The Association of Volleyball Professionals will open its season this week in Huntington Beach with international flair.
The Newport Beach-based organization is partnering with the sport’s world tour, the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, to host the FIVB Huntington Beach Open, where some of the game’s best sand players will compete for $300,000 in prize money.
The event, scheduled for May 2 to 6, will feature several firsts:
• An open qualifier for all countries, eliminating caps on each.
• A double-elimination structure akin to AVP matches.
• A new stadium design.
• Frosty adult beverages sold on the shoreline, a throwback to the domestic league’s early days in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, when fans interacted with players before and after matches.
Surf City Spotlight
Consider the event the start of Orange County’s lucrative tourism season and a showcase of Surf City, which will hold parties, clinics, autograph sessions and other special events throughout the week, including a night when players will bartend for thirsty patrons at Baja Sharkeez on Main Street.
“As a brand owner, I want to highlight Orange County. That’s why it was chosen to be the site,” AVP Commissioner and owner Donald Sun told the Business Journal last week. “It’s an iconic beach.”
Sun, who purchased the AVP in 2010 for $2 million, is an Irvine native who played high school volleyball and attended various AVP events growing up.
His father, David Sun, is co-founder of Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Inc., OC’s largest consumer electronics maker, with estimated 2017 revenue of $6.7 billion.
More than 40,000 fans are projected to attend the five-day event, which will be streamed in its entirety on avp.com. The Sunday finale will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network in a partnership that began three years ago.
General admission is free. Premium tickets Thursday through Sunday range from $75 to $750, and can include courtside boxes for four, cabanas, deck views, shaded seats, a buffet, cash bars and happy hour specials.
Away from the action, fans can participate in interactive experiences at sponsors village, relax at the wine and beer garden, free fall into the AVP Jump Zone, play in the child-friendly bounce house, and dance to music spun by DJ Roueche.
More Competition
The open has attracted more than 25 sponsors, including Kona Brewing Co., Bitchin’ Sauce, Banco Do Brasil, and ASICS Corp., whose U.S. unit is based in Irvine. Sponsorships, a key piece of revenue, have been on the rise, with another 45 to 50 inquiries in the pipeline for events this year, as well as a slew of potential new event sites, according to Sun.
“We’re definitely outpacing last year,” he said. “I’m very confident after the last six years we’ve re-established the brand.”
This year’s circuit will hold events in New York, Austin, Texas, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach.
The AVP will have a new competitor on the court this year, though.
The game’s biggest star, three-time gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, recently announced she’ll create a beach volleyball league after parting ways with the AVP.
The p1440 league, created with her husband and pro beach volleyball player Casey Jennings, will hold four events this year, starting in September in Chicago, the San Jose area, San Diego and Huntington Beach. Walsh, who sued the AVP over a contract dispute over exclusivity that prohibited players from competing in other pro tournaments, has said her league wouldn’t impose the same mandate.
AVP Standing
The AVP has struggled for profitability and to restore its place on the professional sports spectrum. It’s generally thought to break even in good years, with annual revenue under $5 million. The league, established in 1983, has filed for bankruptcy multiple times, most recently in 2010.
Reaching a national audience has been a big challenge for the AVP since its glory days in the late 1980s, when the sport inspired feature films. The league’s revenue peaked at about $25 million in the early 2000s, but steadily declined with the growth of other niche sports and the recession.
Veteran sportscaster Jim Watson ranks the AVP a notch below Major League Soccer in the pantheon of niche American sports.
“But not much below it,” said Watson, who called beach volleyball play-by-play for NBC in several Olympics, including the 2000 games in Sydney.
AVP athletes have won Olympic medals at every summer Olympics since beach volleyball was added as a sport in 1996.
The FIVB Huntington Beach Open will feature several Olympic medalists, including April Ross and Phil Dalhausser of the U.S.; Brazil’s Alison Cerutti, Bruno Oscar Schmidt, Fernanda Alves, Barbara Seixas, Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda “Duda” Lisboa; Italians Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai; Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of Netherlands; and Spaniard Pablo Herrera.
“If you want to see a mini-Olympics, come to Huntington Beach,” Sun said. “You won’t be disappointed.”
