The WNBA is looking into the Las Vegas Aces receiving big sponsorship money from the local government.
On Friday, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced they were going to pay every Aces player $100k in a unique sponsorship deal.
“Today we want to do something that is new, something I don’t think anybody has ever done before.
We want to recognize you individually, we want to put some money in your pockets. We’ve got an offer for you. We think it’s a great offer for us. We hope you think it’s a great offer for you. We’d like to offer each of you, individually, a sponsorship for this year in the amount of $100,000.“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, that will be icing on the cake. That’s it.”
BREAKING: We're doing something that's never been done before. We're going #ALLINLV and sponsoring EVERY. SINGLE. PLAYER. on the @LVAces roster this season! pic.twitter.com/ntBZVZeFJu
— Las Vegas (@Vegas)
Initially it was believed that the LVCVA’s sponsorship did not break any WNBA rules because they negotiated the deal with the players’ agents instead of the team itself.
The LVCVA worked directly with players’ agents to reach the agreements. They are similar to a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal between a third party and an NCAA student-athlete. It’s a first-of-its-kind partnership, according to Hill, and had to be negotiated without knowledge of the team because of WNBA rules.
The deal utilizes the LVCVA’s revenue from room taxes imposed on motel and hotel rooms and from space rental for booths at conventions and trade shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center. While the $1.2 million pledge is a lot of money, it’s not a new idea for the authority.
According to The Next Hoops, the WNBA is currently investigating the LVCVA’s sponsorship payment to the Aces players.
The #WNBA has opened an investigation into the $100,000 bonus payments to each Las Vegas Aces player, multiple sources with direct knowledge tell @TheNextHoops.
— Howard Megdal (@howardmegdal)
As of now, it’s unclear why the WNBA is investigating the payments made by the Aces players, but it’ll be interesting to see how they proceed, considering other city government agencies would likely be interested in sponsoring local players as well.
The league could be investigating whether the team arranged this specific sponsorship especially after two core players recently signed contract extensions.
Last year, the WNBA investigated claims that the Aces circumvented the salary cap with under-the-table payments. https://t.co/671CFgf6Tv
— Khristina Williams (@Khristina)
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