Las Vegas loves a big show, and Monday night Allegiant Stadium hosted one with a purpose. The IX Awards packed a sold-out crowd of women’s sports heavyweights, local power brokers and entertainers into one room, turning a silver-carpet gala into a mashup of civic pride and sports history.
In a press release via EIN Presswire, the IXs Foundation, co-founded by Raiders owner Mark Davis and former Stanford star Jennifer Azzi, said it staged the fifth annual ceremony Monday to honor Diana Bennett, Lisa Leslie, Missy Franklin, Brandi Chastain and Hilary Knight. The foundation framed the night as a celebration of Title IX's legacy and confirmed the event was held at Allegiant Stadium.
Honorees And Performances
The program, as detailed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was hosted by Jessica Mendoza and featured Rachel Platten performing "Fight Song." Broadway in the Hood took the stage, with a pre-show set by David Perrico and the Raiders house band keeping the stadium in full Vegas-show mode. The coverage also highlighted silver-carpet moments, including Jan Jones Blackhurst introducing Diana Bennett.
Davis' Investment In Women's Sports
For Mark Davis, the evening doubled as another showcase of his growing women’s sports footprint. He bought the Aces from MGM in 2021 for roughly $2 million and has since funded a 64,000-square-foot training center in Henderson, a $40 million project detailed by the Associated Press. Forbes now pegs the Aces' value in the low hundreds of millions, a rapid climb that underscores how quickly the franchise’s commercial worth has surged.
Flav's SHE Weekend And A Citywide Party
The IX Awards also served as the on-ramp to a bigger July slate: Flavor Flav's four-day SHE Weekend, a celebration organizers say will bring parades, free concerts and athlete gatherings to the Strip. Entertainment site Just Jared previewed plans for a July parade and public concerts tied to the celebration, while a local rundown that aims to shut down the Strip emphasized the four-day event’s parades, free shows and athlete meetups.
Together, the gala and the surrounding festival calendar underscored how Las Vegas pro teams, ownership groups and celebrity producers are leaning into women’s sports as both civic programming and full-scale spectacle. The IXs Foundation website and its recent press release note that the awards launched in 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX and say proceeds support programs that expand access to sport for girls and women. IXs Foundation
