Mark Davis’ moves with Las Vegas Aces disrupt sports world for the better

Mark Davis’ moves with Las Vegas Aces disrupt sports world for the better

LAS VEGAS — Mark Davis didn’t just move the Raiders from the Bay Area. He also removed — from a market that has long pined for a women’s professional basketball team — the most aggressive, ambitious WNBA owner in the league:

Himself.

“It’s a 25-year-old league, but it feels brand new to me,” Davis said, while looking over the foundation of a $40 million training center for his Las Vegas Aces, going up next door to the Raiders’ headquarters in Henderson, Nev.

“We have energy. We see the potential. … How are we going to grow this game and women’s sports without being disruptive?”

Davis is disrupting things. His biggest splash in this fast-growing sports market is massive Allegiant Stadium, the Raiders’ new home that looms across the freeway from the Strip.

But his impact since acquiring the Aces might be even more landscape changing. Since buying the team in 2021 from MGM Resorts, Davis is proving to be an ambitious, big-picture ally of the women’s game.

“This is Mark driven,” said Jennifer Azzi, the former Stanford guard and the Aces’ new director of business development. “This is all his vision.”

Slated to be located on Raiders Way between the Raiders headquarters and the Raiderettes facility in Matter Park, the 50,000-square-foot facility will house the Aces’ practice facility, offices, training room and lockers. The land is owned by Matter Real Estate Group, which developed Matter Park.

Slated to be located on Raiders Way between the Raiders headquarters and the Raiderettes facility in Matter Park, the 50,000-square-foot facility will house the Aces’ practice facility, offices, training room and lockers. The land is owned by Matter Real Estate Group, which developed Matter Park.

MARIA ALEJANDRA CARDONA / MARIA ALEJANDRA CARDONA

• Davis hired an impressive front office, including Azzi and her wife, Blair Hardiek (another blow to Bay Area WNBA fans who envisioned Azzi as perhaps president of a local expansion team).

• Davis hired Becky Hammon, thought to be on track to become the NBA’s first female head coach, from the San Antonio Spurs. The hiring shook up the WNBA; Davis will pay Hammon more than $1 million, a league-record salary.

• The 80,000-square-foot training facility — which will house offices, two training courts and a leadership academy — will open next spring.

• And Davis plans to push for revenue streams that eventually can elevate the WNBA’s collectively bargained salary structure and keep players at home. WNBA players currently are paid so little that they play year-round, chasing lucrative contracts overseas in places like Russia, where Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner is in custody on a controversial drug charge.

“Keeping them here is the goal,” Davis said. “We’ve got to get these women really good contracts. We’re not only trying to win on the court. We want to keep them at home and let them make an impact in their communities.”

Davis didn’t think about WNBA ownership when he was in Oakland. He was too busy pursuing a stadium deal and dealing with his Coliseum co-tenants, the A’s.

In the process of relocating to Las Vegas, he bought four Aces season tickets. They happened to be right next to Bill Hornbuckle, the president of MGM Resorts, which owned the team.

“I kept saying, ‘Bill, you’ve got to pay these women more,’” Davis said. “He finally said, ‘Listen, if you want them to make more money, you pay them. You buy the team.’”

So, he did.

Davis comes by his interest through DNA. Al Davis was a longtime women’s basketball aficionado and a follower of UConn’s Geno Auriemma.

“He knew where all the players went to high school,” Mark Davis said of his late father. “He followed it like he followed football.”

The son is a basketball fan and was a fixture with the Showtime Lakers when the Raiders shared the L.A. market. Davis not only enjoyed the product but watching how owner Jerry Buss built the brand.

“Jerry was a genius,” Davis said.

However, the Raiders are his primary model for how he wants to run the Aces. Davis believes that the strength of the Raiders has been its former players and their connection to the team. As soon as he bought the Aces, he set about building an alumni network. When Azzi received an invitation for an Aces weekend in Las Vegas last summer, she was unsure why.

Then it dawned on her: She had played for the Salt Lake City WNBA franchise, which moved to San Antonio (where Azzi retired), which eventually moved to Las Vegas to become the Aces.

“Mark considers us all alumni of the Aces,” Azzi said.

And that includes Hammon, who was undrafted by the WNBA but spent most of her 16-year playing career with the San Antonio Silver Spurs.

When Azzi and Hardiek came to visit, they became intrigued. Davis had filled his team-president position with Nikki Fargas, who had been the head coach at LSU. She is married to former Raiders running back Justin Fargas and is from Azzi’s hometown of Oak Ridge, Tenn.

“It’s all about people connecting,” Azzi said.

Mark Davis made a splash in Las Vegas with the Raiders’ new Allegiant Stadium, but even more landscape-changing could be his decisions as owner of the WNBA’s Aces.

Mark Davis made a splash in Las Vegas with the Raiders’ new Allegiant Stadium, but even more landscape-changing could be his decisions as owner of the WNBA’s Aces.

Maria Alejandra Cardona

Soon, Azzi and Hardiek were on board. Azzi quit her administration job at USF, Hardiek left her position as global director of the NBA Academy, they packed up their two children, Macklin, 5, and Camden, almost 2, sold their Mill Valley home and relocated to the desert. Hardiek became the chief marketing officer.

“It’s been good beyond our wildest dreams,” said Azzi, who was a founding player of the ABL, which lasted two seasons before folding because of competition from the WNBA. “With my history in the game, I wanted to be a part of this. To be able to do things I couldn’t do in my other roles.”

Hammon, who will join the team after the Spurs’ season ends, felt the same attraction. In her introductory news conference, she said she wrestled with the decision during sleepless nights.

“The leadership of Mark and Nikki and direction they want to take the organization and the league could not be ignored,” Hammon said. “I know I’m ready to be a head coach. And this is the team that wanted me.”

Azzi had been offered WNBA jobs before but wasn’t interested in a part-time position. Davis is running the Aces like most professional sports teams: as a year-round operation.

“The only way to reach your potential is to make it a full-time situation,” Azzi said.