Candace Parker, the veteran star of the W.N.B.A.s Los Angeles Sparks, has moved into a two-bedroom apartment with her 11-year-old child, Lailaa, in order to play. To make it work, Parker said she had to piece together childcare help from relative over the 40-plus days she anticipated to be in sporting lockdown.
There was never any concern, Parker stated, that Lailaa would come. “She had her bags loaded before I did,” Parker said.
Terri Jackson, the president of the W.N.B.A. gamers union, stated that as the strategies for a Florida bubble were being drawn up, the league made it clear that it would offer priority to mothers, using them their choice of real estate and taking care of some expenses that other players are expected to cover.
That was a substantial advance, Jackson said.
” If you took a historical appearance throughout the league, it made you ask: If this is a ladiess sports league, where are the mothers?” she stated. “You wonder, the number of gamers that are wanting to become mothers have we lost?
” We need to have more Candaces– and Lailaas– in the league.”
Unlike the W.N.B.A., which remains in its third years, the N.W.S.L. is still discovering its financial footing in its eighth season, and wages are still relatively low– $20,000 to $60,000 a year.
Moms in the league praised the proactive moves taken by the new commissioner, Lisa Baird, who took charge of the N.W.S.L. in February after it had been leaderless for numerous years. Baird is likewise a mom, with a college-age child who, on the leagues shoestring budget plan, has been assisting with child care inside the leagues bubble in Herriman, Utah, near Salt Lake City.
Parenting Inside Sports Bubble: ‘This Is Mom’s Job. Work With Me.’ – The New York Times
