REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK / MIKE REILLEY : Ban on Beach Events Is Wrong Way to Bring Problem to Light

I would like to thank my friends at the Huntington Beach City Council for giving me a weekend off this summer.

For the past two years, I’ve spent the last weekend in June covering the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. tour stop at the Huntington Beach Pier.

It’s a tough job. The biggest occupational hazards are getting bonked by a stray spike or peeling a little sunburned skin off your nose. Really, it’s the kind of assignment sportswriters dream about.

But the assignment has gone the way of most dreams. Thanks to the City Council, there will be no volleyball tournament for the first time in four years.

Why? The council voted, 4-3, last week to spike all advertising of alcoholic beverages on city beaches and at all city-sponsored events.

Apparently the WPVA contest, sponsored by Coors Light beer, goes against the city’s drug and alcohol-awareness efforts and a local ordinance that prohibits alcohol on its beaches.

Council members who supported the ban also backed their decision by recalling a riot that broke out during the Op Pro surfing championships in 1986.

The council’s decision followed a similar move by the Laguna Beach City Council in early March. The Laguna Beach Open, a men’s and women’s pro tournament, has been reduced to an amateur tournament this year because of alcohol sponsorship. The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals, the men’s tour, is sponsored by Miller Lite beer.

I understand the councils’ concern. Alcohol and drug abuse are serious problems. But kicking a bunch of volleyball players off the beach isn’t the answer to making the public aware of the problem.

Perhaps they had better take a closer look at a beach volleyball tournament.

I’ve attended eight men’s and women’s beach tournaments in the past two years, and I’ve never found any empty beer cans laying around. I’ve never seen any fights or public drunkenness.

All I’ve seen are tan, healthy bodies and some terrific volleyball matches. Most of the players are parents. Many of the fans are kids.

And never mind the fact that the tournament’s sponsor, Coors Light, has spent millions of dollars in television advertising that discourages drunken driving and encourages moderate alcohol consumption. The commercials air regularly during pro football, basketball and baseball games.

The organizers of the Laguna Beach Open had the right idea at last year’s tournament. They set up several booths near the competition area that offered educational materials on the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Between matches, fans stopped by the booths, which offered everything from “Just Say No” stickers to drug awareness quizzes. The message got across, and everyone enjoyed the volleyball. And I don’t see how the beer companies could object to it, either.

Roxanne Vargas, executive director of the WPVA, said she respects the councils’ decisions, but she doesn’t understand their logic.

“It’s not that we are endorsing drinking,” Vargas said. “Coors Light is only one of our sponsors. Pepsi and the Flamingo Hilton sponsor the tour, too. They support us, our lifestyle.”

The timing of the decision couldn’t have been worse. Vargas said the WPVA has lost thousands of dollars in printing and advertising for the Huntington Beach event.

“We’ve taken out schedules and full-page ads in volleyball magazines, printed posters and 20,000 media guides,” she said. “All of the ads say the event is going to be at the Huntington Beach Pier.”

Sadly, the players and the fans will suffer most. The tournament has grown in popularity, attracting between 15,000 and 20,000 fans the past two summers.

The tournament was a showcase for county stars such as Janice Opalinski of San Juan Capistrano, Olympian Rita Crockett of Costa Mesa and Lori Zeno-Biller, a former standout at UCLA and La Quinta High.

The departure of the tournament leaves the Op Pro surfing championships as the only major beach event at the Pier. Thank goodness Op is a clothing company and not a brand of brewski.

The Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach councils should reconsider their decisions. Let the pros play in Laguna Beach. Bring the women’s tournament back to the Pier.

Vargas said there’s a chance the WPVA might move the Huntington Beach event elsewhere, possibly out of Southern California. There are 16 stops on the tour, including Chicago and Las Vegas.

“We’ll explore all our options,” she said. “We want to pick a place where it will be an annual event. But that’s what I thought we had at Huntington Beach.”

So did I.

It’s interesting to note that the Professional Surfing Assn. of America was forced to move its event from the Pier four years ago because one of the tour’s sponsors is Budweiser. Organizers moved the competition a few miles north to Bolsa Chica State Beach, where alcohol consumption is allowed.

Smart scheduling: After the county’s biggest pro surfing and men’s volleyball events fell on the same weekend last year, the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals and Ocean Pacific have wised up. The Op Pro surfing championships at the Huntington Beach Pier will be July 22-28, and the Orange County Volleyball Open will be Aug. 10-11 at Seal Beach.

But don’t mark your calendars just yet. Remember, Miller Lite beer sponsors the AVP tour.