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Wanna Own a Piece of May-Treanor and Walsh?

Well, not exactly Misty and Kerri, more like the AVP tour itself. You see, almost alone among professional sports in this country the company that owns and operates the pro beach volleyball tour is a publicly traded company, AVP Inc. The company is not the however the financial powerhouse that May-Treanor and Walsh are on the beach. It just recorded a $4 million loss in 2007, its sixth consecutive unprofitable year.

So, what's the problem and is the Olympics the solution? The folks who run AVP and the suits at NBC, which is the tour's broadcast partner through a time buy by AVP, certainly hope so. Beach volleyball, with its beach party ethos and players in skimpy bikinis, would seem a natural for popularity with a certain demographic of Americans, namely the young beer drinking males so
sought after by television and advertisers. Yet, sponsors are mostly paying barely enough to cover tournament prize money and the cost of mounting the tournaments is causing the tour to run deficits.

Beach volleyball has not yet caught on as a spectator sport either, although NBC is giving it a huge boost this Olympics by featuring it in prime time before Michael Phelps swims and the gymnasts take the floor, practically guaranteeing it the widest exposure possible. If that is not enough for the tour to build on for next year's outdoor season, then the only rational conclusion to draw is beach volleyball is destined for little more than a niche sport that will not support more than a few elite players on a full-time basis. All but those elite players will be forced to take other jobs to support themselves while they play volleyball on the side. May-Treanor and Walsh won't have to but how many other women beach volleyball players can you name?

Full post as published by Sports Biz on August 15, 2008 (boomark / email).