people not wearing masks,” Cloud wrote.

Just want y’all to know we’re still flying comfort + even after the mask mandate has been lifted. So yes. On commercial flights, trying to have a Covid free season….while being surrounded by random people not wearing mask pic.twitter.com/QzC5ii3PVO

— Natasha Cloud (@T_Cloud4) April 23, 2022

This week, Cloud missed the Mystics’ Tuesday game against the Las Vegas Aces after entering the league’s health and safety protocols. She took to Twitter to call out the WNBA once again.

“Shoutout to the WNBA for flying us commercial during a pandemic. (And no mask mandates),” she wrote.

Shoutout to the @WNBA for flying us commercial during a pandemic. (And no mask mandates) Go mystics🗣 https://t.co/UxEQ8ybrls

— Natasha Cloud (@T_Cloud4) May 10, 2022

She further called out the policy on her Instagram stories, writing that she goes to practice and games but heads straight home afterward and hasn’t been outside “in months.”

“Fly commercial next to random a– people with no mask…COVID,” she said. “At what point do players’ safety come first? I’m doing my part.”

In a later story, she wrote that “how we travel makes it nearly impossible” to avoid COVID.

But health and safety issues aren’t the only concerns that players have raised in regard to the league’s travel policies.

The Aces’ Kelsey Plum said after the team’s 89-76 loss to Washington that the full travel day had left her fatigued.

“I think I’m the best conditioned player in this league, respectfully, and I feel like to play that type of game against Seattle [on Sunday night], then to get on a delayed flight for five and a half hours, fly across the country, wake up and play the next day — I mean, I was tired today,” Plum said. “If you guys have ever watched me play, I can go all day. So I don’t think it’s necessarily conditioning as it’s just the setup of the schedule.

“Let’s be real, I mean, I’m not here to blame a charter flight for the reason that we lost, but normally a team would fly out that night and have that whole day to rest and get your legs back under you and then go play the next day. So you know those little things make a difference. Hopefully we’re on our way.”

An article by The Athletic in 2019 also detailed the many issues that players and coaches have while flying coach.

Earlier this season, Diamond DeShields brought up the issue of some players being too tall to fly coach – even in premium economy seats. She showed in a video on social media just how much leg room she has at her 6-foot-1 height.

I’m glad ain’t nobody in the seat next to me cuz we would be fighting for this leg room do u hear meeee pic.twitter.com/7BEZPnxBLB

— Diamond DeShields (@diamonddoesit1) May 6, 2022

Some players choose to spend money out of pocket to upgrade their seats. Liz Cambage told the Los Angeles Times that she spends about $5,000 to $8,000 of her own money each year upgrading to first class.

“I’m not sitting in the exit row,” Cambage said. “If you’re under 6-5, you’re fine. But players like me and Brittney [Griner], that’s gonna come out of our pocket.”

In 2021, the league’s tallest players included Cambage (6-foot-8), Griner (6-foot-9) and Bernadett Hatar (6-foot-10).

The Sparks will be on the road for eight out of their 11 games in May and will have to deal with navigating airports and airplanes while also trying not to catch COVID-19.

“I personally think airports are the dirtiest places in the world,” Cambage said. “And the fact that we’re in [them] every other day, when there are owners out there that want us to fly private? And the league literally doesn’t allow it? It’s crazy to me.”

In March, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that the more than $20 million per season cost for the league to charter flights isn’t something she feels the league could handle.

New York Liberty owner Joe Tsai, however, has said that his team had found a way to get charter flights compensated for every team in the league for three years – a claim that the WNBA has refuted. The team was fined $500,000 last season for chartering flights during the second half of the 2021 season and other rules violations.

During last year’s WNBA Finals, the league chartered flights for the Chicago Sky and Phoenix Mercury between Games 2 and 3.

Over two decades after first hitting theaters, Bend It Like Beckham is on track for a sequel, Gurinder Chadha — the director and co-writer of the 2002 women's soccer blockbuster film — confirmed on Saturday.

"I'm excited to revisit the original characters and revive the enduring story and build on the legacy we helped to create for the women's game," she told Deadline late last week.

Though the new script is still in development, Chadha is aiming to collaborate again with co-writer Paul Mayeda Berges and hoping to lure the original cast — led by actors Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley — back to set.

With women's football booming both in England and beyond, London-based Chadha has been ruminating on a Bend It Like Beckham follow-up for the last two years.

"I [initially] didn't want to do anything because I didn't have a story. And then I came up with a great story, really super-cool story. So now I’m inspired," the filmmaker explained. "It's my very clear wish to bring the characters back very, very soon. Women's football is more competitive, more exciting, and more global than ever. It is an honor for me to be a small part of it."

"Bend It Like Beckham" sequel snags assist from USWNT boss

As part of her development process, Chadha is consulting with major players in the women's soccer space — including USWNT manager Emma Hayes, whom Chadha met at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in May.

"[Hayes's] insights into the world of football at her level are invaluable," noted Chadha.

As for Hayes, assisting Chadha is somewhat of a full-circle moment for the decorated London-born women's soccer coach.

"I cried in the cinema watching the film because I felt just like [the main characters] Jess and Jules," Hayes told Deadline. "There was no hope for women's football in Britain then so I was going to the States to try my luck."

"Twenty-three years ago I could never have dreamed of how much that film changed the women's game, and now I have the best job in the world: head coach of the US women's national team."

The Bend It Like Beckham sequel is aiming for a 2027 debut to coincide with both the 25th anniversary of the original film's UK opening and the 2027 Women's World Cup.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham became the latest WNBA player on the mic this week, as the outspoken athlete launched a new podcast on sports media personality Colin Cowherd's The Volume network.

Entitled "Show Me Something" in reference to the two hosts' Missouri roots, the podcast features the seven-year WNBA veteran as well as her former high school classmate and current Summer House reality star West Wilson.

"We're definitely going to hit on the WNBA, a huge topic in sports right now, and then Bravo, clearly, but pop culture, food, fashion, travel... we really do talk about anything," Cunningham said about the variety of topics she'll be discussing with her childhood friend on their podcast. "Our love language is, like, s—t-talking."

The media move follows several recent endorsement deals for Cunningham, as she continues to capitalize on the social media bump she experienced following a June 17th dust-up with Connecticut Sun players.

In this week's first episode, the 2025 Fever addition did not hold back, immediately digging into the ongoing discourse surrounding superstar teammate Caitlin Clark.

"There's really good, well-known people in our league. I'm not discrediting them," Cunningham said. "But when people try to argue that [Clark's] not the face of our league, or if our league would be where we're at without her, you’re dumb as s—t. You’re literally dumb as f—k."

USC women's basketball is stocking up, bringing on their third No. 1 high school prospect in four years with top-ranked Saniyah Hall committing to the Trojans on Friday.

Set to join the team for the 2026/27 season, Hall follows in the footsteps of 2023 top recruit JuJu Watkins and Class of 2025 No. 1 prospect Jazzy Davidson.

USC reportedly beat out both North Carolina and UCLA in the race to secure a commitment from Hall.

The Northeast Ohio product will close out her high school career at SPIRE Academy, returning to her home state following a junior-year campaign with Montverde Academy in Florida.

The 6-foot-2 guard, who turned 17 years old on Wednesday, has also seen significant international success, first helping Team USA earn gold in the 2024 FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup.

Hall added a 5x5 gold medal to her collection earlier this month, when the then-16-year-old set records en route to securing Team USA the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup title.

Her US U19-record 19.9 points per game — plus team-leading averages of 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 2.9 steals across the competition's seven games — saw the starter named tournament MVP following the July 20th championship victory.

Shortly after returning Stateside, Hall visited USC, announcing her NCAA basketball commitment almost immediately after leaving campus.

"I would say it felt like home. I loved all of my teammates," Hall told ESPN's NBA Today on Friday. "The girls there are so fun to be around."

Embattled ex-Canada women's national team coach Bev Priestman has officially left the country, relocating to New Zealand to manage A-League Women's side Wellington Phoenix FC.

"We're really pleased to be able to welcome Bev back to football," Phoenix chairman Rob Morrison said in the club's announcement. "We all know she's had a period of time away from the game, but we understand the circumstances and we're really comfortable with this appointment."

In addition to her firing from Team Canada, Priestman served a one-year suspension from all football-related activities, finishing that mandatory moratorium this month.

FIFA issued the suspension after determining that Priestman was guilty of spying on opponents via illegal drone use during the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"For me, I didn't feel safe, that's being brutally honest," she told reporters this week, commenting on the drone scandal's local fallout. "It was very difficult for my family and I have to live with that. I have to wear that."

The Wellington Phoenix — the lone New Zealand club competing in the top-flight Australian league — finished the 2024/25 season ninth out of 12 teams, with the young club soon setting their sights on a deeper run in their fifth season behind Priestman.

"It feels like Christmas Day to me to come back," said Priestman, whose wife, Wellington Phoenix FC academy director Emma Humphries, is a former New Zealand national team player. "I know I have to earn the trust of everybody. And I'll be working hard to do that."