What Happens in Vegas … is World-Class Sports and Hospitality

Las Vegas has many reputations. It’s known as the entertainment capital of the world, a gambling mecca and in recent years, a sports hub that’s seen several professional teams come to town and hosted events such as the Super Bowl and Formula 1.

However, Vegas veterans will tell you that before anything else, Jerry Tarkanian’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels teams of the 1980s and 1990s ignited a passion for basketball in the desert. The Rebs were the hottest ticket in town for many years, as they went to multiple Final Fours and won a national championship in 1990, crushing Duke by 30 points in the title game.

The Rebels still draw decent crowds these days but without an NBA team in the city, there was a basketball void that needed to be filled. Enter the Las Vegas Aces.

“I think Vegas is a basketball town and has been for a long time,” said Steve Hill, chief executive officer and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority. “The Aces crowds today are probably the families of those people who went to those UNLV games in the ’90s. They just love basketball.”

When the WNBA franchise moved to Las Vegas from Dallas after the 2017 season, it marked the first professional basketball in the city’s history. And since 2017, the team has made quite a bit of history.

The Aces won back-to-back WNBA championships in 2022–2023, have revolutionized what a WNBA team facility should look like and have packed Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay with loud crowds consistently.

Aces Set the Standard

SportsTravel got the chance to be a part of a Las Vegas experience centered around the Aces and the impact the team has on the community. The event included a tour of the Aces’ headquarters located next to the NFL Raiders’ home in Henderson, Nevada, and a VIP experience for the Aces’ 2025 home opener against the Washington Mystics on May 23.

“We are a city that supports excellence and we feel our presence has been able to bring visibility to women’s sports, while also helping drive economic activity within our community,” said Las Vegas Aces President Nikki Fargas. “Las Vegas isn’t just where we play, this is our home. And how this community has shown up game after game, parade after parade, means everything to us and it fuels our players.”

With the first pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, the Aces selected A’ja Wilson from South Carolina. Wilson has been the best player in the league since that moment, amassing three MVP awards and leading the team to an overall win percentage of nearly 70 percent since it moved to Las Vegas.

After winning Las Vegas’ first professional sports championship in 2022, the Aces moved into their new $40 million facility before the 2023 season — the first complex built solely for the use of a WNBA team.

The 60,000-square-foot venue houses the Aces’ practice facility — complete with two courts that can be separated — offices, training room, weight room, hydrotherapy space, physical therapy area, locker rooms, a lecture hall, player and alumni lounges and an on-site daycare center.

The facility set the standard for a WNBA home. Since its opening in April 2023, several other teams have copied the blueprint.

“Obviously we want this across the board in the WNBA,” Fargas said of the facilities. “We want these players to have a place that they can call home. I’m proud of the work that we’ve been able to do with our team, with our business ops team in maximizing that space, but also knowing that we don’t ever displace our players. We’ll have tours come through and we’ll host community events there. We hold camps and clinics there. So not only is that facility for the players, it’s also for our community.”

And the community shows up for the Aces. The opening night game had a sellout crowd of 10,509, which stayed with the team the entire way, even though the first three quarters were a bit rough. The Aces trailed by nine points with four minutes left, but boosted by the large crowd, they rallied with a 16–4 run to close to game and beat the Washington Mystics, including a Jewell Loyd 3-pointer in the final seconds that sent Michelob Ultra Arena into a frenzy.

“It’s great to see what we’ve been able to build in such a short period of time, having back-to-back season ticket member sellouts — that’s so exciting,” Fargas said. “But also to hear how loud the arena gets. I’ve had so many people talk about not just the game itself, but all of the activations that we have around the game and how interactive it is with our fans. People really enjoy coming to the games to see not just the action on the basketball court, but what other cool things we’re doing to make that game day experience for the fans special.”

LVCVA Continues to Raise the Bar

You’d be hard pressed to find a CVB anywhere that supports its local teams as diligently as LVCVA does with the Aces, Golden Knights and Raiders.

Before the 2024 season, LVCVA found a creative way to market its destination in a partnership with each individual Aces player on the roster. The premise is simple — LVCVA pays each Aces player $100,000 per season to essentially be social media influencers for the city. Players attend concerts, shows, nightclubs, etc., sharing their experiences with their millions of followers.

The idea, implemented a year ago, gave LVCVA more exposure and eyeballs on the city’s top tourist attractions, while the players benefitted from the monetary sum.

“We did it because we thought it was a smart and efficient marketing opportunity for us,” Hill said. “All of the players have a following. A’ja has a following that most athletes would envy. But everybody on the team was a star in college, was a star in high school and has a hometown fan base. We get them out in the community to experience everything that Las Vegas has to offer and then talk about it.

“We use influencers on a very regular basis and they’re basically influencers, and it’s worked out really well for us. I think it’s worked out really well for them, too. We’re thrilled with the partnership and I think it’s worked well for Las Vegas.”

The win-win situation for LVCVA and Aces players drew attention from the WNBA, as the league announced an investigation as to whether the sponsorship dollars circumvented the salary cap. That investigation is a year old now, with no new updates and no conclusion.

Hill and others were questioned by WNBA investigators in 2024 and LVCVA has gone forward with year two of the sponsorship in 2025.

“We’ve not heard anything,” Hill said. “We’ve made a two-year commitment and we think it’s a great deal for us and a great opportunity for the players. So yeah, we’re just moving forward.”

On the court and in the community, the Aces’ relationship with the city has never been stronger. When the team arrived in 2018, the crowds weren’t as large. However, led by Wilson, Caitlin Clark and others, the women’s basketball explosion has led to big crowds across the WNBA. That also means more economic impact for CVBs.

“It’s just generally beneficial to the community from a tourism and economic standpoint,” Hill said of the Aces. “But the energy around the Aces and their integration into the community is important to locals here. It’s now a part of our culture, part of the sports scene and a part of our brand.”

F1 the Newest Addition to Vegas’ Infrastructure

In the past decade, Las Vegas has added two of the top arenas and stadiums in the world (more on those below) but the city has truly gone international with the annual Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix each November.

As the Las Vegas Grand Prix heads into its third year, the completion of the Grand Prix Plaza is bringing the world’s premier race circuit to life year-round in Vegas.

The F1 Experience is something that everybody will enjoy, whether they’re race fans or not. The F1 Drive provides a high-level go-kart activation for visitors, who then can go upstairs and get an immersive F1 experience, including learning the history of the sport, how the tires and pit crews work, the media/control center, creating your own team and car, and more. The F1 simulators provide a taste of what the Las Vegas Grand Prix circuit feels like to drive.

The Grand Prix Plaza is a signal of commitment between F1 and LVCVA and although their contract is up after 2025, all indicators point to their partnership going far into the future.

“We’re thrilled with Grand Prix Plaza and it’s a really fun offering for visitors,” Hill said. “Going karting is a fun thing to do, period. And to wrap it around Formula 1 elevates it. But it’s also something that I think helps fan development, and in the U.S. — and particularly around Las Vegas — we want to do that. The fan experience is a real opportunity to make that happen.”

One year before the Aces arrived in Las Vegas, the city welcomed its first professional sports team with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights. To lure an NHL expansion team to the desert, the city built T-Mobile Arena, one of the nicest arenas you’ll find anywhere in the country.

In addition to the 2023 Stanley Cup Champion Golden Knights, the arena hosts basketball games, boxing, UFC, concerts and more. The arena contributes an estimated $125 million per year in economic impact to the city.

It has all the top hospitality spots, including 46 suites and two “party suites” that can each host 120 people. The Hyde Lounge in the upper portion of the arena offers standing room only areas in a nightclub setting. The Bud Light Lounge and Ghost Lounge located in the two center sections of the arena bowl provide premium hospitality and the best views in the venue.

Speaking of building venues to lure professional sports teams, the city did it again in 2020 when it opened Allegiant Stadium. The 65,000-seat venue helped relocate the Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas, but it also has hosted the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, college football, massive concerts and WrestleMania in 2025 (and potentially 2026). It will also be the site for the 2027 College Football Playoff Championship and the 2028 NCAA Men’s Final Four.

“The building of Allegiant Stadium was transformative for the state,” Hill said. “We wouldn’t have gotten Formula 1 if we hadn’t built Allegiant Stadium, because we didn’t have a venue where we could host the biggest events in the world. And now, with that stadium, we host events every few weeks and the world sees that we have this big capacity to do it over and over again.”

The Allegiant Stadium tour included a peek inside Raiders owner Mark Davis’ suite, a walk through the Raiders’ locker room — complete with a Charles Woodson hologram — and a chance to walk on the field for pictures. Standing at the 50-yard line, it’s easy to see why the venue is a favorite among sports fans, with its amazing natural light, giant Olympic-style torch in the end zone and views of the Vegas skyline looking out the northeast side of the stadium.

A trip to Las Vegas wouldn’t be complete without some top-shelf food and entertainment. LVCVA treated our group to some of the best dining in the city, including Mother Wolf, Gordon Ramsay Burger, Bourbon Steak at Four Seasons, Primrose at Park MGM and The Kitchen at Commons Club at the Virgin Hotel.

Virgin has emerged as a big-time player in the Las Vegas hospitality scene when it comes to sports, as the resort hosts NFL teams and is the headquarters for the NBA Summer League each July. Virgin also sponsors the Las Vegas Bowl, Formula 1 and the National Finals Rodeo.

For entertainment, some of the VIP experiences include Cirque du Soleil’s Mad Apple, a spin on the High Roller observation wheel, a trip to Atomic Golf, ziplining and live music at Caspians, the speakeasy inside Caesar’s Palace.

The old marketing slogan was, “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.” But what’s happening in modern day Vegas is an influx of new venues, teams and training facilities in the sports world that have added a new element to a city that continues to entertain at all levels.