By Ben Pickman and Mark Puleo
May 18, 2024
One day after the Las Vegas Tourism Board announced that every player on the Las Vegas Aces would receive a $100,000 sponsorship, the WNBA opened an investigation into the bonuses, a league spokesperson confirmed. The Next first reported news of the investigation.
Aces coach Becky Hammon and star A’ja Wilson expressed their frustrations with the investigation Saturday. “I don’t know the details, I have nothing to do with it,” Hammon said. “The Aces have nothing to do with it.”
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Hammon called it “odd” that the Aces have been regularly investigated by the league, a sentiment echoed by Wilson.
“I don’t understand that investigation, I haven’t really dived into it yet,” the two-time league MVP said. “I just looked at my phone and was like, oh, wow. Just another thing in the life of the Aces. We can’t ever just start normal. It’s always going to be something and that’s OK.”
GO DEEPEREvery Las Vegas Aces player receives $100,000 from Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authorityfinding out ya team is under investigation right after a game is OD 😩 like huhhhhhh 😂😂 what happened to growing the game ?¿?¿
— A'ja Wilson (@_ajawilson22) May 18, 2024
Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority president and CEO Steve Hill said the situation was handled “the right way,” according to the Associated Press.
“We did something that we think works for Las Vegas and I think great for the players. We did this without the team. It was our idea and any questions they ask they’ll find that out.”
In previous seasons, Las Vegas has been investigated multiple times by the league. Last May, the WNBA rescinded the Aces’ 2025 first-round pick for impermissible player benefits and suspended Hammon for two games for violating Respect in the Workplace policies related to comments made by Hammon to former Las Vegas player Dearica Hamby.
Last June, the Aces tried to enhance their travel experience by creating limited available pop-up routes with JSX, a public charter operator that was league approved. The flights would have taken them to cities like Atlanta, Indianapolis and Minneapolis — JSX regularly flies out of only the Los Angeles area, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas and Westchester County, N.Y. However, the league told the Aces to cancel its June flight from Indianapolis to Connecticut’s Bradley Airport.
Afterward, multiple sources, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, told The Athletic the WNBA sent a memo to every team about not creating one-off routes, and teams were no longer believed to have booked one-off flights. The Aces were not fined for doing it.
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“But we’re talking about growing the game. We’re talking about taking that next step; it can’t always be investigate, investigate, investigate,” Wilson said Saturday about the latest investigation. “It has to be we’re trying to move the needle, we’re trying to make things better for franchises, for players, for teams.
Under investigation is crazyyyyy
— Chelsea Gray (@cgray209) May 19, 2024
“I’m super grateful to be in a franchise, in a city that constantly wants more out of us. That wants us to don’t worry about stuff, just go play and go win and have fun with that.”
The offer from the city tourism board was presented Friday by Hill and other leaders from the LVCVA, who told the team that they wanted to represent the players “individually, we want to put some money in your pockets.”
Hammon said Saturday the sponsorship was particularly key for the team’s role players, and said star players like Wilson and Kelsey Plum typically get taken care of. Wilson and Plum make a team-high salary of $200,000 in 2024, a substantially lower value than their allowable supermax.
“In this situation from what I understand is they wanted the whole team,” Hammon said. “So they went and called individuals’ agents.”
Can we investigate Cathy in her decisions on who is allowed to charter and who isn’t?
— Alysha Clark (@Alysha_Clark) May 19, 2024
According to data from Spotrac, six Aces players are playing on contracts worth less than $100,000: Megan Gustafson, Emma Cannon, Sydney Colson, Kierstan Bell, Dyaisha Fair and Kate Martin.
“Our agents kept it from us because they wanted us to hear from them,” Wilson said. “I think we get brought things from our agents all the time. So they wanted it to be a big moment because it’s something that’s never happened before.”
The Aces, coming off back-to-back WNBA titles, opened their 2024 season 2-0 this week.
Required reading
- Every Aces player receives $100,000 sponsorship from Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
(Photo: David Becker / NBAE via Getty Images)
