About once each NFL season, Mark Schiefelbein will grow nervous as the Green Bay Packers depart for the airport following a road game. The team’s Northwest Airlines charter will not have landed and for the rest of the bus trip Schiefelbein waits anxiously to hear his cell phone ring with an update.
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Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren arrives in
Detroit for the Super Bowl aboard a plane belonging
to team owner Paul Allen. |
Inevitably, the charter lands before the team arrives, and Schiefelbein, who as the team’s director of administrative affairs is responsible for the Packers’ travel, can exhale. Northwest has never let him down, which is the main reason the Packers’ relationship with the airline goes back decades.
“With team travel, you have to be somewhat of a pessimist,” said Schiefelbein, who has worked for the Packers in various capacities since 1992. “You have to have different scenarios in place so you’re prepared and can calmly move to the next option. The last thing you want to do is have it become a distraction for the team.”
Like other air travelers in the post-9/11 era, pro sports teams have endured additional security-related inconveniences and shouldered the financial burden of increased fuel costs.
But just as many team owners have tried to give their players a competitive edge with larger locker rooms, bigger training staffs and high-tech video equipment, they’ve invested in more luxurious air travel to make sure players don’t suffer from the rigors of the road.
First class
Teams now fly either on commercial charters or via flights operated by charter carriers such as Pace Airlines, based in Winston-Salem,N.C., Champion Air (Minneapolis) or Sky King (Sacramento).
The upgrade in air travel throughout sports in the last decade has mirrored the shift to premium hotel brands such as Ritz Carlton and Westin. The Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Mavericks fly on planes belonging to owners Paul Allen and Mark Cuban, respectively.
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Ryan Kesler (left) and Trevor Linden of the Vancouver
Canucks eat during a flight to San Jose. The team flies
nearly 50,000 miles in a season. |
Other teams seek out charter carriers that can provide the level of comfort that large, well-paid athletes have come to expect in private travels that have fueled the growth of companies such as Marquis Jet and Sentient, which sell blocks of private jet time to athletes and other celebrities.
The NBA, with its smaller rosters and high-profile athletes, has taken the lead in the charter category, with 12 NBA franchises sharing a fleet of six Boeing 727-200 aircraft operated by Champion Air. The planes, leased by the league and operated from 1998 to 2004 by Northwest, include 59 seats, retrofitted from the usual 173-seat configuration. Each seat provides 72 inches of legroom, ample space for the tallest of centers, and the cabin includes two 20-inch flat-screen televisions with DVD players, and 110-volt electrical outlets throughout.
“This levels the playing field, or in this case the playing court,” said Steve Spellman, president of Champion Air, which also flies the Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils.
The seeds of the NBA’s charter program were planted in the early 1990s, when it became clear that tall, celebrity athletes no longer could parade through airports without being hounded by fans. Commissioner David Stern and several team owners were concerned that some teams traveled in luxury while others flew on regular commercial flights or aboard charters with modest accommodations.
Before the 1997-98 campaign, the NBA signed a seven-year deal with GE Capital, a large lessor of commercial aircraft. The planes were operated by Northwest, which was able to get out of the contract a year early when it stopped flying 727 aircraft and did not find it cost effective to maintain pilots, parts and support staff for a half dozen planes.
| They're called what? | Only three big league teams flew, or will fly, fewer miles than the N.Y. Jets in their most recent season or current season. | |
Cuban, who spares no expense when it comes to providing comfort to his Mavericks players, thought Northwest’s catering did not measure up to NBA standards, and dropped out of the NBA charter program. He purchased his own 757 Boeing jet that flies the Mavericks in style and serves as a recruiting tool to land free agents.
Allen, the billionaire owner of the Seattle Seahawks, owns a pair of 757s, including one he painted with a Seahawks logo to transport the team to Super Bowl XL in Detroit last month.
Since 2003, the Seattle Mariners, who travel more than 50,000 miles, the most in baseball, have leased time on Allen’s planes, which seat 108 for football and 96 for baseball. To help lure free agents such as Adrian Beltre, Richie Sexson and Jarrod Washburn, the Mariners gave them a tour of the aircraft, or at least a DVD presentation if the plane was not in town.
“We like to use it as a sales tool,” said Ron Spellecy, the Mariners traveling secretary. “They’ve heard all the stories of how much we travel, and this alleviates some of that concern.”
Competitive market
The market for team-related air travel is relatively modest, roughly $180 million annually across the four major team sports. NBA teams, which take between 25 and 30 road trips, incur the highest cost, about
$2 million a team. The NHL, which in recent years has cut back on travel with fewer
interconference games, comes next at $1.6 million a team.
Major League Baseball spends the most time on the road, with larger traveling parties and the most equipment. But since teams often stay in cities for three or four nights and then proceed to the next closest town, they manage to log relatively few hours in the air, keeping costs to about $1.3 million per club.
The NFL has the largest traveling parties, but just 10 travel dates, many within the same region. Football averages about $850,000 a team in air travel.
| | Coincidence? | The Seattle SuperSonics’ original logo included a silhouette of a jet. That seems fitting considering the team expects to fly nearly 54,000 miles this season. | |
Even though team-related air travel is a small niche, one with limited growth barring the addition of more teams, it’s a highly competitive one. Unlike other charter customers, teams have definitive schedules set as much as six months in advance. The size of their traveling parties and choice of aircraft is consistent.
Northwest, Delta, American and United are the major commercial players in the team air travel market. Not surprisingly, those carriers tend to land accounts in cities where they have hubs. NFL teams, unlike those from the other three sports, fly mostly on commercial charters, feeling that with just 10 travel dates it’s better to rely on a carrier with hundreds of backup planes.
“It’s like a good insurance policy,” Schiefelbein said. “We’ve had several occasions with Northwest where I’ve been told they had to switch out a plane that morning, for whatever reason, and they didn’t miss a beat.”
The charter operators contend that they’re more sensitive to the needs of VIPs since charters represent the bulk of their business.
“Our airplanes are designed for it and we understand things like the different catering requirements because this is what we do every day,” said Jim McPhail, chief operating officer for Pace Airlines. “This segment is very important for us financially. If a commercial carrier loses a team, it’s not that big a deal. You’re not their primary business.”
Pace Airlines flies 14 teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Utah Jazz and Carolina Hurricanes. Its fleet of 21 aircraft also includes several Hooters-branded planes.
Robert Brooks, chairman of Hooters of America, became a principle owner of Pace Airlines in 2002 and started Hooters Air, which is operated by Pace. Occasionally, scheduling conflicts will require a Hooters plane to pick up a pro team. Players don’t seem to mind, even if the planes — which are painted orange and white, with “Hooters Air” across the fuselage — don’t arrive with a pair of Hooters girls, as they do for the commercial flights. (The Hooters girls are in addition to the flight crew and require two seats that otherwise could go to the traveling party.)
Both commercial carriers and charter operators have been affected in recent years by soaring fuel costs. Seasonlong contracts that are negotiated months before the season begins complicate matters. Fuel prices can swing significantly in either direction.
That’s why charter directors typically insert clauses that require teams to pay additional surcharges if fuel costs soar. They also receive a refund if fuel goes down in price.
“After Hurricane Katrina, fuel prices went from $1.40 to $2.10 a gallon,” said Bill Wernecke, director of charters for Northwest Airlines. “You’ve got to have a mechanism in place to address that.”
Security issues
Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, teams traveled virtually hassle-free, with buses pulling up alongside the tarmac. As new security procedures were implemented, teams sometimes had to walk through commercial terminals and wait in line withother passengers.
It’s much less of an inconvenience now, especially compared with what most travelers face. Transportation and Security Administration officials sometimes set up tables in front of team buses at the stadium, examining carry-on bags and checking travelers with hand wands. Other times, teams fly through FBO (fixed base operator) terminals, which are separate from the commercial terminals and virtually empty, providing speedy security clearance. When that’s not available and players must go through public terminals, airports usually provide separate security lines to expedite the process.
“It takes a little more time and does seem unnecessary since everyone getting on the plane knows everyone else,” said Roger Riley, the director of team travel for the Arizona Diamondbacks. “But guys realize it’s a new era now and it’s still far less inconvenience than what most travelers face every day.”
Phil Thibodeau, the director of team services for the Tampa Bay Lightning, was reminded of how good teams have it, even now, during a recent vacation when the NHL shut down for the Olympics.
“Before 9/11, it was kind of a luxury to travel the way we do,” he said. “But I can’t imagine teams having to go through security with everyone else, taking off their shoes and standing in line. You’d be mentally spent after a two-hour flight. That’s not conducive to playing well.”
With every team traveling via charter or private aircraft, luxury air travel won’t determine the outcome of games. It’s certainly not going to make a bad team better.
“But it does make the season a little more bearable,” said McPhail of Pace Airlines. “These guys are handsomely compensated and travel is part of the job. When it’s at the end of year, when the team is out of it and the coach is about to get fired, you can serve them filet mignon and it’s not probably not going to matter. But it still beats flying like the general public.”
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Last month, the SeattleSuperSonics made a road trip to Orlando and Miami, flying in one weekendapproximately the same distance the Cincinnati Bengals flew all last season. By the time theirrespective seasons are complete, big league teams will have traveled nearly 4.5million miles. During their mostrecent seasons, the five teams from the Pacific Northwest — SeattleSuperSonics, Vancouver Canucks, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle Mariners andSeattle Seahawks — logged more than 235,000 air miles, or approximately theaverage distance from Earth to the moon. A trip around the globe is 25,000miles. Big league playersreceive $80-$100 per diem for meals allowance when they are on the road. The Seahawks and DallasMavericks own team planes. D.C. United logged anadditional 15,000 miles, for a total of 49,276, as a result of its trips toSantiago, Chile, and Mexico City to compete in the Copa Sudamericana and theCONCACAF Cup. The Philadelphia Eaglestake a train when they play in Washington and a bus when visiting New York andBaltimore. |
Pete Williams is a writer in Florida.
