Las Vegas WNBA Players Receive $100K Gift from Tourism Board
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) is presenting each of the twelve players on the Las Vegas Aces WNBA team with $100,000. This contribution, which doesn't have any conditions attached, will be on top of their regular paychecks for this season and 2025.
Steve Hill, the president, and CEO of LVCVA, stated in a video posted on Twitter on Friday, "Today, we want to do something new, something I believe no one has ever done before. We want to acknowledge you individually. We want to put some money in your pockets."
This news comes just a week after the two-time WNBA champions were recognized by President Biden at the White House for their 2023 WNBA Finals victory over the New York Liberty in October.
The responses to this announcement have been varied. Some regard this gesture as a way of bridging the pay gap between men's and women's sports.
"WOW!" the Women's Hoops Network tweeted. "Investing in women. Investing in community. Huge!"
Others view it as a workaround to the WNBA's salary cap of $1.43 million per team, a means to maintain a championship team with potential efforts by rival clubs to recruit its top players away.
In 2024, according to The New York Times' reporting, the team - owned by billionaire Mark Davis, who also owns the Raiders - gave salaries of $200,000 to Kelsey Plum and A'Ja Wilson, $196,267 to Chelsea Gray, $169,950 to Jackie Young, and $110,000 to Alysha Clark to its championship core. Six of the Aces don't even make $100,000 a year.
Foul Ball?
The LVCVA maintains that its sponsorship does not violate the league's salary cap because they didn't collaborate with the club. Instead, they negotiated the deals in a manner equivalent to the Name, Image, and Likeness deals that third parties cut with college athletes.
However, the authority's sponsorship effectively achieves the same effect as an unlawful pay raise, which is bound to cause complaints from other teams whose cities don't have such wealthy tourism boards.
The news has already sparked indignation among Vegas residents, who argue that the money comes from the taxes the LVCVA receives for renting hotel rooms.
"This is completely absurd," tweeted @TomD80106675. "Mark Davis, worth an estimated $2.3 billion and capable of gifting each player $100,000... But no, let's use taxpayer money."
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Source: www.casino.org
