Hundreds of season-ticket holders and invited guests last week attended the Aces Drive-InACES
Unable to host games at Mandalay Bay Events Center, the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces found a way to bring the team -- all the way from the “wubble” in Bradenton, Fla., back to the Strip. Last Thursday, the franchise hosted hundreds of season-ticket holders and invited guests for the “Aces Drive-In powered by Mountain Dew.” Set up in the parking lot of the adjacent Luxor hotel was a 17-by-32-foot screen for fans to watch the Aces-Lynx. Fans who brought chairs could sit outside their vehicles while maintaining social distancing. Aces Assistant GM & Head of Business Operations Christine Monjer said the event took weeks of planning, in part because the Aces needed to make sure they conformed to Nevada’s COVID-19 regulations.
JUST DEW IT: Mountain Dew, which sponsors the team’s Fan Zone in the arena during a normal season, jumped at the idea of being attached to the drive-in. Monjer described Mountain Dew’s sponsorship of the event as a continuation of the relationship which started when the team moved to Las Vegas for the ’18 season. Monjer: “We really wanted to find a way to bring this energy to life seeing that we were playing 2,000 miles away. … Mountain Dew was like, ‘We’re in.’” The WNBA playoffs began Tuesday, but there are no set plans for another drive-in. Monjer said, “It was a first of its kind, we loved the scale of it, we loved the uniqueness of it. For the playoffs, we are going to continue to brainstorm to see how we can bring some of that energy alive for the fans. At this point, I wouldn’t say we have a commitment to do one again.”
