The Las Vegas Aces' unprecedented sponsorship is the WNBA's latest controversy
Caitlin Clark’s early woes and a predictably fumbled rollout of a charter flight program aren’t the only thing that has WNBA fans talking after the opening week of the season. They’re also chatting about fly outfits, Angel Reese, and the name for the new Golden State franchise too.
The Las Vegas Aces emerged as another point of discussion for fans of the sport on Friday, but not because of A’ja Wilson or the team’s iced-out 2023 championship rings.
Steve Hill, the president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, announced that the LVCA is gifting each Aces player with a $100,000 sponsorship.
The city of Las Vegas is sponsoring every player on the Aces roster and gifting them each $100,000.
“The offer is really simple: We want you to just play, keep repping Las Vegas and if you get a three-peat, that would be icing on the cake.”
@Vegas pic.twitter.com/hJxWXlDW2R
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) May 17, 2024
“The offer is really simple: We want you to just play, keep repping Las Vegas and if you get a three-peat, that would be icing on the cake.”
That’s pretty awesome, right? A whole lot of people have bemoaned how WNBA salaries pale in comparison to their counterparts in the NBA or other professional sports. It’s safe to assume that most folks watching the WNBA want to see players get paid more.
However, is this a loophole? Is this a competitive advantage? Is this an example of the Aces circumventing the league’s salary cap (which they have already been accused of doing previously)? Does any of that even matter?
the aces get in trouble for cap circumvention, then are like, what if we just do this loudly and proudly and publicly??? then what???? it's perfect. no notes.
— Lindsay Gibbs (@linzsports) May 17, 2024
WNBA fans had questions after the announcement from Hill and the Aces.
And rightly so. Because in the WNBA, a $100,000 boost to a player’s salary is a pretty big deal.
Consider that the league’s highest paid players – Arike Ogunbowale, Kahleah Copper and Jewell Loyd – make just $241,984 this year in salary. Just two Aces players make $200,000 in Wilson and Kelsey Plum, and six Aces players will make less than $100,000 this season according to HerHoopStats. One of them, Sydney Colson, called this sponsorship “a life-changing investment.”
Please don't read this the wrong way because @WNBA players are ridiculously underpaid. But doesn't the @Vegas CVB giving each Aces player an extra $100k violate the league salary cap?
— Chuck Cooperstein (@coopmavs) May 18, 2024
One could make the case that Wilson ($200,000), Plum ($200,000), Chelsea Gray ($196,267) and Jackie Young ($169,950) are already taking a pay cut so the Aces could form this super team that has helped them win two straight championships and made them favorites to capture a third. Each of those players, arguably, are among the top 15 players in all of the WNBA and could earn a super-max contract – or close to it – elsewhere. But this is the sort of monetary sacrifice that we as sports fans often praise: when a player takes a lesser salary so their teammates can earn more, for the betterment of the team. It’s something that seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady – now a co-owner of the Aces – was often celebrated for in his NFL career.
From The Athletic:
“The Aces have been able to re-sign their star players at below-market contracts… Gray, Young, Plum and Wilson have signed for substantially lower than their allowable super-max. In 2024, each of the core four is making at least $40,000 less than their max, a huge amount of cost savings when the salary cap is $1.43 million.”
But what happens when Las Vegas woos another all-star to their team at a significantly lower rate because the city’s tourism board can just make up the deficit? Will the WNBA do anything about that? Will they see it as an unfair advantage?
Moreover, what’s stopping any other team from doing this? Will that create a new line between haves and have-nots in the league, or will it lead to the WNBA increasing its cap and reworking its salary rules?
Or will the WNBA see this as a legal recruiting tool, akin to a fancy new practice facility or a great fan culture? Both of which, by the way, the Aces already have.
Along with the charter flight saga and further expansion, how the WNBA’s salary cap and its rules adjust will be something to closely monitor going forward.