PHOENIX — The $100,000 sponsorships that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority gave each Las Vegas Aces player for the past two seasons are ending, but team owner Mark Davis sees that as a sign of progress rather than a loss.
The LVCVA announced the two-year deal would not be renewed in 2026, as the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement dramatically increases player salaries and benefits. LVCVA president and CEO Steve Hill said the marketing value of the sponsorships was greatest at the initial announcement in 2024, when a video of surprised players went viral.
“Where we got the big bang of value was at the announcement. The players did great, certainly followed through on that commitment to put a spotlight on Las Vegas,” Hill told the Review-Journal during NFL meetings at the Arizona Biltmore resort. “But a lot of what we do in marketing, where we get the biggest impact is when it’s new and exciting and different. Repeating that year after year just doesn’t provide that.”
Under the new CBA, ratified by players and the WNBA’s board of governors last month and expected to be finalized within a week, the salary cap will rise from $1.5 million in 2025 to $7 million in 2026, and eventually to $11 million by 2032. The super max salary jumps from $249,000 to $1.4 million in 2026, and players will receive 20% of gross revenue.
Davis, who also owns the Las Vegas Raiders, has long advocated for better compensation and amenities for WNBA players. He built the Aces a dedicated practice facility adjacent to the Raiders’ headquarters in Henderson in 2023 and made coach Becky Hammon the league’s first million-dollar coach.
“If the women are happy, I’m happy, because that’s what I’ve always wanted; is for them to be compensated fairly,” Davis said.
The new CBA also mandates that by the 2028 season, every team must have a facility with an exclusive locker room, a private regulation court, a separate weight room and cardio area, a treatment room, and a private dining area. By 2027, arenas must provide a family room. Teams face discipline for noncompliance.
Davis was not involved in the negotiations, which lasted 18 months and included eight days of 14-to-16-hour in-person sessions in New York. “They didn’t really want to involve me, I don’t believe. I think they felt I’d probably have been on the other side of the table, in a sense,” he said.
The Aces were investigated by the WNBA for potential salary cap violations related to the LVCVA sponsorships, but the league has not disclosed the status of that probe. An outside law firm, Kobre and Kim LLP, was hired in June 2024 and has not commented. Davis has maintained there was “absolutely nothing done wrong.”
Hill expressed satisfaction with the league’s trajectory: “They’ve gone from kind of scrounging, really, to now getting in the ballpark of where they really ought to be. So we’re thrilled.”
