It’s All Beachy Keen for AVP Tour

How unusual.

In this, an Olympic year, the only noise coming from the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals is the deafening sound of . . . relative silence.

No Chapter 11 filings. No bickering about Olympic qualifying with the governing body of international beach volleyball. No boycotts by AVP players.

It’s almost boring, which, paradoxically, is one of the least favorite terms of the AVP, making its annual trip to Hermosa Beach for a tour stop from Friday through Sunday.

The AVP wants fresh, new and fun as it tries to re-create the sport, which ironically led to the only controversy this year--several rules changes are irritating upper-echelon players.

The AVP did away with the nine-minute clock, which allowed a finite number of rallies in a match. When the clock ran out, so did a match, which sometimes ended with scores of 13-7 or 12-10.

The clock was an ally of veteran players. Shorter matches meant potentially more productive days.

Another rule upsetting beach veterans is the abolition of intravenous glucose treatment for players, who may replenish lost fluids via IV only if they have been eliminated from the tournament.

A final new rule is the removal of the antenna at each end of the net, a subtle change to non-volleyball fans. A ball that touched an antenna, which extended about two feet vertically from the top of the net, was considered out. There are no longer antennae, throwing off a guideline players have been accustomed to since their high school days.

“I don’t really like to change unless you give me a good reason to change,” said Eric Fonoimoana, an eight-year pro. “I just don’t see eye to eye with everything that’s going on.”

Several players, upset at not being consulted before the implementation of the new rules, signed a petition and presented it to AVP Chief Executive Bill Berger.

“It’s like, ‘What’s next?’ ” one player asked. “We have no say.”

The new rules will remain in effect this season, Berger said.

“We’re trying to bring the sport to what it really is,” said Berger, in his second year as CEO. “At any place in the country, beach volleyball has two poles, a net, lines and a ball. We’re not doing this to penalize [players]. I understand they’re not happy because they had it easy.

“We’re trying to make it so the sport is more entertaining. For so long, this sport was boring. People don’t pay money to be bored. There are too many other stimuli out there.”

Off the court, things might be on the upswing for the much-maligned tour, which filed for bankruptcy in November 1998 and was purchased in March 1999 by Spencer Trask Securities Inc.

The Madison Avenue venture-capital company correctly budgeted for losses of nearly $1.5 million last year, but several new big-name sponsors have provided financial hope.

Anheuser-Busch has come on board via its Michelob Light product. Ford, Yahoo! and Planters have also committed financially to the AVP.

The incoming money from sponsors--”in the $3-million to $4-million level,” Berger said--has the AVP thinking black ink instead of red. Or at least right on the borderline.

“The year 2000 may be the first time in history that the AVP breaks even,” Berger said.

The AVP, in existence since 1984, reached the top of its popularity curve in the mid-1990s, but questionable management and extremely high payouts for participants led to financial straits.

The tour was also stung by its failure to seize control of the Olympic qualifying process for U.S. teams.

U.S. beach volleyball teams can only qualify for the Olympics by accruing points in international tournaments sponsored by FIVB, volleyball’s world governing body. Some players openly boycotted the AVP in 1992, when it refused to let players under contract compete in international tournaments.

But optimism within the AVP has risen with a passel of young players on the verge of creating a different identity for the sport.

David Swatik, 27, emerged last year from a mediocre career, teaming with Mike Whitmarsh to win the Hermosa and Manhattan Beach opens.

Dax Holdren, 27, and Todd Rogers, 26, stunned a field of international participants by winning an FIVB tournament Sunday in Rosarito, Mexico.

Fonoimoana, 31, and Dain Blanton, 28, are second among U.S. teams for Olympic qualifying. (With the exception of host Australia, which is allowed three teams, two teams from each country will qualify for Olympic volleyball, which starts Sept. 17.)

Lee LeGrande, 29, and Brent Doble, 30, won their first AVP event last month in Delray Beach, Fla.

“What’s happening here is a total changing of the guard,” Berger said. “A changing of the landscape.”

Women’s pro beach volleyball also has undergone change, the most important being the formation of the Beach Volleyball America tour.

In recent years, the women did not play under the umbrella of an official tour and merely tagged along with the AVP for a few events.

The BVA, which conducted tournaments at Oceanside and Santa Monica last month, will be present at Hermosa. Sort of.

In an effort to compile points for Olympic qualifying, four of the top five women’s teams are skipping Hermosa for an international tournament in Italy. The BVA, like the AVP, does not count toward Olympic qualifying. Women can only earn points in FIVB tournaments.

Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis will not be at Hermosa. Neither will Misty May and Holly McPeak.

The top-seeded team at Hermosa is Nancy Reno and Linda Hanley, a pair that was seeded fourth at Santa Monica.

Charlie Jackson, the BVA’s chief executive, said he doesn’t mind the player defections this weekend. The bigger picture, helping BVA teams qualify for the Olympics, is more important, he said.

“If they go and play in an event like that, it doesn’t detract from our event,” Jackson said. “I want our teams to do well in all international tournaments.”