Hermosa Beach Rejects Proposal to Sell Tickets for Beach Volleyball : Spectator sports: The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals indicates it might move games to another town.

Hermosa Beach this week spiked a proposal to charge admission for the beach volleyball championship the city has hosted for the past eight years, prompting the promoter of the event to raise the possibility of moving the contest.

The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals wants to install paid VIP seating around center court at all of the 24 cities on the 1992 tour in an effort to increase the professionalism of the sport, raise money and create a less raucous seating environment.

The Hermosa Beach City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday night against the ticket plan for the men’s championship tournament in late August, with officials arguing that it was inappropriate to charge admission for an event held on a public beach.

In the minority were Councilmen Robert Essertier and Albert Wiemans, who considered the ticket plan a way to increase revenue for the financially strapped city. Essertier argued that the city should collect all of the seating revenue, not just the 7.5% that the AVP proposed.

Tournament organizers said Hermosa Beach’s vote means 19 cities have approved paid admission and just two--Hermosa Beach and Honolulu--have rejected it. Locally, Seal Beach and San Diego have approved the concept, while Manhattan Beach remains undecided.

“I’m not very pleased,” tour director Matt Gage said in an interview after the vote. “I don’t think this is a very open-minded group of people. . . . I don’t know how long the AVP can stay here.”

Gage said the ticket plan, which calls for charging between $3 and $12 for 2,000 prime court-side seats and provides free seating for 6,000 fans in the bleachers, was a reasonable request to help change beach volleyball from the pickup game it once was to the big-time sport it is becoming.

“In this day and age, these prices are quite reasonable,” Gage said. “We are not trying to bilk the public.”

Charging admission, he said, would put an end to the disputes that break out among those die-hard fans who sleep overnight on the sand to claim prime spots. He said selling tickets would put beach volleyball at the same level as professional golf and tennis tournaments, which charge admission.

The issue is still up in the air in Manhattan Beach, the only other South Bay city to host a tournament.

The Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation Commission recommended Monday that the City Council, which meets Tuesday, adopt paid seating at the Manhattan Beach Open on the Fourth of July weekend. Citizens testifying before the commission lined up on both sides of the issue.

“I’ve been out there with my sleeping bag” to get a good seat, said Steve McCort, a Redondo Beach resident who favors paid seating. “You have to get there Friday and Saturday, set your chair there and guard it like a dog. I would pay $20 for a guaranteed seat.”

Allen Green, whose son is a professional player, disagreed.

“The beach does not belong to Miller Lite,” he said, referring to the main corporate sponsor of the event. “The beach does not belong to the AVP. It belongs to me and to you.”

Free-lance writer Nancy Forrest contributed to this story.