IRL

RIP AVP


It's gone. Very sad.


Indeed. In case you missed the news that came last Friday, the 13th, the Association of Volleyball Professionals, more commonly known as the AVP Has Gone Bankrupt and will no longer be bringing thrilling beach volleyball action to some obscure cable channel, brought to you by sponsors you've never heard of or are responsible for making ridiculously ugly foam footwear.

In all seriousness, if you're running a sport which features the likes of Kerri Walsh and Jen Kessy, and you can't make it work somehow, you're doing something very, very wrong. Sure, there are some behind-the-scenes dealings with stock values and capital holdings and whatnot, but all of that stuff stops mattering if you market your product properly. Hans Stolfus said it very well in part of his long-winded, passive-aggressive and meandering article (linked above) in that the AVP and its fanbase are made up of volleyballers and nothing else. The AVP did not have the casual fans that accompany baseball and football. Everybody there either plays, used to play, or have kids who play. To grow beyond that, you need to branch out...and this does not mean putting your logo on Crocs sandals. It means getting the names and the pictures and the videos out there...bringing more awareness to the sport in a way the Olympics almost did.

But now, the AVP is gone, and the players will most certainly move to other places to play in tournaments more competitive that we'll be able to keep in the US. It's sad, really...but on the other hand...maybe waters down the competition for me.