What the Aces' New Place Actually Is
The Las Vegas Aces have a new practice facility in Summerlin, right off the I-15 corridor near Sahara and Buffalo. It opened in phases starting around late 2023, with the main building fully operational by early 2024. The team moved out of their old practice space at the UNLV campus area and into something that's closer to a full-day training campus rather than just a gym you roll into for two hours. If you're a member of the media or a season ticket holder trying to get in for a practice session, it's not open walk-in. You go through the media relations office or your media credential gets you on the guest list for released practice times. The facility itself is gated, and security checks IDs at the entrance near the parking garage. My recommendation: show up at least 20 minutes before the stated practice start time. The last thing you want is to be fumbling with credentials at the door when players are already on the court. The facility has two full regulation courts, a strength and conditioning floor with Olympic lifting platforms, a sports medicine area with cold plunge pools and hydrotherapy tubs, and individual player recovery rooms that have become kind of a big deal in the WNBA right now. The Aces were one of the early teams to invest heavily in in-house recovery tech, and this place reflects that. There's Normatec compression systems in every recovery room, a hyperbaric chamber option, and a dedicated nutrition kitchen that planes meals during training camp.
The locker rooms are actually pretty striking. Individual lockers with charging stations and personal storage, but also communal areas that feel more like a high-end boutique hotel lobby than a traditional sports facility. The film room has a massive screen and the acoustics are tuned so you can hear the play calling clearly even when it's just ambient noise from the court.
How It Works on a Typical Day
Player arrival times are staggered. Veterans who've been in the league longer tend to come in earlier, sometimes 9 AM for morning sessions, while newer players and rookies often have lighter loads and arrive later. The facility runs from about 8 AM to 9 PM on practice days, and some players use it on off days for voluntary rehab or skill work. Calls are organized by position group during most team practices. You'll see the guards running through set plays on one court while the forwards and centers work post defense on the other. The coaches rotate between courts, and the video team is usually positioned at the highest point in the bleacher section, recording everything for afternoon review.
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A Practical Problem I Ran Into
When I was covering a practice there last summer, I noticed that the sound carry from Court 1 to the press area was weirdly poor on the east side seats. The HVAC vents were blowing air directly across that section and the noise from the court was getting absorbed by the ceiling baffles before it reached the bleachers. I sat further back near the center row for the rest of the session and could hear the coach's instructions much more clearly. It's a small detail but one that matters if you're trying to pick up verbal cues between players during a live drill. Another thing: the parking garage fills up fast on shootaround days. If you're driving in, aim for the second or third level near the middle elevators. The lower levels go first and you end up walking from the far corners, which eats into your time if you're trying to catch early arrival shots.
What Makes This Different From the Old Setup
The UNLV-adjacent facility was functional but cramped. Two courts shared the same airspace with the student athletes from the university program, which meant scheduling conflicts and limited access to equipment. The new place is theirs alone during WNBA season. There's no sharing the strength floor with a college basketball program trying to run their own lifts. That ownership of space changes how practices run — more structured, more controlled, less improvisation around scheduling. The recovery infrastructure is the biggest upgrade. Back at the old spot, the ice baths were in a corner of the weight room and players had to wait their turn. Now there's a dedicated athletic training suite with multiple treatment tables and the cold plunge area can handle six players simultaneously. During a back-to-back road trip week, that capacity difference is massive.
Downsides Worth Noting
The location is convenient for most of the city but it's not exactly central. If you're coming from the Strip or downtown, you're looking at 20 to 30 minutes depending on traffic. The I-15 corridor gets brutal during rush hour and late afternoons. Some players have mentioned in interviews that the commute time from their homes in Henderson or North Las Vegas can eat into their recovery window, especially on off days when they're trying to get to the facility early for voluntary work. The building is also fairly new, which means some of the technology is still being fine-tuned. The video replay system had a glitch during training camp where the instant replay monitor in the locker room froze mid-play and stayed frozen for about ten minutes. The staff worked around it by using tablet devices as backups, but it was a minor headache. These things tend to sort themselves out as the season goes on. One more thing that caught me off guard: the facility doesn't have public concession stands. There's a kitchen for the players and staff, but if you're a member of the media covering practice, you're expected to bring your own food or leave the building to grab something. There's a coffee station in the press area but that's it. Plan ahead.
Why This Matters Beyond Just the Aces
The broader trend here is that the top WNBA franchises are treating practice infrastructure as a competitive advantage, not just a logistical necessity. The Aces won championships partly because their infrastructure lets them recover faster and prep better than teams that are still working out of shared or outdated spaces. Other franchises are watching this model and building their own versions — the Sparks, the Lynx, and the Sky have all announced facility upgrades in the last couple of years. The investment isn't cheap. Reports put the construction and outfitting cost in the tens of millions, and the ongoing operating expenses for a facility this size aren't trivial. But when you're competing for players in a league where free agency decisions can hinge on quality of life and recovery resources, having a modern facility is a real recruiting tool. It's less about luxury and more about giving players the tools to extend their careers and perform at a high level consistently.
