I don't think I've said it enough times, but the old way of doing things has been proven to fail. The AVP, not once but TWICE, filed for bankruptcy with the assumption that you can simply take the game of beach volleyball, put on some bells and whistles, and sell that as a product, but once you get past all the glitz and glam of VIP packages, and stadium courts, the difference between the packaged product and the "free" product that you can find on any given day isn't all that different, but that is the point exactly, and the tour that I have been rooting for the most recently (the NVL), has been missing it completely, and appears to be taking off from the same failed path that the AVP left behind.
Maybe it's a lack of inspiration or creativity but I think it has to do more with a generalized and formulaic version of marketing that has been preached in higher education that has led to one of the most marketable sports hanging by a thread year in and year out. Mass marketing and banner ads isn't sexy which makes it very difficult to sell a sport that itself is very sexy, and so are the athletes that participate. I'm not saying that they should default to the "sex sells" strategy, because anyone can already see that in this sport out of the corner of their eye.
No one is going to spend 60 dollars to sit at home and drink so why do we routinely expect people to do this every weekend at a less convenient location? If a bar has little interest in promoting their alcohol then the AVP and NVL should have just as little interest in promoting volleyball. Don't get me wrong, because I want to see the sport grow, and the US return to dominance, but this rant has to do with the financial side of it which is essential in being able to offer clinics and camps to the next generation of beach volleyball players. As it is so succinctly and elegantly said in this documentary trailer, "what makes beach volleyball so great, is not volleyball", the idea of beach volleyball, the culture and the environment is far more profitable than the actual sport itself.
I'll admit that this isn't an easy task to take up, and it takes a rather delicate balance to uphold. It is like looking at a painting. If you stand too close to it, then you have no idea what you're looking at can't comprehend why you should care. This is similar to building stadium courts, which brings this giant monstrosity of a magnifying glass onto one court and completely removes the rest of the beach and the atmosphere from your field of vision. On the contrary standing too far away, doesn't allow you to appreciate the finer details, and hence allows your attention to shift to other focal points. This would be on par to serving beach volleyball as a side dish on a diner that revolved around the partying, vendors, and free giveaways (like the Volleywood tournament in Chicago). It would be like going out for a birthday dinner and you forget to pick up whose ever birthday it is.
There are still many other things that I feel are slowing the progress of the sport but for starters, the tours need to step up their merchandise game, and that doesn't mean slapping you logo on everything but partnering up with clothing staples like Quiksilver, Hurley, Billabong, and RVCA. In addition make alcohol sales a viable option. I know that this seems expensive as there are numerous permits to go through with each city that you visit but there is a reason why several beer companies are title sponsors for some of our biggest and most watched sports. People want to go the beach to drink and have a good time anyway so find a way to invest into this problem and turn it around so that beach volleyball can be heralded again as the most attractive sport to attend as a fan.
Side note: This post was inspired by the NVL promoting on facebook the sale of their "VIP packages". If it took me $100 to have a great "fan experience", then I would have never followed or played the sport to begin with. Seth Godin can teach them a thing or two about how free stuff can make you a lot of money.
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