A lot of hockey teams still have roommate arrangements on trips. Offhand I know that Tomas Plekanec and Jaroslav Halak are (were? I hope not!) usually roommates, and I recall a story about a Shark’s player who got his own room after “only” 3 years in the league because no one could put up with his snoring. Some goalies might get their own rooms too, since by all accounts many of them are completely insane.
It’s a teammates/family/camaraderie thing.
Most hockey teams have their players share rooms, with some exceptions:
Players who have played over a certain number of games get their own room–possibly 500, 700, etc.
Team captains generally get their own room.
Starting goaltenders often get their own room or share at their own request–most teams cotton to their goaltender’s choice as far as that goes.
Players are certainly welcome to have their own rooms if they don’t qualify, but they’ll pay for it out of their own pocket, and they’ll face a certain stigma among their teammates of “not wanting to be around the team” and consequently, not wanting to be a team player. Team sports is not exactly like ordinary business travel.
Darryl Kile, I’m guessing?
Some high paid guys get a single room in their contract but I think sharing is still common.
Not to hijack, but I should at least answer this.
Corporate guys usually are paid differently than airline guys. For example the pilots who fly Mark Cuban’s jet are (normally) hired into that position on a salary, with the understanding that they can be very busy (ie during the NBA season) but can also expect lots of time off during the rest of the year. How much you are expected to work, and more importantly, how quickly you can be available to work influence how much you are paid.
One guy can be flying a G-IV and make $90K a year as a captain in a really cushy job. Another guy can be on call 24-7 and make $100K, $120K, or even $200K depending on who hires him and the experience/availability required.
So corporate and/or private jet guys (and by guys I mean both men and women - it’s just easier to type) are almost strictly salary-based.
Airline guys are almost strictly hourly-based. You get paid a fixed amount per hour, and get get paid for the hours you fly. The hourly rate differs by airplane (bigger usually pays more) and seat (Captain pays more than First Officer). International usually pays more than domestic, and so on. There are many variables, of course - most jobs (in the US at least) have a minimum pay per day provision, so that the airline can’t have you fly to Sao Paulo, sit for 5 days with no pay and then fly back.
In any case, flying charters for sports teams pays the same as any other trip. The layovers might be nicer or longer, but you have to be ready to go when the team is ready, so some flexibility is required. Most teams that have major airline hubs in their city try to do charters to not only save money but also for good local PR. Think the Seattle Mariners riding on Alaska Airlines, or the Atlanta Braves riding on Delta.
Of course it’s all variable - I seem to see NFL team using charters more than others because they normally have only 8 away games a year, so maintaining a jet, a crew and everything else might not make a lot of sense. NBA and MLB teams who have a lot of road games over a long season tend to have their own jets. Although a lot of those jets are just charters run by their local airline, albeit with a custom painted jet. The jet says “Suns” but it’s an America West (sorry - USAir) jet with USAir guys flying it.
Anyway, back to the sharing of rooms discussion!
Here is a nice (slightly convoluted) breakdown of the Canucks road trip during GM Place’s Olympic break - the longest roadtrip in NHL history. The team drove 160 miles and spent just under 31 hours in the air. So when the cities are close enough, they do bus. There is a woman on staff whose entire job is to coordinate travel for the team and assorted executives. The flights are chartered through Air Canada Jazz - the plane is all spiffed up with logo seat covers and whatnot, but it’s still a Jazz plane.
I know that Tony Romo is roomies with Jason Witten on road trips. Announcers comment on that kinda stuff when they hit each other on broken plays.
QUICK! WHO ROOMED WITH COLT MCCOY AT UT THE PAST FEW YEARS? ANSWER NOW OR MUSBURGER WILL CALL GAMES FOREVER!
Well, some do, some don’t. There are several billionaire owners in the league.
However, since some do have low budgets they decided that chartered flights would give an unfair advantage to the teams that would spend the money on it. Parity is part of the business model so far.
Your average minor league team travels commercial and usually in coach. When there was a Philadelphia Phantoms hockey team, my wife and I ended up on the same plane as the team a couple of times.
Quite a shock for the Mrs. to get on a plane and find us surrounded by a bunch of large toothless men. The guys weren’t out of hand but you regularly heard the coaches telling guys to “cool it” if they started trending in that direction.
The room sharing thing is obviously different for a sports team and I should have thought about that before calling the practice ‘nuts’.
Its just the idea of working with one of my techs for 12 hours and then having to share a bedroom with him is very unpleasant to imagine.
Yes I’m sure, as far as the Islanders are concerned. There is no station close enought to the Nassau Coliseum. A freight line runs somewhat nearby; never used for public transport.
It would be great if they built a rail spur but I wouldn’t hold my breath. The building’s been there for 40 years.
Ok. Fair enough!
In minor league baseball AAA teams fly, but AA teams and below use buses.
Until about 15 years ago, the Green Bay Packers played some of their home games in Milwaukee, which is about 100 miles from Green Bay. They used to take buses down there for the games, and I recall that the players didn’t care for it much.
Those are Air Canada Jetz planes; Jazz uses Bombardier regional jets and turboprops (Dash-8) and the plane in that photo is an Airbus A320. The video on the top right of the screen also clearly shows the Jetz name on the aircraft. The Nucks are listed as regular customers of Air Canada Jetz.
My brother worked for a private air charter company and he has dealt with a lot of sports teams and famous people. They do use it a lot, and it’s fair enough because they can afford and are always running on crazy schedules anyway…
Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen sold the team plane a few years ago for reasons that never were fully understood. The Seahawks charter planes now. I think through Horizon Air.
ETA: Oy, zombie. Still, I think they sold it before the original post even.
This is just a six-month-old baby zombie.
Anyway, the Detroit Red Wings and Tigers share a plane:
Of course, they also share an owner.
mmm
ISTR in the bad old days before Larry Katz the Oilers had to fly commercial. There was budgetary and schedule juggling by one staff member. In the good (?) old days of Bruce McNall, the Kings had a private jet for travel.
I wonder how much Gretzky had to travel commercial versus private in his career?
Interesting fact is that when the Heat play in New York, they fly into Republic Airport in Farmingdale (Long Island) , rather than JFK or LGA. I’ve seen the plane parked there many a time, as well as the aforementioned Air Canada Jetz when some of the Canadian NHL teams come around.
