The Las Vegas Aces players just got one of the best deals the WNBA has ever seen.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the city’s tourism arm, revealed Friday that it will sponsor each of the 12 players on the Aces roster for a sum of $100,000, with no conditions other than continuing to play basketball. .
LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill surprised the team in the locker room. The Aces players were, in a word, happy:
The way Hill explained it:
“Today we want to do something new, something that I think no one has done before. We want to recognize you individually, we want to put some money in your pockets. We have an offer for you. I think it’s a great offer for us. We hope you like it a great offer. We would like to offer each of you, individually, a sponsorship this year in the amount of $100,000.
“The offer is really simple. We want you to just play. We want you to continue representing Las Vegas, and if you get a hat trick, that’s the icing on the cake. That’s it.”
That’s no small amount of money for any player on the two-time defending champions, especially those on the fringes of the roster.
For example, Kate Martin was not a lock to be selected in the 2024 WNBA Draft, but she was picked in the second round and made the team. She is set to earn $67,249 this season. by Spotracjust a few thousand above the league minimum, and now they will receive more than that from a single sponsorship deal.
Only four second-rounders made his team this season, meaning Martin basically went from earning $0 to $167,249.
The team showed their gratitude on social networks:
Meanwhile, A’ja Wilson’s former coach saw the opportunity to ask her for a donation:
Damn they are getting 6 figure NIL team offers?! Sir, do you have leftovers? We also represent LV?!! Aayyyeee @_ajawilson22 Can you donate that pocket change to us? @GamecockWBB
— dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) May 17, 2024
How he explains it Callie Lawson-Freeman of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the LVCVA worked with each of the players’ agents secretly and structured the agreements similar to the name, image and likeness agreements seen in college. Players are being sponsored for being players. A total of $1.2 million is a considerable amount of money for players already on the team, Hill told the Review-Journal that his agency has a list of more than 100 influencers he pays on a monthly basis. regular way.
It’s definitely been a good week for the Aces, who visited the White House on May 9 to celebrate their second straight WNBA championship and defeated the Phoenix Mercury 89-80 to open their season on Tuesday.
