AVP Tour Ceases Operations
It is a sad weekend for volleyball and the volleyball community in the United States, as the AVP Tour has officially ceased operations and cut the 2010 season short as of 8/13/2010.
This saddens me on multiple levels, as the AVP tour has had ups and downs over the last three decades but seemed to always bounce back. Popularity of the beach game soared after Misty, Kerri, Beast and Professor swept the gold medals at the 2008 Olympics for the United States and we were even seeing some prime-time television coverage of the sport.
But now where do we go from here? The majority of the athletes who compete in the AVP tour did so on a part-time basis. Now they will have to return to full-time jobs to support themselves. They may decide to join the EVP tour and play in some USAV open tournaments just to keep their dreams alive, but the AVP Tour was really the top level of volleyball you could reach in the United States.
There is so much talent in this country, the AVP Tour gave us a chance to showcase it, and now most of it will go to waste. The top pros will undoubtedly move overseas to places like Germany or Switzerland to make competing in the FIVB easier and we will never get to see them play.
Unlike in Europe and Asia, there are no professional indoor leagues to speak of in America. Our top athletes play overseas for leagues in Russia, Korea, Germany, Greece, then come together to compete as a national team every couple of years. And again, we rarely get to see them play. Beach volleyball was our sport's exposure to the country, and now it will exist primarily in grassroots efforts.
So who will our high school and college athletes look up to? For the die-hard volleyball players, they will continue to look up to the top college athletes, and the international players that have gotten publicity. But what of the larger population of volleyball players in America? Those who play the sport and enjoy the sport but never get exposed to the highest levels of play. Who will they look up to? Where will their inspiration to improve come from?
In a year where beach volleyball has just been recognized as an official NCAA pilot sport program, for the AVP Tour to shutter operations can only mean the inevitable rejection of beach volleyball as an official NCAA sport in the future.
I have been fortunate enough in the past few years to attend the AVP Tour events in Belmar, NJ and Coney Island, NY. It was always a dream of mine to attend the Manhattan Beach Open as well. But now it will never come to fruition.
Financial hardships for a large organization such as the AVP, which is a publicly held entity (at a share price of $0.02), are hard to overcome. The low profile of volleyball as a sport in this country combined with the economic recession has pushed the AVP beyond the point at which the owners and investors could afford to buoy it anymore. And it is as damn shame. A damn shame.
http://www.avp.com/News-and-Media/2010/08/AVP-Tour-Suspends-Operations.aspx