Las Vegas Aces celebrate WNBA title in style with championship parade on the Strip

By Alasdair Howorth, CNN

Updated 1024 GMT (1824 HKT) September 21, 2022

The Aces celebrated with a open-topped bus parade in front of thousands of fans on the Las Vegas Strip.

(CNN)The Las Vegas Aces were given a heroine's welcome by thousands of fans in Vegas on Tuesday after winning their first ever WNBA title.

The championship parade started at Caesars Palace and ended at a stage in front of the fountain at the Bellagio. The celebrations were led by 2022 WNBA MVPA'ja Wilson who was pictured on the post-parade stage with the trophy in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other.On Sunday, the Aces beat the Connecticut Sun in Game 4 of the Finals to clinch the first major professional sports championship for the city of Las Vegas.«Las Vegas, I can't thank you enough for how much you rallied behind myself and my teammates, we did this one for y'all,» Wilson said at the event. «I've got some of the best teammates in the world. I mean that.»And the fans truly did up. The rally attracted so much attention that the Strip had to be closed to vehicles after only initially planning to shut down southbound traffic.Read More2022 WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds in Game 4.Despite having such strong connections to sport, Sin City has only had a major professional franchise in the city since the NHL's Golden Knights came to Vegas in 2017.Franchises have generally been hesitant to move to a city which is world famous for sports betting. That, coupled with the city having a 2020 population of only 653,000, meant no team had taken a chance on Las Vegas until the hockey franchise came to town. The Aces moved to Nevada in 2018 and they were joined by the NFL's Raiders who moved from Oakland to Las Vegas in