Full House: How the Las Vegas Aces Are Capitalizing on a Moment for Women’s Sports

Jason joined podcast host Jim Andrews to explore the intersection of the rise in women’s pro sports and the emergence of Las Vegas as a leading live sports market, and how that comes together in securing sold-out crowds and delivering value to brand partners for the WNBA franchise. Below are edited highlights of the conversation.

Jim: I’m so happy to have you on the podcast, because you occupy a really interesting role in our business. You’re with an organization that has won back-to-back championships, in a market that is unlike any other, at an unprecedented time for women’s professional sports. So we have a lot to talk about!

I’d like to start out by asking about your experiences thus far with the Aces over the past two-plus years. As someone who previously worked for NFL and NHL teams, among other organizations, what are some of the biggest differences, challenges and opportunities in selling for a women’s pro sports franchise?

Jason: I had the experience of being in the men’s sports world up until coming to the Aces. The trajectory of women’s sports is what I latched onto. I was fortunate to have worked for challenger brands in the past, so I understood what women’s sports was before and could see what it should be in the future, which is what it should have been 15 or 20 years ago!

The biggest change from being at an NFL or NHL team are the meetings on the partnership side. When you are at an NFL franchise, it’s easy to get the meeting. The challenge is quantifying the dollar figures according to what the partnership is going to look like. In the WNBA, the challenge is at the beginning. Once you get the meeting, it’s not hard to convince them of what and why the product is worthy of investment.

The easiest way to introduce the product is to have somebody come to a game. It definitely opens their eyes to the experience and what separates women’s sports from what they see on a regular basis in terms of the fan engagement.

Jim: I think many in the business were surprised that as the Aces were having such great success over the last few years, they remained without a jersey patch sponsor until the agreement that put Ally Financial on the jerseys this season. Can you talk about the approach the team took to finding a jersey partner?

Jason: There was a top-down mentality from ownership to leadership to everybody involved that we needed to find the right partner. One that had the right mindset. I give Ally a lot of credit. They are on their journey of splitting their marketing evenly from a men’s and women’s sports perspective.

They were absolutely the right partner for us. We had been on that journey to find a like-minded partner that recognized we are trying to change the trajectory of women’s sports.

They have been fantastic to work with and we can’t wait to see what happens next. We just got to see A’ja Wilson on the cover of the new 2K game and Ally is on there with us. We have a lot of pride in working with them and I believe they have a lot of pride in working with us.

Jim: With something like the cover of NBA2K25, is the potential for that type of additional exposure part of the conversation with a potential jersey partner, or does that carry the risk of overpromising?

Jason: We’re lucky to be in Las Vegas, where when it comes to earned media there is a lot that happens from our jersey perspective.

So we are not going to talk too much about something like the 2K cover. That’s an added bonus. We could never promise something like that, but of course we were pleasantly surprised A’ja was able to make it onto the cover along with Jason Tatum. It’s a great mix of the two past championships and it puts Ally front and center, which I’m ecstatic about. But it’s something we could never talk about prior to it happening.

Jim: Clearly Las Vegas is a unique place in many ways, and one of those is the sheer amount of sponsorable properties and events in the market. How does that impact your overall sales approach—for partnerships, tickets, etc.?

Jason: We’re lucky to have an incredible staff and I give a lot of credit to the marketing, community, and ticketing sides of our business. We have put ourselves on the map on a local and regional level. The city truly has embraced us. We were at 1,500 season seats just three years ago and now we’ve sold out from a season-seat perspective.

The only way you can do that is by embodying the city and the city embodying you back. That hit home when we had 30,000 to 40,000 people celebrate our first title on the streets of Las Vegas. We were nervous about how many would be there. It was September and still very hot, but we got truly emotional and excited when our bus turned the corner and we saw all the locals. That’s not normal for the WNBA, to see that excitement and belief. It has really helped us to become one with the city.

We are an event that happens 20 times a year, plus playoffs, where the locals are coming in droves. We have parking issues at our building. You have to get there early because it can get backed up at times. That just shows you the devotion and the desire from our fan base.

Jim: The story lines around this WNBA season are unprecedented, with the arrival of rookies like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and others. They clearly have helped bring more attention to the league, and it’s especially exciting when they go up against stars like A’ja Wilson and other players. How has this new level of interest impacted your planning and discussions with current partners and prospects?

Jason: I give our ticketing staff a lot of credit. We were a little ahead of the curve when it came to filling our building. The media exposure just helps that. We were on pace to be sold out from a season-ticket perspective and when Caitlin Clark announced it just sped up the process for us.

I think it really helped others in our industry to have this new class being drafted. With over two million views from a Draft perspective versus what it has been in the past, those extra eyeballs are fantastic for the game at a wonderful time.

For me, it’s fantastic to see the A’ja Wilsons, the Breanna Stewarts, the Jewel Loyds, Kelsey Plums, Chelsea Grays, Jackie Youngs being able to be seen by more people. The more exposure the better because you are truly seeing how great this game is and seeing it at its best. The league is 28 years in existence but now is the best basketball that’s been played.

When it comes to capitalizing on that from a revenue perspective, for us we have done a great job on the ticketing side of things. It fortified what we are doing on that side of the house. From a partnership standpoint, it just adds value to the conversations we are already having and the partners we already have.

Our partners who were on board with the Aces before this year are seeing the effects and the aftermath of all of the viewership numbers, and they are overjoyed from that perspective. That’s how we will be able to continue to grow partnerships—by having those partners talking about it and using them as an example with others we are having conversations with.

It has helped swing some of those brands that were on the fence; who were questioning whether this was the right resource for them. The answer is coming back overwhelmingly yes. It has opened a lot of eyes to the fact that this is a true marketing platform and deserves equal time and consideration.

Jim: Are you also seeing a shift from even three or four years ago where a lot of the conversations around women’s sports partnerships had to do with “doing the right thing” from an equality and equity perspective as opposed to seeing what a great business opportunity it was, whether to sell more product or achieve other business objectives?

Jason: One hundred percent. Ally echoes that through and through. They saw the impact we can have working together. That is also true for a lot of our other partners. They realize this is a platform they should truly invest in, and not just check a box.

Our organization has done a very good job of setting the bar and holding a firm line when it comes to what investments should look like in women’s sports, but also the why at the same time. You can always say this is where we need to be, but if you don’t back it up in some way, shape or form, you don’t have a leg to stand on. I think we have done a very good job of really showing partners the effects and the impact that working with us, other teams in the W and women’s sports can have.

We want to make sure that we set that bar so that we can continue to move this business forward instead of just checking a box with some brands.

Jim: You have spent more than a dozen years securing partnerships for a number of leading organizations, but you expanded your responsibilities in 2023 when the Aces named you chief revenue officer. Knowing that many of our listeners are on, or hope to be on, a similar track—what advice would you have for partnership folks in terms of preparing to take on expanded responsibilities for other types of revenue?

Jason: Always be curious. That is something that has helped me, coworkers here and others I have worked with in the past. Don’t be afraid to ask a question where you may not know the answer. Don’t assume anything.

That has been helpful on both the ticketing and partnership sides. On the partnership team, you get to work with everyone across the business. Inside of a partnership you have something from marketing, community, social media, the actual sports side, etc.

The second piece is: Learn the strategy aspect. On the partnership side that’s how you go to market and who you approach and how from a prospecting perspective. On the ticketing side it’s how do we fill the building, how do we get more people involved, how do we grow demand, etc.

One of the things that helps here is that a lot of our folks have come from different organizations. We have built this place as somewhere you can come to have significant success, not where you come to jump off and go somewhere else. That helps everyone in the organization to be able to learn.

Jim: Is there anything in particular that’s coming up for you and the Aces in terms of what’s next, whether that’s partner categories you might be looking at or any other aspects of the business that are on the top of your priority list?

Jason: It will be interesting to see how the Olympic Games unfold and how the excitement from that impacts what happens afterward. Hopefully, there is a correlation with the second half of the WNBA season and viewership and attendance keep growing for the next 12, 18 and 24 months.

We are very much in that hockey stick growth period. Women’s sports needs to continue that rise because it should have had this start 10, 15, 20 years ago. We are at a critical point in the lifecycle of women’s sports and it’s important that we all figure out how to help each other because we are all in this together. Everybody that works at a WNBA or NWSL property, for example, understands that we are creating the future for women’s sports.

I wanted to jump onto this journey to see what can happen in women’s sports and the impact you can have. On a men’s team you don’t have as much impact as you have on the women’s side, individually. We are a 40-to-45-person organization. In the NBA, you’re talking a couple of hundred people. So the amount of impact you can have on this side of things is significant.

We try to echo that internally: We are small, but mighty. Our industry is small, but mighty at the same time. I am interested to see the next two years. That is going to be very telling of where the industry goes as a whole and what our capacity is for the next ten years.

The only other thing I would say is that one of the pieces to our success is that all of our departments talk. Working together, making sure that—for example—social and partnerships are aligned, marketing and social are aligned, community and ticketing, etc. Marketing and community is what drives ticket engagement. We have direct dialogue with people across the organization and across the league all the time. Continuing the culture that all of these teams have built to get to where we are today is extremely important over the next two, five and ten years.