Post by volleyballer4life on Sept 15, 2014 16:42:28 GMT -5
I write this not as a critic of those in power now, but as someone who has a business degree and a love/passion for the sport of Beach Volleyball. I write this thinking about where we're at and trying to visualize how I would feel as a spectator, as a potential sponsor, as an owner, and as a player (Thursdays I'm 2 of the 4, Fridays I'm typically down to 1 
It is great to see Donald Sun revive the tour and the fact that we went from no tour in 2012 to two stops in 2013 to 7 this season. Getting any form of sponsors given the history of the AVP and the damage done to its brand under the last few regimes is great - including an agreement with CBSSports - yes, it'd be nice to have a little more coverage, but it's a start. There's one elephant in the room that I continue to try to introduce every time the discussion about the tour comes up, and yet, no one seems to have an answer for it.
Are we doing everything we can to generate more interest with our viewers/spectators?
People always talk about TV Deals, Sponsors, Purses. I understand why we put so much into the first two as we need that money to help grow the tour. But what confuses me is this: If I was a sponsor, my goal is to a) have my brand expanded to a target-market that lines up with the demographic my product(s) cater to, and b) try to make a return on investment.
Huntington Beach will be the fourth qualifier I play this season. At Cincinnati/Atlantic City, there were a small amount of courts - less than ten - which did make it easier for spectators to not miss out on matches. However, aside from friends/family/other players, the amount of spectators were fairly small. This is to watch some of the best players in the country compete, for free, a sport that every single Summer Olympics is the hottest ticket.
Before people go into the reasons why - simply go back to my original question: Are we doing everything we can to grow it?
There are 418,000 female high school volleyball players. Sand is now a collegiate sport, and in the Great Lakes Region, the amount of participants for juniors sand doubled in one year. For participation, sand is BOOMING. How many of those players can name more than a handful of our professional athletes? I'll go one step further: How many ADULTS at events could pick out some of our 8-16 seeded main draw players out of a lineup?
We can keep talking about why certain things don't work, but I'd really like to see us attempt to change this. If I had Donald Sun money and ran the tour, I would be curious to see the results of investing a little money into having someone coordinate some of my players going to local clubs for AVP events Monday-Wednesday to run clinics/hand out AVP tickets to attend matches that weekend. There are so many benefits to this: Players get a little kick-back to help alleviate travel/hotel costs (and if players don't want to do it, don't include them - I guarantee you you could find 10-12 main draw/qualifier players that would do it well, and I have yet to have a juniors player who I've coached give me grief for finishing 29th place - they're just happy to have someone care about them/help them with their game). You would help juniors start to make your players more recognizable in the spots they'll play at. And by increasing the amount of people that are attending your events and getting invested in following some of the players and how they're doing, you're starting to generate a buzz/interest that would warrant more attention from potential sponsors/television deals.
I'd love to see beach volleyball grow back to what it used to be again. I'd love to see more opportunities to watch online. I'm sure many of you would too. I also know that we're a very small community of people that feel this way for now. The question is, are we doing everything we can in order to make others feel that way? Old-School/New-School Rules aside, what have we/are we doing to get the next generation of beach volleyballers interested in our pro tour?
It is great to see Donald Sun revive the tour and the fact that we went from no tour in 2012 to two stops in 2013 to 7 this season. Getting any form of sponsors given the history of the AVP and the damage done to its brand under the last few regimes is great - including an agreement with CBSSports - yes, it'd be nice to have a little more coverage, but it's a start. There's one elephant in the room that I continue to try to introduce every time the discussion about the tour comes up, and yet, no one seems to have an answer for it.
Are we doing everything we can to generate more interest with our viewers/spectators?
People always talk about TV Deals, Sponsors, Purses. I understand why we put so much into the first two as we need that money to help grow the tour. But what confuses me is this: If I was a sponsor, my goal is to a) have my brand expanded to a target-market that lines up with the demographic my product(s) cater to, and b) try to make a return on investment.
Huntington Beach will be the fourth qualifier I play this season. At Cincinnati/Atlantic City, there were a small amount of courts - less than ten - which did make it easier for spectators to not miss out on matches. However, aside from friends/family/other players, the amount of spectators were fairly small. This is to watch some of the best players in the country compete, for free, a sport that every single Summer Olympics is the hottest ticket.
Before people go into the reasons why - simply go back to my original question: Are we doing everything we can to grow it?
There are 418,000 female high school volleyball players. Sand is now a collegiate sport, and in the Great Lakes Region, the amount of participants for juniors sand doubled in one year. For participation, sand is BOOMING. How many of those players can name more than a handful of our professional athletes? I'll go one step further: How many ADULTS at events could pick out some of our 8-16 seeded main draw players out of a lineup?
We can keep talking about why certain things don't work, but I'd really like to see us attempt to change this. If I had Donald Sun money and ran the tour, I would be curious to see the results of investing a little money into having someone coordinate some of my players going to local clubs for AVP events Monday-Wednesday to run clinics/hand out AVP tickets to attend matches that weekend. There are so many benefits to this: Players get a little kick-back to help alleviate travel/hotel costs (and if players don't want to do it, don't include them - I guarantee you you could find 10-12 main draw/qualifier players that would do it well, and I have yet to have a juniors player who I've coached give me grief for finishing 29th place - they're just happy to have someone care about them/help them with their game). You would help juniors start to make your players more recognizable in the spots they'll play at. And by increasing the amount of people that are attending your events and getting invested in following some of the players and how they're doing, you're starting to generate a buzz/interest that would warrant more attention from potential sponsors/television deals.
I'd love to see beach volleyball grow back to what it used to be again. I'd love to see more opportunities to watch online. I'm sure many of you would too. I also know that we're a very small community of people that feel this way for now. The question is, are we doing everything we can in order to make others feel that way? Old-School/New-School Rules aside, what have we/are we doing to get the next generation of beach volleyballers interested in our pro tour?
