In the pursuit of WNBA dominance, the Las Vegas Aces have encountered many of the league’s most pervasive issues. They’ve even created the frontwomen for some of them.
All three of the organization’s league championships were won in the past four years under the previous collective bargaining agreement, which was signed in 2020.
On Friday, the WNBA and WNBPA signed a term sheet for a new CBA. This came two days after reaching a verbal agreement through marathon negotiations in New York that spanned over a week. It still needs to be ratified by the WNBA Board of Governors and the WNBPA player body over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, the league publicly released key details of the tentative deal, which it called “one of the most transformational labor agreements ever reached in major professional sports.”
Here’s a look at how past issues led to key developments in the new CBA through the lens of the Aces:
Pay
It’s no secret that the Aces have been at the forefront of attempting to pay players more than the previous CBA allowed, sometimes to the team’s detriment.
An investigation into the Aces was announced in 2024 when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announced it was giving each player on the team’s roster at the time a $100,000 sponsorship for the season.
The league has not provided an update on the status of that investigation, which was apparently ongoing as the LVCVA provided those sponsorships again in 2025.
The WNBA announced a similar probe in 2023, saying it was investigating allegations that Aces circumvented the league’s salary cap by making under-the-table payments to players.
Under the new CBA, it seems safe to say the Aces should be free from scrutiny as their players enjoy increased compensation.
The new revenue-sharing model is the headliner with the league projecting it will deliver more than $1 billion in player salaries and benefits. Although details were not released, it’s reportedly set to be nearly 20 percent over the course of the deal.
The salary cap for the 2026 season will be $7 million and is projected to surpass $10 million by the end of the deal.
The maximum salary is set to start at $1.4 million in 2026 and go up. The average salary is expected to be nearly $600,00 in 2026, while minimum salaries will range based on years of service (from $270,000 to $300,000 in 2026).
Under the new deal, existing rookie-scale contracts will also be adjusted upward, and bonus compensation for all league and postseason awards will increase drastically.
Aces star A’ja Wilson is a great case study for this, as she became the first player ever to win MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP in a single season last year.
Including her All-WNBA first team and All-defense accolades, which come with bonuses of their own, she would have earned $225,000 in bonuses alone under the new CBA, which was more than her salary last year. Instead, Wilson earned around $60,000 in the value of her bonuses established under the previous CBA.
Roster rules and pregnancy
From Dearica Hamby to Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, the Aces have illustrated a range of experiences for pregnant players under the previous CBA.
Hamby was traded to the Sparks while pregnant, leading to a now-settled lawsuit and an investigation that left coach Becky Hammon suspended for two games without pay.
Now, teams will not be able to trade pregnant players without their consent, and there are new salary cap exceptions for injured and pregnant players.
The Aces signed Parker-Tyus knowing she was pregnant last offseason and carried a roster of only 10 active players until she was activated.
Teams were required to have at least 11 players previously but often had to scramble for hardship signees to combat injuries. The new CBA agreement will require a new increased minimum of 12 roster players.
In a change that Hammon essentially begged for publicly as she grappled with the difficulty of cutting players she felt had potential, teams can now have two additional spots for developmental players that will not count against the cap. This would have allowed 2025 rookies such as Deja Kelly and Harmoni Turner better paths to staying on the Aces’ roster than they had last year.
Other key details
In 2018, Aces players used social media to document a 24-hour travel nightmare caused by delays to their commercial itinerary. It led them to forfeit a game against the Washington Mystics that had playoff implications, and boosted a conversation surrounding the need for charter flights.
Although the league didn’t make full-time private flights available for all players until star Caitlin Clark arrived to the Indiana Fever, the new CBA touts a projected investment of $300 million for league-wide charter travel.
This will be crucial, as the 2026 season will remain at 44 games before the schedule is set to gradually expand to 50 games by 2027.
The new agreement also includes increased standards for facilities and amenities, which the Aces spearheaded in 2023 by unveiling the first complex built solely for the use of a WNBA team in league history.
The deal includes enhanced life insurance benefits as well, with one-time payments for veterans and retired players based on years of service in the league.
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Callie__Fin on X.