An agreement on $100,000 annual sponsorship deals for each player on the roster of the Las Vegas Aces, the two-time defending WNBA champions, is under investigation, the league confirmed to The Washington Post on Sunday.
LVCVA president and CEO Steve Hill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Saturday that “we did this the right way” and that he had not been contacted by the league. “We’re happy to answer any questions they have,” he added.
Hill, according to the Review-Journal, surprised players when he announced the sponsorship in a video posted Friday on social media, in which he appeared in the Aces’ locker room and told the team, “We’re doing something I don’t think anybody’s ever done before.” He added: “We want to recognize you individually. We want to put some money in your pockets” — eliciting a resounding response from the players.
“The offer’s really simple,” Hill continued. “We want you to just play, we want you to keep repping Las Vegas, and if you get a three-peat, that’d be icing on the cake.”
Hill told the Review-Journal that the sponsorships are comparable to name, image and likeness deals for college athletes and said the LVCVA agreed to the sponsorships with individual players through their representatives and without the team’s knowledge.
The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement prohibits teams and their affiliates from entering into an understanding in which a “sponsor, business partner or third party pays or agrees to pay compensation for basketball services (even if such compensation is ostensibly designated as being for non-basketball services) to a player under Contract to the Team.”
Hill said Aces players signed contracts requiring them to “reach mutually agreeable opportunities for appearances on [the city’s] behalf,” per the Review-Journal, and that they would be expected to wear gear provided by the LVCVA.
An agreement prohibited by the CBA, for instance, would be one that includes compensation from a sponsor or third party that “is substantially in excess of the fair market value of any services to be rendered by the player.”
The Aces’ money will come from LVCVA revenue from room taxes imposed on motel and hotel rooms, according to the Review-Journal, and from booth rentals during conventions and trade shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The arrangement comes after the Aces were investigated in 2023 for allegedly circumventing the salary cap by making under-the-table payments to players and for its handling of Dearica Hamby, a two-time all-star who was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks while pregnant. Coach Becky Hammon was suspended two games, and the WNBA took away the Aces’ 2025 first-round draft pick, finding the team violated rules regarding impermissible player benefits and workplace policies.
Per the Review-Journal, Aces star A’ja Wilson said after the team improved to 2-0 with Saturday’s 89-82 win over the Sparks that “we can’t ever just start normal. There’s always going to be something, and that’s okay. We’re trying to move the needle. We’re trying to make things better for franchises, for players, for teams.”
Hammon echoed Hill’s explanation.
“Most sponsorship people go after the top two people,” Hammon said. “In this situation, from what I understand, [the LVCVA] wanted the whole team. So they went and called individuals’ agents. I don’t know the details. I have nothing to do with it. The Aces have nothing to do with it.”
The WNBA’s average player salary increased from $102,751 to $147,745 ahead of the 2023 draft.
