One day after the Las Vegas Tourism Board announced that every player on the Las Vegas Aces would receive a $100,000 sponsorship, the WNBA opened an investigation into the bonuses, a league spokesperson confirmed. News of the investigation was first reported by The Next.

Both Aces coach Becky Hammon and star A’ja Wilson expressed their frustrations with the investigation Saturday. “I don’t know the details, I have nothing to do with it,” Hammon said. “The Aces have nothing to do with it.”

Hammon went on to call it “odd” that the Aces have been regularly investigated by the league, a sentiment echoed by Wilson.

“I don’t understand that investigation, I haven’t really dived into it yet,” the two-time league MVP said. “I just looked at my phone and was like, oh, wow. Just another thing in the life of the Aces. We can’t ever just start normal. It’s always going to be something and that’s OK.”

GO DEEPER

Every Las Vegas Aces player receives $100,000 from Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority president and CEO Steve Hill said the situation was handled “the right way,” according to the Associated Press.

“We did something that we think works for Las Vegas and I think great for the players. We did this without the team. It was our idea and any questions they ask they’ll find that out.”

In previous seasons, Las Vegas has been investigated multiple times by the league. Last May, the WNBA rescinded the Aces’ 2025 first-round pick for impermissible player benefits and suspended Hammon for two games for violating Respect in the Workplace policies related to comments made by Hammon to former Las Vegas player Dearica Hamby.

Last June, the Aces tried to enhance their travel experience by creating limited available pop-up routes with JSX, a public charter operator that was league approved. The flights would have taken them to cities like Atlanta, Indianapolis and Minneapolis — JSX regularly flies out of only the Los Angeles area, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas and Westchester County, N.Y. However, the league told the Aces to cancel its June flight from Indianapolis to Connecticut’s Bradley Airport.

Afterward, multiple sources, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, told The Athletic the WNBA sent a memo to every team about not creating one-off routes, and teams were no longer believed to have booked one-off flights. The Aces were not fined for doing it.

“But we’re talking about growing the game. We’re talking about taking that next step; it can’t always be investigate, investigate, investigate,” Wilson said Saturday about the latest investigation. “It has to be we’re trying to move the needle, we’re trying to make things better for franchises, for players, for teams.

“I’m super grateful to be in a franchise, in a city that constantly wants more out of us. That wants us to don’t worry about stuff, just go play and go win and have fun with that.”

The offer from the city tourism board was presented Friday by Hill and other leaders from the LVCVA, who told the team that they wanted to represent the players “individually, we want to put some money in your pockets.”

Hammon said Saturday the sponsorship was particularly key for the team’s role players, and said star players like Wilson and Kelsey Plum typically get taken care of. Wilson and Plum make a team-high salary of $200,000 in 2024, a substantially lower value than their allowable super-max.

“In this situation from what I understand is they wanted the whole team,” Hammon said. “So they went and called individuals’ agents.”

According to data from Spotrac, six Aces players are currently playing on contracts worth less than $100,000: Megan Gustafson, Emma Cannon, Sydney Colson, Kierstan Bell, Dyaisha Fair and Kate Martin.

“Our agents kept it from us because they wanted us to hear from them,” Wilson said. “I think we get brought things from our agents all the time. So they wanted it to be a big moment because it’s something that’s never happened before.”

The Aces, coming off back-to-back WNBA titles, opened their 2024 season 2-0 this week.

Ready to listen to his love songs live in concert.

Travis Kelce was spotted supporting his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, at her 7th Eras Tour concert in Paris Sunday.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 34, was seen dancing along to the pop star’s 2019 hit “Lover” alongside Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper in a video posted to X.

Along with the crowd, Kelce swayed his arms back and forth while rocking his hips.

Travis Kelce was spotted at Taylor Swift’s Eras tour stop in Paris alongside Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper on Sunday. Twitter/corneliastagain

The threesome was seen waving their hands in the air while singing and dancing to the pop star’s hits. Twitter/corneliastagain

 
Kelce was a proud boyfriend as he rocked his hips to Swift’s 2019 track, “Lover.” Twitter/mundoswiftt
As for Hadid, 29, she also waved her arms in the air while vibrantly cheering for her bestie as Cooper, 49, joined in.

Other videos showed the threesome jamming out and singing throughout Swift’s setlist.

Kelce stood out in the crowd as he sported an all-white outfit, consisting of a button-up and pants.

 
He stood out wearing an all-white fit. Twitter/mundoswiftt

Meanwhile, Hadid rocked beside him, styling a black cardigan with jeans. Twitter/9taytay9_
For Hadid’s part, she wore a long black cardigan and jeans while her boyfriend sported a long-sleeve button-up shirt and slacks.

The NFL star’s attendance was extra special as Sunday marks Swift’s 7th time performing her Eras Tour concert, which is the same jersey number he wears. Coincidence? Not really.

This was the first time Kelce supported his girlfriend as she kicked off the European leg of her concert series. He had been absent from her last few  Paris La Défense Arena shows.

The “Lover” songstress, 34, added a few new songs to her setlist, including a few from her newly released album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Kelce had been absent from Swift’s past three shows. Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

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She even gave her beau a subtle shout-out as she grooved to the Chiefs’ favorite “Swag Surfin'” dance move while singing “So High School.”

The song is rumored to be about Kelce as Swift sings about an exciting teenage romance.

While the “New Heights” podcaster wasn’t present to witness the bit, he sent his support from afar.

The 14-time Grammy winner resumed the international leg of her tour earlier this week. Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

She adjusted her setlist to include a few songs about Kelce from her newly released album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” AFP via Getty Images
Before hitting the stage, the “Cruel Summer” songstress’ guitarist, Paul Sidoti, took to Instagram to share a picture of himself with Swift.

“[Let’s f–king go]!!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻,” Kelce commented.

The tight end has shown his support for the 14-time Grammy winner at a handful of her shows and was last spotted at her Singapore stop ahead of her two-month break.