The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s ( LVCVA ) new$ 100, 000 sponsorships for each player on the Las Vegas Aces will likely determine whether the sponsorships more closely resemble endorsement deals or unauthorized pay-to-play.
The sponsorships may in some cases exceed the athletes ‘ basic WNBA income, which is as small as$ 67, 249. The CBA’s highest income, which does not include income from third-party testimonials, is around$ 252, 000.
The contracts, according to LVCVA president and CEO Steve Hill, are described as” sponsorships,” and as reported by the Las Vegas Review- Journal, require the participants to participate in special “appearances on Las Vegas ‘ behalf” and to use Las Vegas-centric gear.

In a conference with the people, whose group won the WNBA subject in 2022 and 2023, Hill said,” The sell is really easy. We want you to stop and enjoy. We want you to maintain your presence in Las Vegas. And if you do a three- soil, there will be icing on the cake”.
An endorsement agreement is made between a person and a government agency, which has a record of paying athletes and celebrities to encourage travel to, and engage in business exercise in, Las Vegas. For utilizing their publicity right, which forbids the business use of another person’s personality without their permission, players receive compensation for their use.
Some Professional athletes have support discounts, some of which eclipse their WNBA pay. Caitlin Clark, the rookie experience for the Indiana Fever, makes merely$ 76,535 from the game, but she also has an support deal with Nike, reportedly worth$ 28 million.
In the college context, endorsements are often referred to as name, image and likeness ( NIL ) deals. The NCAA’s ban on university athletes from using their right of attention has been removed, which means they can then embrace, influence, and advertise in exchange for compensation without breaking amateurism rules.
However, it can be difficult to tell the difference between a pay-to-play program and an endorsement deal.
NIL cooperatives are basically payment by third parties, generally boosters, for use of recruits’ NIL. Real reveals a different side of the story. Some communes offer to pay new hires to enter a school, rather than to drop out of it. Although the pay may be described as an endorsement or “NIL deal,” it actually functions more like a signing bonus that was provided by a third party ( the collective ) as opposed to the school as the beneficiary or de facto employer.
The WNBA may discover the LVCVA deals difficult because of the distinction between support and pay-for-play. Given that every Aces person, star or benchwarmer, is being paid the same amount —regardless of her fame’s business value—for being on the Aces may make the give equal to a reward. Hill’s claim that the Aces ‘ title as three-peat champs in 2024 would result in more money for the players ( “icing on the cake” ) also suggests that compensation is dependent on on on-court performance or player labor.

The WNBA’s common participant contract and the CBA may conflict with the LVCVA sponsorships because they are essentially payments to mark and stay with the Aces.
The typical person contract specifies that it pays “full payment for her services.” The CBA, nevertheless, defines “base income” as the income contained in the regular player contract. Even if settlement is allegedly intended to be for non-basketball services, the CBA makes it illegal for a group or team affiliate to work with a third party to give players for basketball services.
The LVCVA claims that it negotiated with the Aces ‘ officials and did not speak with them. The LVCVA will be able to demonstrate that the staff and it had not coordinated. However, the WNBA will probably want to verify. The WNBA may probably inquire about whether the Aces have access to the locker room to meet with the people.
The WNBA had even consider competing interests. WNBA player salaries have received a lot of negative reviews because they are too low, despite the club and the athletes ‘ union’s collective bargaining agreement. A WNBA decision to deny women athletes ‘ give may come across as offensive or even racist.
WNBA owners may also stand to gain if third events, including government agencies, effectively support athlete pay. If the LVCVA is willing to pay Aces people, even similar firms in Chicago, Washington D. C. and Seattle will move up and do the same for players on the Clouds, Mystics and Storm, both. Owners of WNBA teams could see a rise in player pay without having to pay for it.
On the other hand, the WNBA is like other pro leagues. It limits how teams compete as a means of promoting competitive balance and parity. Fans of their teams demand legitimate chances of succeeding, which the WNBA is aware of, which includes real opportunities to draft and sign top players. The league could suffer if one team is able to effectively buy up all the talented players because fans in other cities might turn away, which will result in lower ticket sales and TV ratings. Players, through their union, also agree to the competition rules.
In a world of legalized sports betting, the WNBA might also have concerns about how to regulate third-party payments. It’s one thing for a government agency to pay, it’s another if the payer is a business or group of investors, perhaps including foreign entities. Their loyalty may shift to a third party if they are paid more by an outsider than their team.
The LVCVA would be wise to enforce its contractual rights in sponsorship agreements in order to withstand WNBA scrutiny. The LVCVA should keep track of effective efforts to persuade players to fulfill their obligations under the sponsorship agreement. The more the pay appears to be a bonus rather than an endorsement, the more it appears that the players are simply being paid to play on the Aces.
The issue of third-party payers for professional athletes is not new and even has not been addressed before NIL. For more, please check out a law review article I co- authored in 2014 with the late Dan Markel and Howard Waserman: Catalyzing Fans, published in Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment.