Seahawks flew to Phoenix on Delta..
 

Just curious...maybe already answered somewhere. Was surprised to see today pictures of the Seahawks getting off a Delta plane in Phoenix. Awkward, I'd say, since Wilson is 'CFO' of Alaska. Is it because it was a charter? These are big guys, so I'm thinking, also, that Alaska seat situation wouldn't work for them even if the plane was all first class.

Delta is the "Official Airline of the Seattle Seahawks".

You are correct on both accounts.

They charter with Delta.

The players are big guys, plus there's the essential staff that travels with them as well.

In that situation, a widebody, chartered aircraft would be the better option. :) The Mariners & Portland Trailblazers do it as well, if I remember correctly.

I've heard it has created some tense situations in SEA. The Seahawks have an exclusive agreement with Delta as a sponsor. But Alaska made a separate agreement with Russel Wilson that covers a single player, not the whole team.

Tense for whom?

There's another Russell Wilson plane out there. I saw it in SEA last week. It says something like "champions never rest."

The only pro sports teams that routinely use wide bodies are the NFL. A lot of other pro teams use the Delta or Air Canada A319s that are configured with 50 some first class seats (one of the Delta A319 charter planes is flying PHX-SEA the day after the super bowl).

The only time you see baseball get wide bodies is during the playoffs.

Trivia for you: for football charters, players and staff usually sit in coach (2x to a row), coaches and front office folks are up front in F/J.

There have been numerous Seahawks sightings on Alaska flights during the off season, and even during the season. That tells me that when the Seahawks spend their own money they generally prefer Alaska. For a variety of reasons, not solely financial, Delta makes a pretty hard to beat offer to the teams. They also transported the New England Patriots, as they do many of the football teams. The flew the Colts back to Indy last week and the Packers flew Delta back to Green Bay as well. Delta seems to have a side business transporting sports teams - something they seemed to continue from Northwest.

A 737 even a 900ER is simply not large enough for the team and support staff, thus they fly a DL 767.

I believe it's just a function of AS not being qualified for the NFL contract due to fleet limitations. You can bet if AS had large enough AC in their fleet...they'd be flying the Seahawks.

IF they had the best bid.

Same aircraft (N453AS) with updated livery.

• The “Go Russell” wording on the side of the aircraft has been replaced by “Go Russell! Champions Never Rest!” on the right side and “Go Russell! Nonstop Dedication!” on the other.

• Wilson, wearing his CFO Captain’s hat, welcomes customers onboard on a decal at the boarding door.

• Wilson’s jersey number “3” adorns the inside and outside of the scimitar winglets.

It's pretty funny how AS has to avoid using the words "Seahawks" "Super Bowl" etc. They only use generic terms like "hometown team" "big game" the number 12 and green/blue colors. Anytime Russell is shown with a jersey it's just a #3 without any logos. I'm surprised that players are even allowed do their own deals with competitors to their team's corporate sponsors.

The funny part about yesterday's Seahawks flight is that the very same aircraft is flying the Patriots BOS-PHX today. I'm guessing the Seahawks logos that were on it are no longer there!
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N836MH

According to A.net, DL and UA each fly 14 NFL teams while AA and US fly the other 4.

That is the common deal for any advertiser / marketer that has not made an NFL licensing deal. Your local TV emporium can suggest that you buy a new TV this week "to watch the big game!" But they can't say, hey, the Super Bowl is coming up, buy this TV.

Its something the NFL has been big time fighting the last 5 yrs or so when non licensed companies use "Super Bowl" in advertising.

Then you run into these issues where the team gets sponsership from Company XXX season long but company YYY (their big competitor) has super Bowl licensening rights.

As for the team charters....

There have been issues with the sports tea. Especialy in hockey. A few near border American teams use Canadian licensed companies for their contract flying.

Ah those were the days...

http://www.nbflightsim.com/previews/...989_n297as.png

And it's a shame they're not self-loading freight.

http://seattletimes.wpengine.netdna-...wk_jet_002.jpg