With the new CBA deal in place and salary bumps to follow, the WNBA players must be celebrating their win against the league, but for a certain A’ja Wilson, the celebration may not be as jubilant as the rest. Apparently, one of their big-time donors has decided to part ways with them.
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The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will not continue its partnership with the Aces which paid each player $100,000 per year for the last two seasons.
The WNBA opened in an investigation into the Aces for salary cap circumvention in 2024 related to the deal.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) April 6, 2026
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will not continue its partnership with the Aces, which paid each player $100,000 per year for the last two seasons. Recently, in fact, the WNBA opened an investigation into the Aces for salary cap circumvention in 2024 related to the deal.
The LVCVA, a Las Vegas tourism and marketing organization, announced the partnership with the Aces in May 2024, and as per the deal, the players were not tasked to do any outside activities other than fulfilling their role as professional athletes representing Las Vegas.
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As soon as this news surfaced, the league immediately raised concerns that the Aces were using them to get around the WNBA salary cap. The league is now busy investigating 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 “was not able to substantiate” any cheating allegations, but it has never announced any conclusions of the second investigation. But the matter is still under the purview of the league.
WNBA Hires Law Firm To Conduct Thorough Investigation On Wilson’s Team
To lead the investigation, the WNBA has hired the law firm Kobre and Kim. Kobre and Kim is a premier global law firm specializing in high-stakes cross-border investigations, focusing on white-collar crime, government enforcement actions, and internal investigations.
However, when the firm was approached on the matter, they did not respond to a request for comment. The WNBA and LVCVA also walked the same route and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The LVCVA, however, has denied that A’ja Wilson and team had any knowledge of the deal before it was announced to the team. Yet questions remain regarding its authenticity, as 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 framed the deal as a financial “bridge” for players, and the numbers show why: the $100,000 payouts dwarfed the league minimum salary of the last two years, though they will be eclipsed by the new rookie minimum of $270,000 under the upcoming CBA.
The league had already penalized the Aces by stripping them of their first-round draft pick and suspending Hammon for two games.
With their season about to begin and a league investigation looming, the Aces must now navigate a future without the controversial sponsorship deal that has defined their last two years.
Written by
Edited by
Pranav Venkatesh