AVP Is Gathering Momentum as the Season Opens

For obvious reasons, there are no winter meetings in the sport of beach volleyball.

No need for wheeling and dealing players, for trading and trumping among teams. Free agency? Please.

Yet at the same time, the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals had an unparalleled off-season, making its strongest statement yet it has recovered since declaring bankruptcy in 1998.

Entering the season, which starts today with the Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) Open, the AVP has:

* Increased its schedule from seven to nine tournaments while figuring prominently in a 10th event, an international tournament in September at the recently constructed Home Depot Center in Carson.

* Added telecasts on NBC, with six finals being shown live in August, an increase from two broadcasts last season.

* Signed Misty May and Kerri Walsh, a top U.S. team that had eschewed the AVP the last two seasons in favor of the international tour.

* Signed all national sponsors from last year to multiyear deals, AVP Commissioner Leonard Armato said.

Not bad for an organization plucked from the sands of struggle two years ago by Armato.

“We feel that in light of the economic and world climate we’ve made significant progress,” he said. “It’s been a great off-season for us.”

It had to start with the schedule, which dipped to a perilously low number of tournaments last season, way off from the stratospheric days of 1994 when 26 AVP events were on the calendar.

It had to include added commitment from sponsors, most of whom signed tenuous one-year deals last season but discarded a wait-and-see approach by signing multiyear deals that begin this season.

And it had to include the addition of May and Walsh, a potent, young team that had rejected the AVP while winning nearly half the tournaments on an international tour last season.

May and Walsh signed with the AVP last December, making the women’s field stronger overnight and setting up potential rivalries with two other teams: Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs and Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis.

“We’ve got maybe the best three women’s teams in the world on our tour competing with each other,” Armato said.

The AVP also made up with its longtime adversary, the Federation Internationale de Volleyball, and scheduled four FIVB international tournaments to be played in the U.S. over the next three years, including the September tournament in Carson.

Of course, this being beach volleyball, there’s always controversy brewing, this time involving the much-maligned 13-month Olympic qualifying process that begins in June with an overseas tournament in Greece.

Teams can only accrue points toward Olympic qualifying by participating in tournaments sponsored by the FIVB, the sport’s international governing body. In the past, there have been clashes when U.S. players skipped AVP tournaments to try to make the Olympics by playing at concurrent FIVB events.

A joint agreement last September proclaimed the AVP and FIVB had “pledged to respect each other’s activities and will work together to avoid clashes of main events on their calendars.”

There are minor schedule conflicts. High-ranking U.S. players will miss some AVP tournaments, which they are allowed to do twice this season.

Eric Fonoimoana and Dax Holdren said they will skip the Belmar Open in New Jersey to play in an FIVB tournament in Portugal. May and Walsh have requested to play in an FIVB tournament in Greece instead of an AVP tournament in San Diego.

There are, however, no conflicts with major events. All top AVP teams are required to play in three tournaments televised by NBC in August -- Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach and Chicago.

It underscores a difficult paradox: Players recognize the need to play in front of U.S. crowds in an effort to gain endorsement deals from sponsors, but they also want to try for an Olympic berth by competing overseas.

“It’s a working relationship this year,” Fonoimoana said. “But I can’t predict what will happen next year [as qualifying intensifies].”

Fonoimoana, who won the gold medal at the 2000 Olympics with Dain Blanton, was bullish on the overall AVP forecast: More NBC appearances and increased sponsor involvement means possible endorsements for successful players, the lack of which has been a complaint of many players in recent seasons.

“I’ve been around for 10 years now and I’ve seen the highs and lows,” Fonoimoana said. “There’s not a whole lot to be upset about now. You hope to have more tournaments, but this is a good platform for people to see the sport growing.”

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Beach Volleyball

* What: Assn. of Volleyball Professionals, Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) Open.

* When: Today through Sunday.

* Top teams:

Men: Eric Fonoimoana and Dax Holdren; Stein Metzger and Kevin Wong; Brent Doble and Karch Kiraly; Canyon Ceman and Mike Whitmarsh.

Women: Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs; Misty May and Kerri Walsh; Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis.

AVP Schedule

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla....Today-Sunday

Tempe, Ariz....April 25-27

Hermosa Beach...June 6-8

San Diego...June 13-15

Belmar, N.J....July 25-27

Manhattan Beach...Aug. 7-10

Huntington Beach...Aug. 14-17

Chicago...Aug. 28-31

Las Vegas...Sept. 4-6

Note: The AVP is involved in a Federation de International Volleyball tournament Sept. 19-21 in Carson. Sixteen AVP teams -- eight each from the men’s and women’s tour -- are expected to be invited to the tournament.