What newly-released documents tell us about Las Vegas Aces investigation

Basketball Wednesday

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Both the documents — a collection which includes emails and some of the contract agreements themselves between the LVCVA and a number of Aces players, thought not all — tell a story that is dramatically different not only from how the initial plan for the LVCVA to pay each Aces player $100,000 “just play, keep repping Las Vegas” was initially presented publicly, but throws the timeline offered by Steve Hill in subsequent public statements, including in an interview with The IX, into doubt as well.

As Hill said to me a few weeks ago: “I think you’re going to be sorely disappointed, Howard… Just saying, we’re very used to public records requests, right? So we know we don’t communicate that way very much.”

But what is notable in the 193 pages of emails between the LVCVA and the Aces — a request for all correspondence between anyone with the LVCVA and anyone with the Aces — is how much the two organizations do, in fact, communicate that way quite often. From invitations to Nikki Fargas to serve as keynote speaker at the LVCVA Leadership Summit, contract details for Rachel Platten to appear at the Aces’ awards show honoring women’s sports, even conversations about how the Aces logo is featured on the LVCVA website, senior members of both the LVCVA and the Aces discussed particulars and nailed them down via email.

But even though this period of time overlaps with a number of the key events in Hill’s version of the agreement the LVCVA made with Aces players, along with a $250,000 agreement Hill says someone at the Aces — he doesn’t remember who, but not Mark Davis, he is sure of that — told the LVCVA they had to make to facilitate subsequent agreements with players, there is not a single email or text message that references any of that.

The problem here is obvious. If none of this is covered in the direct communications between senior level employees at LVCVA and the Aces — not Davis, who does not have an email in the disclosed documents, and not Hill, who is only the recipient of a single email in the group, a personal appeal from Aces president Jennifer Azzi to Hill to buy a table at the IXs Awards — exactly how did this arrangement happen?

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This mystery deepens with the response from the LVCVA that “the LVCVA does not have records responsive to your request” for any correspondence between the LVCVA and agencies representing, among other Aces players, A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray.

So for those keeping score at home (and specifically at the firm of Kobre & Kim, which is conducting this investigation on behalf of the WNBA), by the time Hill and the LVCVA appeared in the Las Vegas locker room to announce this deal with the players — initially, the LVCVA claimed, following a negotiation with each player’s agent — there is no record of correspondence between anyone involved.

There is not, somehow, even a record of correspondence between the LVCVA and the Aces about getting access to the locker room itself. A parallel effort from a content creator at the LVCVA to capture the moment the Aces received their championship rings led to one person at the LVCVA to be credentialed for that game, floor-only access.

“I spoke with the team, and it should be fine,” Kris Lumague, Aces vice president of social media, wrote on April 29. “I will just need the name of your 1 content creator who will have access to the floor. Because of how busy it will be, I cannot permit more than 1 person to be on the floor during the ceremony.” Credential ultimately came through on May 9, and on May 10, Alysse Kimura, Digital Engagement Manager for the LVCVA, wrote back a note of thanks, saying: “We have shared this information with Shelby, our content creator. Thank you again for getting us credentialed and wishing you a great season!”

There is no mention whatsoever from senior level executives of both the Aces and LVCVA for what is clearly a far larger group who came to the Aces’ locker room for this event on May 17, within the timeframe of correspondence provided by the LVCVA:

Just to recap: the deal was solid enough to lead Hill and other members of the LVCVA to come to the Aces for an announcement, yet there is no record of any correspondence about it in the leadup to that announcement, and while Hill does not remember who he spoke to about it, he didn’t speak to Davis about it until May 15, at which point Hill said he was quite sure he had informed Davis about this for the first time.

“Because a $250,000 sponsorship to the Aces, and to Mark, really doesn’t matter,” Hill told The IX back in June. Yet the typical ways these two entities did business leave no trace of the agreement, or even the logistics surrounding the announcement of it. It was simultaneously not important enough for Davis, per Hill, yet too important to be handled by senior officials with the Aces or LVCVA in the typical channels they use.

As for the agreements themselves, they are still backdated to an effective date of May 17, 2024, but signed on June 14 by Emma Cannon, June 18 by Kierstan Bell, June 18 by Megan Gustafson, June 23 by Dyaisha Fair (nearly a month after Fair was waived), July 8 by Alysha Clark, July 15 by Kiah Stokes and July 18 by Tiffany Hayes. The LVCVA further noted in its communication to me: “For the remaining players, the LVCVA has either completed negotiations and is awaiting signatures or is finalizing negotiations.” That includes, of course, A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray — considered by most to be the four most valuable players on the Las Vegas roster.

We also know, in total, what the LVCVA is getting for its money — to be delivered monthly, “no later than the last day of each month”, during the WNBA season, though no provision is made for how players will receive backdated money. The total deliverables are as follows:

• The already-existing video from May 17
• A minimum of three events or public pronouncements which can include “national press interviews, providing quotes to the press, addressing the press post-game and other similar activities” — that is to say, the already-existing media obligations each player has
• “An event publicizing the signing of this agreement” — which may well refer to the May 17 event, according to an attorney The IX discussed this contract with. Other qualifying events include “sporting events, concerts, dining experiences, attractions, opening of new venues in Las Vegas”. And the player is required to post about it on her social media channels and tag @Vegas. In short: if any Aces player who signed this deal goes out to dinner during the season and posts about it, this demand is covered.
• The other two requirements for the $100,000 are the player wearing “custom Vegas-branded apparel” during at least one pregame arrival, posting on social media, of course, and participating in “one photo shoot with PLAYER’s teammates and prominent Las Vegans during a Las Vegas Aces home game”. Further, “PLAYER shall wear the Vegas apparel provided by the company for the photos”. How the LVCVA plans to convince the WNBA to let Aces players wear something other than uniforms during a literal Aces game is not discussed in the contract or any correspondence reviewed by The IX.

Players are also required to participate in at least one interview with the LVCVA — it can be an email — that the LVCVA can use for promotional purposes. (These will be knocked out in year two of the agreement at a “media day or pre season event” — again, something already required of the player.) And any of the social media posts by the player to honor the agreement must include, per FTC regulations, the hashtag “#Sponsored by Las Vegas”.

Additional outstanding requests to the LVCVA will shed further light on exactly what was and wasn’t said, written or agreed to. But it’s within the confines of the “relatively open book” Hill explained he and the LVCVA are, Kobre & Kim, and ultimately the WNBA, will need to determine several items:

• Whether the collection of obligations was worth a true market value of $100,000 per season.
• Whether the LVCVA entered into those agreements for the promotion itself or, as Hill told The IX, to keep them from having to play in the offseason, something that clearly benefits the Aces as much or more than the LVCVA.
• Whether it is reasonable to believe that agreements totaling at least $2,650,000 — $100,000 for each of 12 players per year, over two years, plus the $250,000 someone at the Aces told Hill was necessary to facilitate those $100,000 agreements — happened without any paper trace of negotiation or facilitation from members of the Las Vegas Aces, something at odds with Hill’s own description of events.

To be certain that this all happened in a way that preserves competitive balance — as opposed to providing “a roadmap for how we all can cheat”, as one WNBA team executive described a failure to act by Cathy Engelbert — would be central to any league’s survival under any circumstances. But at this moment for the WNBA? With a massive infusion of new media rights money, a potential new collective bargaining agreement and roughly 85 percent of the player pool headed for free agency after 2025? Ensuring competitive balance may have never mattered more to any sports league in history.

As one WNBA team executive put it: “This is less about punishing Vegas and more about protecting the future of our league.”

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