On paper, Seattle Reign’s first league game of 2026 will simply look like a hard-fought but uneventful road win against a strong opponent, not too different from many other wins they will collect this season. But the reality of the Reign’s trip to face the Orlando Pride was anything but typical.
It started with Seattle getting an unusual late-season snowstorm on Friday. Forecasters predicted early flurries quickly transitioning to rain, but Mother Nature had other plans and kept the temperature just low enough for the flakes to stick around and continue accumulating throughout the day. The Reign were scheduled to fly to Orlando that morning, but the weather wreaked havoc at SeaTac causing their plane to sit on the tarmac for more than four hours before they were cleared for takeoff. The team finally landed in Orlando at 9:30 PM after a 12+ hour travel day.
Their pre-match training day in Orlando was uneventful, aside from the typical heat and humidity of Florida. Nature once again decided to put on a show on Sunday, with heavy thunderstorms arriving at halftime and delaying second-half kickoff for nearly three hours. Seattle eventually came away with all three points and some very waterlogged boots.
Steve Voght
Fortunately, the delayed end to the match didn’t impact Seattle’s travel arrangements, as they’d always planned to stay in Florida for one more night before flying home early on Monday morning. Winning goal-scorer Brittany Ratcliffe joked at the end of her postgame press conference the team was looking forward to going home with all three points and “hopefully no delays on the airplane.”
The good news is they did not have delays on the airplane on the way home. Instead, they faced cancelation after cancelation as Florida airports were overwhelmed by a combination of several days of severe weather, spring break travelers, TSA disruptions and airline equipment issues.
The Reign’s Monday morning flight was canceled, and they were unable to depart on a later flight that day, leading Laura Harvey to post a photo from their hotel that evening with the caption “Update. Still in Orlando” and a hashtag asking “If anyone has a plane, please hola.”
Tuesday morning arrived with yet another flight cancelation “due to operational issues”, and Jess Fishlock posting that, “In like 20 years I have never quite experienced anything like this. Still in Orlando.” Other people in south Florida reported similar issues. NWSL producer Jordan Strauss posted on Bluesky on Tuesday that she and TV commentator Jill Loyden also faced flight cancellations and were delayed by two days flying out of separate airports after spending the weekend in Fort Lauderdale, where most NWSL games are produced and called.
The NWSL CBA allows teams to book up to three round-trip charters per season, so teams typically use them judiciously for midweek road games or where non-stop commercial flights aren’t available. The Reign, for example, have used a charter for their trip Louisville due to the lack of a direct flight from Seattle. Charter flight availability has been further complicated this year, and particularly in March, due to the use of private airplanes for Homeland Security activity, operational issues related to the partial government shutdown, and the NCAA basketball tournaments requiring a large number of charter aircraft to move teams around the country on short notice. The NCAA even sent a memo to schools last month warning them about potential travel challenges during March Madness.
Later Tuesday morning the Reign were able to secure a charter back to Seattle. But the delays weren’t over yet – the plane was a mid-range jet, meaning they had to stop for nearly two hours in Kansas City to refuel and get clearance for the second leg of the trip. Finally, at 8:30 PM Pacific, the team landed at Boeing Field. They now get to sleep in their own beds for two nights before heading to Portland on Thursday.
