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Post by timduckforlife on May 15, 2017 15:00:48 GMT -5
The need for a more fun environment is definitely true, but one other thing Leonard did well with the WSOBV is limiting the number of teams. For people that may know 2-3 teams, its easier to find players and teams to follow on a given day when there are 8 teams playing round robin. It would also be easier to build marketing around specific players, schedule events, and keep top players happy Agree with this. Another advantage of the old AVP was you were likely to see the big stars in the finals almost every time. The side-out scoring as well as the double-elimination format contributed to this. It's interesting the (rare) consensus on this board about the importance of the party aspect of a successful tour. I don't think this distracts or diminishes the sport in any way. It's just acknowledging what gets people to get in their car, fight traffic, pay an entry fee, and hang out at a venue for 8 hours. I worry that people behind the sport will make the mistake of seeing rising numbers of youth beach volleyball players and think that's where they should focus on finding a market. There are an order of magnitude more indoor junior players and an professional indoor league will never fly in this country. Participation does not translate to fans. But a traveling beach party with beer and tequila and music flowing and Olympic caliber athletes competing wearing next to nothing is something that has (and can again) fly. I don't think never for an indoor pro league. But let's face it. The outdoor pro circuit in the US kinda sorta works. For each to be successful, they need to advantage of emerhing technologies. I think using a website like YouTube, for example, gets your product out to everyone, everywhere. And likely doesn't cost a ton to do it either. Maybe partner with a company like Oculus, and try some form of virtual 3d match. |
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Post by crawdaddy on May 15, 2017 15:31:00 GMT -5
The sideshow theory was done (NVL: Preakness being the biggest). If it was a hit that made sense for both sides, they'd still be doing it. I get the party side, but I also believe the juniors is the biggest growing piece of the VB community and the one that may be able to support this sport on a truly professional level in the future. Can we not have both? I'm not saying to entirely ignore the juniors, but they wouldn't be my main focus. I'm also not suggesting the events be sideshows to other events. The volleyball can and should be the centerpiece, but the centerpiece of an epic party. |
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Post by greenpier on May 15, 2017 15:55:10 GMT -5
I would only schedule events from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day week end. 3 month season and cram in the events. Nice and tidy..........................line up sponsors.................beer, marijuana, birth control and Tattoo companies an dlet her rip. IF TV wants in ok..........................but I would not beg.
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Post by mjnaleva on May 17, 2017 17:08:08 GMT -5
I have always thought that a franchise model would get more people invested in making things grow together. Otherwise, there's so few people at the end of the day making/influencing the decisions based on their well-intentions (or not). It's tiring to hear the same old story about beach volleyball struggling to make money and how can that be fixed when from an outside perspective there's nothing really different about how AVP, NVL. or whoever is going about things. As the cliche goes... insanity - doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. Honestly, I am always frustrated when I read interviews with tour organizers and there is nothing materially said about how they're going about things that will measurably change the needle.
My concern is at the end of the day you can't get enough beach volleyball people together to agree on moving toward a common good. Egos, power trips, and the like end up getting in the way.
From a business perspective, there has to be huge changes in how revenue is generated. Relying on sponsors almost entirely results in this roller coaster ride which is what beach volleyball has been on for decades now. While people can argue about how the NCAA does things, one thing is certain... they bring in a ton of families to the collegiate beach championships with many junior players paying hundreds of dollars to play a tournament and gain admission to see the college tournament. I think attendance for the recent beach championships was 6,000+. Perhaps a similar model can be setup at pro events. It's no secret that parents spend most of their money on kids so pro tours should really look at ways to tap into that instead of trying to recreate the "glory days" where a bunch of 20 and 30 something half-drunk spectators attended events in mass. Even when people say beach volleyball was really doing well it was all based on sponsorship dollars.
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Post by timduckforlife on May 17, 2017 19:53:42 GMT -5
I have always thought that a franchise model would get more people invested in making things grow together. Otherwise, there's so few people at the end of the day making/influencing the decisions based on their well-intentions (or not). It's tiring to hear the same old story about beach volleyball struggling to make money and how can that be fixed when from an outside perspective there's nothing really different about how AVP, NVL. or whoever is going about things. As the cliche goes... insanity - doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. Honestly, I am always frustrated when I read interviews with tour organizers and there is nothing materially said about how they're going about things that will measurably change the needle. My concern is at the end of the day you can't get enough beach volleyball people together to agree on moving toward a common good. Egos, power trips, and the like end up getting in the way. From a business perspective, there has to be huge changes in how revenue is generated. Relying on sponsors almost entirely results in this roller coaster ride which is what beach volleyball has been on for decades now. While people can argue about how the NCAA does things, one thing is certain... they bring in a ton of families to the collegiate beach championships with many junior players paying hundreds of dollars to play a tournament and gain admission to see the college tournament. I think attendance for the recent beach championships was 6,000+. Perhaps a similar model can be setup at pro events. It's no secret that parents spend most of their money on kids so pro tours should really look at ways to tap into that instead of trying to recreate the "glory days" where a bunch of 20 and 30 something half-drunk spectators attended events in mass. Even when people say beach volleyball was really doing well it was all based on sponsorship dollars. I think sponsors are probably the biggest challenge to overcome. Because you need business partners that are invested in making this into a big sport. The problem is, it takes time to grow. And sponsors don't want to jump in and have it take 5-10 years to possibly grow a sport. They want to see a return on their investment within a year or 2 or they are gone. And once gone, it's an even harder sell to try and get them back. Thus you need to find new ways to bvb out to the masses, new ways of marketing, new ways of viewership. For example, look at some of the big junior and national tournaments. Their are cameras on every court, sure the angles aren't the greatest, but you can literally watch any match you want. Granted, it's streamed, so you have to be in front of your cell phone/monitor when it happens. I would suggest, as before, using a platform like youtube, you can broadcast matches there, people can replay them at their leisure. And really, this can't cost a huge sum for bvb, and gets your product to the masses. And sure, it might not get a lot early, but with videos up there and out there, and as a fringe sport, it takes time to grow. And again, that's part of the issue, investors want to see big returns quickly, and let's face it, this isn't one of the big 5 worldwide (meaning football, baseball, basketball, soccer, and hockey). You can't let the rules of those sports apply to you because you have to grow the sport to the point where it can get there. Further, the challenge with volleyball, is watchability. For example, if you watch a match back, just from looking at how long the match is, you can basically tell if it was a close match. The same challenge faces indoor. And for that matter, in terms of indoor and the mens game, the biggest obstacle to overcome (at least imo, is serve/pass). So much of mens indoor revolves around serving insanely fast jump serves to get someone out of system, that you have to tolerate a ton of missed serves. Missed serves are the most boring and/or frustrating play in all of sports. |
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