New Page: AVP/NVL

As promised I will continue to consolidate similar blog posts for your viewing pleasure.  Today I'm providing you with the page the posts that I had the most fun putting together.  The majority of these posts are blog posts, opinion pieces, that are more or less rants about the self-destructive behavior of the AVP or the clumsy missteps of the NVL.  Everyone now a days is a critic, and I could really care less what the AVP or NVL thinks because they don't have enough money in the bank to prove me wrong. #I'mjustsaying

Anyways..... CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE AVP/NVL PAGE


Oh BTW, there will also be legitimate news updates on this page too, so it isn't all bashing and critiquing.

OC Sand Volleyball Club...The Next Level?

Up to this point, beach volleyball has maintained the status quo more or less, without much deviation to expand, develop, or progress the game significantly.  But all of that may change in the immediate future.

We all know that beach volleyball was born and started in Southern California, and from that same region, we have seen some of the greatest players of all-time in both the indoor and outdoor game, but as the popularity of beach volleyball spread across the country we also have seen talent spikes (no pun intended) in different regions like Florida, and the Midwest.  Even with those talent spikes Southern California has remained head and shoulders above the rest, and remains the place to be to take your game to the next level.  Being anywhere else doesn't necessarily make it impossible, just improbably and illogical.  It is like being an NFL player and practicing and training in Canada with CFL players.  To be the best you gotta play against the best.

Before I expanded my thoughts on the NVL's money grab to develop beach volleyball athletes at the junior level with their Club Med facilities.  Consider their philosophy (volleyball not business), to be a growing trend in the years to come.  Here we have the next major development, the OC Sand Volleyball Club, started by Brad Keenan and April Ross.

With beach volleyball still in its infancy stages in the NCAA the talent pool is still very much spread out due to the fact that for the most part these are just indoor players playing on sand.  Outside of the few exceptions, the sophistication of beach volleyball skills and intellect is basically on par and in proportion with that of the players' indoor skills and intellect.  Expect that to change.  Yes, the SoCal school are still holding down the majority of top beach programs, but that is also because they also have some of the top indoor programs as well.  This year's AVCA Collegiate Sand Championships featured teams from Georgia State, FIU, UAB, and Jacksonville University, which let's be honest aren't the first names that come to mind in terms of volleyball, indoor or beach.

So why should be see a growing gap between the elite and the "very good" in years to come, and what does the OC Sand Volleyball Club have to do with it?  Well as you may have taken note of, top programs like UCLA and USC have brought on retired professionals Stein Metzger and Misty May-Treanor for their school's team respectively.  Schools that identify the need for specialization, that being the identification of the stark difference between the indoor and beach game and the resulting consequence of hiring different people for those jobs, will likely see exponential growth in success and development.  

The OCSVC has gotten their foot in the door first, and now has the inside track with professionals who have had very successful careers in the hot bed in the world for beach volleyball talent.  It will make it all the more likely that they will graduate athletes to nearby schools on the West coast, and as the old adage goes, the rich will keep getting richer.

But hey, prove me wrong Nebraska and Penn State.  But I think you will find that transitioning from the indoor game to the beach is just as hard for the players as it is for the coaches, so it won't be long until there is a noticeably higher class of program.  Basically, you can only drink Jameson for so long until you discover single malt Scotch.  For the athletes, there may be more money in playing for international clubs post-collegiate career, but the competition to earn roster spots is much stiffer.  With the beach game literally open to anyone who can make it through qualifiers (i.e Summer Ross), the incentive to pick a program with great indoor AND beach programs will be higher than ever, but ultimately it will be the schools that invest now that can see dividends pay out in the near future and long-term.

Passion Doesn't Pay

Do what you love they said.  You will be much happier they said.

Very few people get to make a living as an athlete, and strangely enough it is very costly to aspire to be one as well.  That is what Johnny Manziel learned recently as he was penalized by the NCAA for "inadvertently" breaking one of their rules from uncountable list of idiocy.

I'm not sure what is more absurd, that he was penalized, or that is was only for the first half of a game.  But the penalty itself is very indicative of why the system of amateur athletics in the US is so messed up, specifically under the rule of the NCAA.  Even though this doesn't have much relevance to beach volleyball as it was recently just anointed as college sport for women, it has become such a hot button issue that I can't help but shed some more perspective on it.

Before I go any further, you should definitely check out Patrick Hruby's article on this matter and the Jonathon Benjamin story on which the article is centralized on.  I'll try to not reiterate too many things that he has already said because he pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one, but I think there is a bigger component of exploitation that doesn't get much talk.

*
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Alex Rodriguez has grossed over 324 million dollars in his career...yea...just let that sink in a little.

Regardless of how much we yell at our TV's in passion, sports may be a lifestyle or a culture to us fans and players, but at the end of the day it a business, and it is only one of many within the entertainment industry that compete against one another for our eyes and ears to exclusively give out attention and money to them.

The athletes then are not providing a service or delivering a product, they are the business itself but they don't get to profit off it unless the company that employs them profits.  But in the world of beach volleyball, the companies like the AVP, NVL, and FIVB don't thrive unless the players do as well.

The other side of the business is advertisement, sponsors, and endorsement deals.  This is what fuels the prize money (because ticket prices and merchandise are virtually out of the equation), and to attract more lucrative and lure more companies, those same partners need more of a reason and incentive to invest knowing that their brand will get proper exposure.  The only place they can get that is through the sport and the athletes themselves.

So you should see that when the pros are able to make themselves more viable as assets, that can make appearances, be heard and seen as athletes, that have the ability to promote products and services, then tours will have money being thrown at them.  But if I were a potential client, I wouldn't want to endorse a tour that has the majority of its athletes waiting tables, working odd jobs, or even worse, working for a competing company.  What kind of exposure is that?  You gotta spend money to make money,  but let's leave the spending to the tours and not the players.

The NVL Is Focused To Build Something

I'm sure that at this point the NVL has made it abundantly clear that it will be slow and steady that hopes to win the race.  Just yesterday, I wrote about the lack of a rich talent pool at AVP tournaments, that seemingly feature 2 or 3 main teams that continually advance to Sunday, and there is a definite need to build and develop players at that intermediate stage in their playing career between high school and pro.  

Recently it was released that the NVL will be putting together a beach volleyball academy.  The sound of the name itself strikes me something with the whimsy of Hogwarts with the awesomeness of beach volleyball...but better.  

Sorry Harry, but you're just not pro beach material...NEXT!

This academy will be taking place at Club Med in St. Lucie, Florida and there are plans for 30, that's right three-zero, courts to be built, as well as boarding options.  Before you pack you bags though, be aware that it comes with a hefty price tag:  $43,186 a year with boarding.

It is surely one thing to invest in the juniors programs, and profit off those who are ineligible to collect prize money, but it is another thing to actually develop said players to hopefully one day, stay in the family and play for your tournament to build the sport.  Because it makes no sense to plant the seeds, and water the plants only to have another farmer come along and harvest the crops when they are ready to be picked.  As great as this sounds, there is something that still just doesn't sit right with me.

Parents, you could send your kid to college to party and accrue loads of debt...
Oooor, you could send them here to party, play beach volleyball and accrue loads of debt
Which one gets you more bang for your buck?...That's what I thought. 

I'm guessing the NVL is throwing in the towel on landing a Sean Rosenthal or Brittany Hochevar at one of their events, but at least they have to foresight to land the next Summer Ross when the time comes.  Of course it could all fall apart if they only offer prize money in the form of tuition fee cuts.  The NVL, like any other tour, will have to solve the problem of substantial prize money to draw in the top athletes.  How much of that $43,186 will go toward NVL pro tournaments will be answered down the road, but for now it looks like they are assembling all the pieces into their grand vision.

They have a pipeline to the juniors with USAV, they have been officially sanctioned, they have a crazy expensive resort to be a beach bum, and they've got Mikasa, the ball that no one uses or likes to use.  So yeah it seems to be adding up to something, but I'm not sure if what they are projecting is what I was hoping for them or the sport itself.

As much as the NVL has to work (because the AVP can't be trusted), it just may not work out for them either.  Don't get me wrong, when I first heard of this beach volleyball academy idea, I was ecstatic, and then I saw the price tag.  Growing up I didn't come from money so $2,000-$3,000 a year for club was a lot to me and my family so I can't even imagine who would want to pay 44k for an education at Club Med with volleyball training.

Scenic pictures with obscure filters are a guarantee
in beach volleyball, which is why a youthful mobile app
sponsor would have made more sense

I'm just starting to get the feeling that the NVL is out of touch.  When I saw that they landed a major sponsor recently, and then continue to see that said sponsor is Poloroid, I could only shake my head.  Worse, on their website they describe Poloroid as "the leader in photography".  That's great and all if it is 1974, but here in 2013 the real leader in photography is Instagram.  Besides it would be far more likely for someone to use a camera phone app at a tournament than pulling out a Poloroid.  The digital marketplace is where they can cash in but for some reason they are just taking what they can get.

At this point in the year, we have seen a lot of what both domestic tours wanted to accomplish and we can kind of get a feel for where they are going.  The AVP is still headed to fall off the cliff down the road, where as the NVL is a lot like Forrest Gump.  Ya don't know where he is going, but he is going somewhere, and hopefully when he stops running he doesn't just turn around and instead finds himself at exactly where he (and the group of people following him) wanted to end up.

Hey Forrest...ummm...are we there yet?

Big Fish In A Not So Small Pond

When news broke of Alex Rodriguez's season and a half suspension handed out by Major League Baseball, there was a echo that billowed throughout the league and a thunderous quake that trembled beneath the players as the verdict was struck down:  the juiced of days of PED use will no longer be tolerated, or swept under the rug.  When commissioner Bud Selig says that the exhibition All-Star game will decide home field advantage in the World Series, he means it, and not much can be done regardless of the amount of push back.  Or when David Stern denies Chris Paul to be traded to the Lakers, fans and players collectively wince as they swallow their pride and move on with their lives.

We may not know all that goes on behind the scenes of some of the major sports in the US, but we get enough exposure to understand how much power players, coaches, manager, owners, and commissioners have when they speak out whether it is through a 2 hour press conference or a 140 character tweet.

Beach volleyball on the other hand is still small enough that the "playing field" is virtually leveled between players and executives.  When they have significant grievances they are heard directly from the owners, not through a proxy, secretary, or assistant.  And when the players push back, there is no army of yes-men at the ready to absorb the backlash from controversial decisions.  So when Tarin Keith, a 7 year mid-level veteran and active social media user, spoke out about various clauses in the AVP's clause and was "banned" from the Manhattan Open this past weekend as a result, LOTS of people heard of it.

More importantly though, her message and growing concern and pessimism in the AVP's vision and business model was reverberated as players and fans prepared to take in "the granddaddy of them all" on this late summer weekend.  The AVP, whether you are aware of it or not, did issue an unofficial "non-specific" rebuttal to Keith's concerns.  But it seems as if the damage had already been done and all the horses have fled the barn.

So where is all of this leading us?  You have players that are more visible, more recognized, and now whose opinions carry as much weight as the owners and person who are supposed to govern over them.  Which means that either the owners of the respective tours, and the executives of USAV either give the players a seat at the table on issues that concern them, or I think the players should seriously consider unionizing so that people like Donald Sun with nothing more than a title aren't able to ban players from valuable tournaments in the future.

How plausible this is I believe will be up to the upper-echelon players, the mainstream and marquee names of the likes of Sean Rosenthal, John Mayer, April Ross, and Brooke Sweat.  Will these players who have worked so hard to get to this level be willing to take a backseat to developing and future players?  They would be in the right to say that it is a "right of passage" that every player must endure, but does it really have to be this way?  To me the beach volleyball players of today hold much more power than I think they realize and are in position to create sustainable career for themselves in this sport, which they rightfully deserve, but who will be willing to take that step forward and speak out, not just for themselves for one another?  

The ground is shrinking beneath the AVP's feet, and no longer can they consider themselves "top dog" when a single email, a single blog post and damage their glossy exterior.  Maybe the pond isn't getting bigger, after all the sport is still rather small domestically.  Instead, perhaps the big fish of the AVP, NVL, and USAV have just been as big as our imaginations allowed them to be.

Iceberg ahead?

If a few months ago I were to predict how this year would turn out, it would go a little something like this...

In the AVP's first full year back, they attract big names and big stages, and more or less par for the course by their standards while the NVL builds off of last year's momentum and reaches bigger audiences while the sport as a whole prospers and everyone eats cake and ice cream.

Ok, maybe that last part means nothing, and that was a little bit more than optomistic, but still here we are nearing the end of August and where do we find ourselves?

The NVL has managed to stream their matches, and hit major cities around the country, but due to scheduling and contract conflicts is unable to draw any of the big names in the sport, meanwhile the AVP is still par for the course, which as we know in business terms means they are shooting about 8+ for the round with 5 holes to go.

It may be difficult to gauge just how stable things are going right now, and that may be on the account that we aren't going anywhere.  I mean have we really gotten any further than we have in the past?  Does a year of bickering, infighting, table scraps payouts, and overlapping events really give you hope for the future?  It may seem nice now, but if I'm reading the tea leaves, there's trouble ahead.

I knew it would be likely that the AVP would sign some of the star players of the sport to try and muscle out the "new" young gun tour, but I did not expect to see virtually EVERY notable take preference with the AVP over the NVL.  Sure prize money has a lot to do with it, seeing as every NVL event looks to have a payout of only $7,500 to first place ($3,750 per person before taxes).

But just look at this past weekend.  Long ago I scoffed at the idea that players would rather play for a tour that has shown that it has an unsuccessful business model in a city that has ZERO beach culture (although it has enough volleyball culture thanks to BYU) over a new tour that saved a lot of players their sponsors last year, and has a new refreshing model in a city that many of the same athletes live in within the mecca of beach volleyball.  But I guess for the starving athletes of beach volleyball that type of decision isn't something that is worth placing on their conscience.

Sure the argument for free market competition sounds like it will strengthen the sport, but the sport doesn't even have any legs at this point, and despite its rich history it has basically reset back into its infancy years and is now crawling out of the gate.

We are all well aware that the AVP has gone bankrupt twice, but if that isn't stupefying enough, just consider that they managed to do that (twice) without a major competing tour, and with better sponsors and airtime with national broadcasts.  Now you have to settle for early round matches streaming online, while another major tour takes away possible viewers, tickets, and merchandise.  If the AVP couldn't succeed in the bubble then in what way are they or the sport for that matter be stronger when it seems like we are going to be in the same spot last year 5 years from now?

On the flip side of things, how is the NVL going to be able to develop their grassroots model if all the star athletes are flocking toward short-term prize money.  At best the NVL will have to cater to the juniors and collegiate athletes (which isn't all bad since they can't pay out prize money to amateurs), but they still won't be the preeminent tour in the US.  Worst case scenario, is that the AVP pushes the NVL past what their resources can accomplish, and they go belly up just before the AVP does, leaving everyone with no tour and a very bitter taste in their mouth.

Seriously, what are you guys doing?

For a while in this game of chicken, no one was budging, but I think the NVL is seeing what I see and is wisely using USAV to hash out a compromise.  When we realized that the NVL and AVP would be competing against each other we envisioned that one would emerge as the tried and true victor but it may become more likely that no one emerges from this cage match, and the sport itself may be down for the count.

What's Beef?

The ongoing feud between the NVL and AVP

There is never a dull moment in beach volleyball now a days, and it's all for the wrong reasons.  No, the oo's and ah's are not being shouted from the grand stands, instead people are glaring, cheering, and heckling from behind keyboards.

In this new chapter of the NVL vs. AVP saga, the NVL went on a public "smear" campaign against the AVP to display the lack of transparency, cooperation, and selfish greed that points to a 'not that surprising' unhealthy future for the sport itself.  If you've been following the NVL on Facebook you've seen that they have been posting "updates" on recent communication attempts with the AVP, specifically Donald Sun and Al Lau, to come to a solution over scheduling conflicts as well as contractual obligations that prevent players from playing in any tournament of their choosing.

This is how they prefaced their posts...

Then followed the first update, with update #2 in the comments...

Finally updates 3 and 4 respectively...

As you can see from the comments there is strong support from the fans for this attempt, albeit a flimsy and half-hearted attempt, to repair the riff and scheduling conflicts that have amassed over the past few months.

With the first of two scheduling conflicts coming this very weekend it should be obvious that this is more of a publicity stunt to draw people's attention and favor toward Hermosa Beach this weekend (where the NVL is playing) and not Salt Lake City (where the AVP is playing).  But you have to give the NVL props for using the weapons they have at their disposal:  fan loyalty, a well-respected veteran of the sport (Al-B), and of course the silver bullet:  official backing from USAV.

But as far as I can tell neither side has given any ground in this tug-of-war match for supreme control over the US market.  The AVP has lots of money but the same old model of throwing lots of money at a hat hoping that a rabbit will pop out of it.  The NVL has a healthier grassroots model that puts extra emphasis on youth development, but they are lacking major star power, sponsors, and exposure.  

The end result is ultimately this...

Meanwhile, the fans are left without a winner.  Someone *cough* *cough* USAV *COUGH* needs to clean this up and fast.

Breaking: USAV to sanction all NVL tournaments

So you know when the AVP went through 2 bankruptcies, several tours struggled to make ends meet (and continue to do so), while all chaos breaks loose when tournament schedules conflict, and no one was there to step in?  It seemed like USAV had absolutely no interest in the outdoor game, and was solely dedicated to the youth indoor game as that is where the big bucks are.

But in breaking news it looks like USAV is finally taking a vested interest in the beach game and providing a "safety net" to the NVL, the fast rising, self-proclaimed "grassroots" tour, by sanctioning all of the NVL's tournaments.

The AVP may have money (even though most of it is Donald Sun's), the NVL has now leveled the playing field so to speak with this endorsement.  The rivalry between the two tours and the players that play for the respective tournaments will only get more heated from here.

From a purists stand point, you may only be interested in what is good for the growth of the game, but in the grand scheme of things, when beach volleyball functions within the entertainment industry you must have constant drama to lean on to keep yourself in the spotlight.  All other major sports have versions of this whether it be contract negotiations, free agency, trades, arrests, trash talking, and lockouts.  None of these things are good for the sport but it attracts eyeballs, and more viewers, more followers mean more money.  So for the time being, I'll continue to wring my hands and poke the bear that is this growing rivalry between the AVP and the NVL


Side note: If you think that there isn't much of a rivalry between these two tours then you might want to see who is featured in the AVP's Q&A this month.  It is none other than one of the former poster child's of the NVL Casey Patterson.

NVL Dallas Men's Final - Play of the Match

Josh Binstock puts the exclamation point on after a nice rally.  MUST watch!

Something very peculiar about this weekend's NVL tournament...

Maybe I'm looking too much into this, or maybe this is a serious sign of things to come.  While the weather here in Chicago has been less than cooperative this summer as a whole, I again was help captive indoors, and turned down the opportunity to see the NCSVA regional as well as a local league tournament that many of my friends were playing in, and instead elected to watch the NVL online, from the dry comfort of my home.

The long lulls of ads between games made it more difficult to keep my attention span, but nonetheless I watched a majority of the games because after all it was fix for volleyball that Saturday.  It was then as I was perusing about facebook, when a couple photos (below) resurfaced and I had a brief epiphany.  

The pictures above are those of the brackets for both the men's and women's tournaments.  What stood out most when casually glazing over the two was that Summer Ross, a 20 year old, was listed as the #1 seed with her partner Morgan Miller.  I still expect BIG (and I mean REALLY big) things from her in the future but I'll save that for another post.  What next stood out was the lack of "marquee" players, but there are a few in mind that inspired this post.

I'm not trying to take anything away from any of these players, and I have the utmost respect for all of them to pursue a passion like beach volleyball.  I don't relegate them to a "lower tier" because what I've heard numerous times in other sports and seems to hold up everywhere is that once you get to the professional level, everyone is basically as good as you and there isn't much difference talent wise from top to bottom.  With that said, it is undeniable that beach volleyball has its star darlings that is will unabashedly force into the spotlight whenever the opportunity presents itself.  Thanks to the Olympics, athletes Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh are still household names, and I have even caught the casual fan name dropping Rogers and Dalhausser.  I don't shun beach volleyball for putting their brightest stars on display, it just makes good business sense.  What got my scratching my head was the lack of player support for the NVL this past weekend.

During the most recent beach volleyball recession I watched every YouTube video there was and probably many of them multiple times.  I watched these same marquee players give thanks to the NVL for stepping in when financially unstable AVP went belly up.  Pros like Ty Tramblie and Casey Patterson who have been as close to poster childs for the NVL since its inception were strangely absent this weekend.

Maybe the fact that Jake Gibb, who likely has a contract with the AVP, who has partnered with Casey Patterson, prevented Casey from playing this weekend.  Maybe Ty is battling an injury and was a late scratch.  Maybe since the prize money was never disclosed to the public, hints that it wasn't substantial enough to bring out the top ranked pros.  Maybe it's all of these things and maybe it's none of these things, but given my collection of sports knowledge over years of rabid and obsessive fandom, this can end in two ways.

The old saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention, so the first possible outcome in my mind is that in this financially strapped situation that we the state of beach volleyball in, will force the creme of the crop to rise even higher and faster.  Greater pressure to perform to compete for table scraps exposes the American athletes to more stress forcing an evolution, where those who are able to adapt survive, and those who aren't become a thing of the past.

That is the optimistic approach.  The gloomy perspective and what I fear might be more of the reality rather than just a paranoid delusion, is that a rift will form among players resulting in the lowering of talent and play due to the fracture of the talent pool.  To be the best you have to compete against the best, and having those who have already gained success to this point in tour separate from those who are still hungry to realize their goals, does neither side any good.

I know I rag on the AVP a lot on this blog but I feel it is mostly justified.  What is going to happen in the not so distant future when the player they are keeping to themselves are past their prime or retire?  Who will take their place?  Where will the next crop of young talent come from?  With no consolidation of talent, the next generation of young talent will never get those bitter sweet opportunities to be hardened while getting beat senseless in first round match ups against seasoned veterans, and conversely the top pros may not be held at the ready against the mid-level players, like the ones who competed in the NVL this past weekend.

You could probably call me a pessimist since my opinions of the current state of beach volleyball have not been very rosy of late but I really think that this is just the reality of the situation.  When it comes to other sports I only complain about my team's losses, trades, contracts, or officiating, but never that the sport as a whole is being managed poorly or is degenerating to sub-par quality.  Call me crazy but when the best news about beach volleyball of late is that the NVL got a new ball, it doesn't look good going forward.

Dallas Open Winners

Congrats to Summer Ross and Morgan Miller for winning this weekend's NVL Best of Texas tournament on the women's side and the Canadians Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter on the men's side.

Also another shout out to the NVL for streaming the event live this weekend for all us fans to enjoy.  We look forward to the next one!

NVL News + NCSVA Regional

There are couple a big updates that I wanted to share with you all

First, I guess you could say that the pro beach season is officially beginning this weekend with the NVL's first major tournament in Dallas, TX.  But what's more important is that you can catch some of the action live through the streamed broadcast on Enet Live but you can also find the stream link on thenvl.com.  You have to create an account to view the NVL's channel but the set up is rather easy.

Second it was also released today that the NVL is partnering with Rox Volleyball Inc.  Rox is an up and coming clothing brand catering specifically to the volleyball community.  I mentioned numerous times how partnering with major clothing brands has to be part of any tour's long term success, so I'm glad to see this happening.

Finally, I will have the privilege to watch the National Collegiate Sand Volleyball Association Regional here in Chicago at North Avenue Beach this Saturday.  I will try to get some clips of the action and create some new playing tips.  The tournament itself is very lucrative for the young players as the top 4 qualifiers will receive an automatic bid and free flight out to the NCSVA Championships in Long Beach, CA, and a wild card entry will be awarded to the NVL's West Coast Championships in Hermosa Beach, CA.

And with today being the first official day of summer I wish you all the best out there!

New NVL Mikasa Ball Now On Sale!

A few days ago I showed the new design for the NVL game ball, and now they have announced that they are now available for purchase online.  Amazingly they are only $40 a piece which is even cheaper than the Spalding King of the Beach at roughly $45.

Click here to buy the ball

You can also visit thenvl.com and in the middle of the page there is a picture of the game ball that redirects to the same link I mentioned above.

Once I get one I'll test it out and post a review on it.

New NVL Mikasa Game Ball Revealed

The scenery of beach volleyball may not change much, but the ball that is used certainly has.  We went from the old school leather, to the new school leather composite, from the traditional 18 panel domestic ball to 10 panels on the international stage.  Now we can add a new player into the mix of the well established Wilson and Spalding brands:  Mikasa.

Irrespective of my predictions, the NVL is using a traditional 18 panel ball even though Mikasa produces a 10 panel one for the FIVB tour.

No word yet of where/when these will be on sale or how much they will cost, but one would have to imagine that they will be in the $50-60 price range.

The official game ball is the second from the top.  The top is an inflatable "beach ball" and the second from the bottom is a replica ball.  I liked the NVL's Wilson ball design more than this one, but as long as it plays true, and is reasonably priced I won't make many arguments against it.

Here we go again...

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.

My 5 biggest qualms with the US tours

Despite the fact that we speak of beach volleyball as a game, it is still very much a business, and when mentioned in the same light of other major sports like football, basketball, or baseball, the business aspect serves as the sub-plot to shake up stability and add drama and complexity to a sport that would otherwise be very one-dimensional.  Now if you are an athlete in one of those major sports, the business aspect, is like a bed sheet that is too short.  Sure you won't be 100% comfortable but at least it's something, and you do have a bed to sleep on and a roof over your head.  Unfortunately for beach volleyball, financial stability has not been a comodity for quite some time, and since we've witnessed 2 bankruptcies, "The Decision" is small potatoes in comparison to whether or not there will be a viable outlet for our top athletes to play year in and year out.  We players and fans are always on edge for more reasons than we would like, but for now I would like to share my top 5 reasons why I hate the way that the domestic tours are being run.  I will always love the game, but I've found myself to be left without a bed sheet and it has left me cold and discouraged.


1.  Merchandise

Do you have any sports memorobilia?  I sure do.  I have a Chicago Bull's jersey, t-shirt, and hat.  A Chicago Cub's blanket, jersey, hat, and a couple posters.  I have a Chicago Bears t-shirt and long sleeve shirt.  Notice that I didn't say that I had a MLB t-shirt, or a NBA hat.  No sports fan gets empassioned about the league itself.  Where fiery sports-riddled mania is grown is through team and player loyalty, but beach volleyball doesn't have that.  There are no Chicago vs. Green Bay rivalries, north side vs. south side disdain. There is just team A vs. team B.  It is very lack luster and doesn't spark any imagination for the casual fan to become a fanatic, which is why I was disappointed to see this on the NVL's site

How many hats have you seen that just had the Jerry West inspired NBA logo on, or the NFL shield?  So why try market your league as your brand?  The other sports have already laid out the blueprint for a successful business so I don't understand why we can't take some of their ideas.  Maybe having regional "teams" like California, Midwest, Florida, East coast, and Southwest divisions may never come to fruition, but you have to market the players and teams as your brand.  When a team splits up and switches partners it need to be felt with the same emotional animosity as Lebron leaving Cleveland.  If you market just the league itself then all there is to cheer for is if the tour will see another year which is not all that inspiring, and you won't ever see anyone at a tournament cheering "N-V-L, N-V-L, N-V-L" or "A-V-P, A-V-P, A-V-P,".  If the biggest clothing brands like Quiksilver, Hurley, Billabong, and RVCA don't pair up with either of these tours going forward then we can expect to see more turmoil in the years ahead.

2.  Stadiums

I'm going to have to bash on the NVL again, despite the fact that I like the way that they are taking a grassroots approach to building the game.  I couldn't help but do this

When I saw this...

Click here for a preview of the tournament site in Mason, OH

Of course I'll have to expand a bit on this critique.  When I talk about my affection for "beach volleyball", I'm talking about volleyball that takes place at the beach, which is a sandy area residing next to a large body of water like an ocean or lake.  Having beach volleyball at "The Beach", which is a water park in Mason, Ohio makes about as much sense as well this...

People go to the beach to lay out, mingle, play in the water, party, and watch incredibly attractive athletes sacrifice their bodies in a hectic scramble for points through the well rounded display of power, finesse, teamwork, and hand eye coordination.

Although I have fond memories of water parks as a kid I first realize that there is a specific target audience for water parks:  kids.  So when I think of having a tournament inside of a water park I can only think of a small percentage of patrons going there because of the volleyball, and everyone else are middle aged parents  sacrificing their bodies going down slides, and scrambling to fetch money out of their purses for ice cream and nachos.

With that in mind, let's talk about the actual structure itself:  the stadium.  This has become a staple among domestic and foreign tours, where the very best of the best are featured on center court.  Unfortunately the AVP has proven to us time and again that this isn't sustainable.  The FIVB has managed to pull this off because volleyball is more popular in other parts of the world and is only 2nd to soccer.  The beach (not the water park) is a unique and incredible venue that needs to be cherished and preserved.  I can understand building sand courts where there is no beach available like in Arizona or Texas, but as long as there is a beach to be had, it should be utilized.  The beach is inclusive, it allows instant access to the athletes and removes any barriers that separate fan from player and that's because they are one in the same.  In beach volleyball each player possess the same passion and social outgoing personalities.  While other sports are willing to lend their athletes through press conferences, Twitter accounts, and TV screens, beach volleyball allows you to mingle in the flesh, in a vast yet intimate setting that is only highlighted even more by the brightness and warmth of the sun.  So pardon me when I become slightly more than perturbed when I continue to see these structures build to keep out anyone walking or biking by.  Beach volleyball is a humble sport, a sport of the people, and to exclude yourself from the people also drives out potential fans, because it doesn't take much to get anyone excited, and you (the NVL and AVP) should know better.

3. VIP/player tents

As a current player I get the idea of rewarding all the hard work that players have gone through:  the training, the travel, and the dues, but as mentioned in the previous section, beach volleyball is a social affair, and it just seem pretentious and exclusive to have these VIP/player tents.  Now if you want to set up stations for the players to get medical treatment or get something to eat or drink, I can live with that and I'm sure it would be a great way to pick up sponsors, but it just seems foreign to me to secluded from the entire experience that is beach volleyball.  I'm not condemning every player on tour because I'm sure not all them isolate themselves, but the image that the tours are projecting to the fans is  a familiar one to people who don't get access to the athletes they cheer on.  The only difference is that the casual fan can either identify or know who some of the big names in other sports are.  By having our athletes mingle and be more accessible to the casual fans it bodes well for the athlete and the sport itself, and gives those fans a reason to come back, instead of just being able to gaze upon the "important people" over there.

4.  Ball selection

Why does this have to be so hard?  I know that Spalding and Wilson and Mikasa, as well as the AVP and NVL among others think that it is just good business, but for us the players it is horrible having to adjust to different balls.  Sure you should be well rounded enough to handle any of the seemingly small changes that come with the game but having played as long as I have, this small difference turns out to be a big one.

The difference in size and weight changes your arm swing, and as a result can (and for me has) resulted in shoulder issues.  The comfort and "feel" isn't the same if you can expect the same reaction from the ball.  You strengths with one ball may be stripped away with another.  In the long run, if both major tours become profitable enough, it may end up dividing the players simply because of the type of ball that is used, and I can tell you that aint nobody got time for that drama.

5.  Egos

So back when the AVP announced their dubious resurrection thanks to Donald Sun, virtually everyone was relieved and happy.  Fast forward to today, about a month after the AVP announced their schedule for the 2013 season, and it has 2 conflicting dates with the NVL, and many of those people who where overwhelmed with joy have turned bitter and annoyed.  The game of beach volleyball, which was founded in America, is currently on life support, thanks to Al-B.

I'm sure that Donald Sun with his fat wallet thinks that he can buy up the top players lure in big advertisers, and spend his way to the top of the game, but if he hasn't noticed (which I doubt he has), that is exactly what the "old" AVP has done for the last 15 years and look where it's got them.  So unless it is Donald's wish to go broke, this alpha-dog complex is going to get him no where, not as a company, not with the fans, and it surely isn't going to help the game progress any further.

Sure Al-B and Donald may look at one another as competition, but really their best interest is that the other prospers.  There should be cooperation and coordination so that the athletes have the best opportunities to entertain the fans, and make an actual living, and that's not just the top 10%, but ALL of the athletes.  It disheartens me that those who put in the most work for the game they love hardly get any financial reward from it, and while the success or failure of a tour may not seem like a big deal to Donald or Al-B, for an entire community of players it is our lifestyle and it is our very lives that hang int he balance.  To butt heads and force us to pick sides is classless, and it is not what we deserve.