WNBA players will receive massive salary bumps in the 2026 season. But Las Vegas Aces players will also lose a six-figure sponsorship deal.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will not continue its partnership with the defending champions which paid each Aces player $100,000 per year for the last two seasons, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The LVCVA, a Las Vegas tourism and marketing organization, announced the partnership with the Aces in May 2024. The players were not tasked to do any outside activities other than fulfilling their role as professional athletes representing Las Vegas.
The deals immediately raised concerns that the Aces were using them to get around the WNBA salary cap.
The league investigated the Aces for salary cap circumvention and “under the table” payments in 2023, and the league said it was looking into the Las Vegas tourism deals after they were announced in 2024. It said the 2023 investigation “not able to substantiate” any cheating allegations, but it has never announced any conclusions of the second investigation.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The IX in September 2025 that there was “no update” on the investigation and that outside counsel has continued to investigate the case.
The league hired law firm Kobre and Kim to conduct its investigation. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The WNBA, Aces, and LVCVA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The LVCVA has said that the Aces had no knowledge of the deal before it was announced to the team, despite the fact that the announcement was made inside the Aces locker room. The IX Sports also revealed that email correspondence between the Aces and the LVCVA showed team staff facilitating the deal ahead of the announcement.
This included the team instructing the LVCVA that it needed to pay $250,000 to use the team’s logos and other trademarks ahead of its announcement to the players.
Aces owner Mark Davis has consistently denied that the organization has broken any WNBA rules. Head coach Becky Hammon said in 2024 that the team had “nothing to do with it.”
LVCVA head Steve Hill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week that the deal was meant to be “a bridge” for the players before the new CBA deal in 2026. The $100,000 payouts were about $40,000 more than the minimum WNBA salary for the last two years. The rookie minimum for the upcoming season will be $270,000, more than the maximum salary last year.
The 2023 WNBA investigation also included allegations of pregnancy discrimination from former player Dearica Hamby, who said she was “lied to, bullied, manipulated, and discriminated against” by the Aces. Hamby told the organization she was pregnant and was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks months later.
The league penalized the Aces by revoking their 2025 first-round pick and suspending Hammon for two games.
Hamby filed a lawsuit against both the Aces and the WNBA in 2024 for discrimination. The case was dismissed separately with both parties last year.
