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Las Vegas Aces owner Mark Davis has taken issue with the WNBA investigating his team over a unique sponsorship deal.
Last week, the City of Las Vegas announced that it would be sponsoring every player on the city’s WNBA team, the back-to-back champion Aces.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) pledged to pay each player on the Aces roster $100,000, as long as they are with the team.
“We would like to offer each of you, individually, a sponsorship for this year in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars,” LVCVA CEO Steve Hill said. “The offer’s really simple. We want you to just play, we want you to keep repping Las Vegas, and if you do a three-peat, there’ll be icing on the cake.”
The deal was significant because the average salary in the WNBA is around $113,295 and six players on the Las Vegas Aces – Megan Gustafson, Emma Cannon, Sydney Colson, Kierstan Bell, Dyaisha Fair and Kate Martin – are set to make under $100,000 this year.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will more than double those players’ income.
Naturally, since such a unique sponsorship deal will give the Las Vegas Aces a decided advantage when it comes to signing players if it remains in place long term, some people thought it was unfair.
Some see it as a way for the Las Vegas Aces to circumvent the WNBA’s $1.4 million salary cap and the league says it is investigating the deal.
Part of the issue perhaps stems from the LVCVA CEO saying the deal was contingent on them playing for the Aces and no other team, which may fall under the collective bargaining agreement definition of “compensation for basketball services.” That would be against the rules.
Mark Davis, however, thinks if the deal is disallowed by the WNBA it would be a bit of a double-standard.
“There was absolutely nothing done wrong,” Davis said this week. “And I think it’s sad that they used the word investigation instead of something a little softer to say, ‘Hey we might look into it’ or whatever. But they’re going to find there’s nothing wrong.”
Davis added, “Nike is an owner of the WNBA and they’re allowed to sponsor Caitlin Clark for $28 million on one player. And nobody’s complaining or investigating. And I think it’s great that Nike’s doing that. But let’s give credit to where credit’s due: Las Vegas Convention Authority is stepping up and recognizing these women.”