Beach volleyball is unquestionably the darling sport of the Olympic Games. Every four years the men's, and especially the women's competition, draws one of the largest windows for NBC and has helped make pop culture stars of athletes like Misty May Treanor, Holly McPeak, Karch Kiraly, Kerri Walsh, and many others. More importantly, the AVP has used the Olympic platform to effectively build a North American tour that even in a slow economy has one of the best examples of sponsor activation and integration of any sport, from Barefoot wines and former title sponsor Crocs to Paul Mitchell hair products and KFC . One could spend a full day at any AVP event and literally move from sponsor to sponsor and never run out of activity until sundown. Still, even with that platform every four years and a lifestyle sport that thrives in warm weather, the Tour, like any sport. goes through cycles of high and low activity, and is currently looking to develop the next wave of crossover stars to keep sponsors happy, ticketsellers coing, and TV partners interested. Also like most sports, the AVP needs a healthy developmental program to fuel that growth and interest, and last year got a much-needed boost when the NCAA approved sand volleyball as a sport starting in 2011.
While not directly tie. to the college side since the circuit is professional, it gave the AVP, and the Olympic movement, a very bright future. However as reported this week in several places including the New York Times , a number of NCAA schools began a push to get that vote overturned this week, citing unfair competitive advantages for warm weather schools. The argument was a fairly week one…the same argument could be made against baseball and softball and was a great slight toward Title IX, since many schools would add a women's discipline…and on Friday the push to overturn was defeated. for a niche lifestyle sport like the AVP, the move forward provides buzz, further legitimacy for brands that may be on the fence to join in during an Olympic lull, and a more fertile proving ground for the next stars in waiting. Can the AVP survive without play on the college leve.? Sure, but in these challenged times when sponsor dollars are even tighter, the vote for moving forward with beach volleyball on the collegiate level was a big step forward when many secondary sports are losing more and more leverage.
