Las Vegas City Wire

A University of Nevada, Las Vegas sports and gender expert says the Las Vegas Aces’ WNBA championship is a game-changer for Nevada in more ways than one.

According to a news release issued by the university, Nancy Lough, a College of Education sport management professor and longtime Title IX consultant who specializes in sports diversity, said she liked what she saw from the Aces.

‘’It’s such a big accomplishment for this city because we’ve become the sport and entertainment capital of the world," Lough said. "To mark that by having one of our first professional teams win a championship in such a short amount of time is pretty unprecedented.’’

Lough said it has been only four years since the team relocated from San Antonio and winning the championship in a relatively short timespan was a  “wonderful accomplishment.”

‘’It’s big for women’s athletics in southern Nevada, but it’s big for sport, period," she said. "And part of that is because sport is non-gendered. People like to think of it as gendered because we have a WNBA team and we don’t have an NBA team. But the reality is it’s basketball, and all genders play basketball and love the game. 

"Little boys, as much as little girls, can watch [Aces players] A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum and want to modify and develop their own game based on what they’re doing,‘’ she said.