WNBA approves Tom Brady as minority owner of Aces

The defending champion Las Vegas Aces can officially count the biggest winner in NFL history among their ownership group.

Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady was approved as a minority owner in the WNBA franchise on Monday, according to ESPN. In March, the recently retired former quarterback was brought into the fold by Aces majority owner Mark Davis, who is also the principal owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. However, the deal still needed the approval of the WNBA, which was reportedly never in question.

Brady also has a minority stake in the Raiders, although there were questions about his involvement over the summer after the NFL passed a new rule that prevented players or team employees from holding equity in a franchise. Besides predictable rumors that Brady would unretire in order to play for the team, Davis had apparently voted against the rule because he hoped that Brady could take on a different role in addition to his stake.

Ideally, putting his money in the Aces and Raiders will provide a bigger payoff than other investments. Over the summer, it was reported that Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen lost millions due to their separate endorsement and equity deals in FTX. The federal government's trial versus FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried begins on Tuesday as it tries to prove that he knowingly defrauded investors of his cryptocurrency firm.

The Aces are preparing for a return trip to the WNBA Finals where they will take on the New York Liberty in a long-awaited matchup of the league's superteams. Las Vegas swept its way into the Finals by dispatching the Dallas Wings in three games. The Liberty are making their first trip to the Finals in 21 years after a tough four-game semifinals series with the Connecticut Sun.

Beyond the on-court play, Davis has pulled out all the stops to shape the Aces into the standard bearer of the WNBA. In addition to a willingness to spend to the league's cap in order to retain the team's core of A'ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young, Davis also employs the league's first million-dollar coach in Becky Hammon and financed the development of the first practice facility built solely for a WNBA team. (The $40 million venue also hosted the league's All-Star festivities back in July.)