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10/29/2008

Either You’re A Sports Fan, Or You’re Not. by Hans Stolfus

It’s a pretty amazing time right now in sports. We’ve got Major League Baseball’s World Series starting Wednesday night, College and Professional Football highlighting the weekends, the NBA kicking off their season on the 28th, and the NHL already in full skate, if you will? Okay, that was bad. Terrible, actually. But the only thing missing in that mega-mix of sporting utopia is a live NBC telecast of the AVP right? I mean then we would have it all covered, head to toe. Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey… Beach Volleyball?

Oh, who am I kidding? Beach volleyball would never survive in a professional sports marketplace like the one presented to us for a few short weeks in October. Don’t get me wrong, once the Dodgers and Red Sox lost, my weeknights opened up splendidly for Emmy winning shows like House, Mad Men and Gossip Girl. I would never, ever watch a World Series involving a team from the state of Florida. Sorry Misty’s husband. I just can’t willingly support a team battling for the ultimate prize in America’s former national pastime that doesn’t support itself. Sell out a game at home, or I’m sorry, sell more than 20,000 tickets for a game at home determining the American East Crown and I might start acknowledging the Rays or Marlins as legitimate Sports Organizations. Wait, did I just try to slide Gossip Girl by as an Emmy Award winner? My bad. It should be. And hold on, Tampa’s in Florida, why the heck are they playing in a dome? They’re not the Twins. It’s not twenty-six degrees in April as the season commences. Even the Twins are building an outdoor stadium. You know why, because fans in the summertime don’t want to sit inside breathing recycled air watching athletes who are unable to get dirty because they’re playing on turf.

While I’m at it, I’ll say this; the NHL should have disbanded entirely when the strike took place in 2004-05. It’s never fully recovered and I’m not sure if it ever will; except in Canada, of course. Better yet, here’s an idea. And one I’m pretty sure I’m stealing from a more notable news source, I just can’t remember where. Get rid of all NHL teams that play in cities that don’t naturally produce ice in the winter. Ponds, lakes, weak streams, whatever; all the city has to do is have one body of water ice over, and they can have a professional hockey team. American men can still pretend they like hockey and that they might have picked up a stick as a child growing up in Duluth, but that does not mean places like Phoenix, Arizona should have an arena that has its air conditioning set to full-blast year round.

I have nothing bad to say about football or basketball, no need to worry. And I really like baseball, but I need a team with more than fifteen regular season fans in the World Series for me to watch. Now, as far as volleyball is concerned, can you get a cooler sport? Seriously! I know what you’re thinking, “You play this game Hans, of course you think it’s the bee’s knees.” And you’re right, I’m more than a little biased, that’s exactly what I was thinking! However, as biased as I am, I’m also fully aware of how many people out there think the same way as I do, and it’s not many. Which is exactly why I’m thankful we play our season in the summer months with only Major League Baseball to battle, and the WNBA, if you count it? Case in point: Manhattan Beach, September 19-21; the grand daddy of them all, or the name that has become almost banal by NBC broadcasters, the Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball. However, in 2008, attendance on the outer courts wasn’t so grand. Why? Simple, it wasn’t summer anymore. School was in session, people had to work, people had to travel for work, and the economy is shot. Oh, that has nothing to do with it not being summer, sorry, but I’m sure it affected our beloved attendance in some unforeseeable manner, even though the tournament was free. Maybe fans in Chicago couldn’t afford the flights to take their once a year pilgrimage to beach volleyball’s holy land? I don’t know, I’m speculating.

Here’s what I do know; regardless of the missing locals stacked on top of each other from court 5 to the strand, the Manhattan Beach Open Finals, both men’s and women’s, were sold out to the max. I provided live color on AVP Radio and couldn’t believe the atmosphere. It was just like every other year, or, better put, the best beach volleyball experience in the world. Even in September, matched up against Divisional Series Baseball, NFL Sundays and USC Saturdays, the AVP stacked up against the big guns and provided the first ever 1 Million Dollar Open. And it rocked. I say we make it even better in 2009, especially with a return to its usual August time slot on NBC, and no Trojan football games battling simultaneously on ABC. Pete Carroll is way better off on stage with Geeter.

Here’s what else I know…

Congrats to Jen Boss for her first open win in Glendale, AZ. She played unbelievably well the entire weekend, restrained herself from the booze and endless parties that make up the last tournament of the summer, and chose her partner for the final wisely. No one on tour is displeased to see a long-time tour vet with such a humble personality, like Jen Boss, win her first open. Also, a big congratulation goes out to John Hyden for winning his second King of the Beach in the last two years. I saw him at the player party afterwards and we discussed how amazing his career would be if only every tournament, every weekend, was the “King of the Beach” format. Fortunately for him, the Hot Winter Nights Tour starts up in January and is just that: four guys, king of the beach, one winner, and my guess is, he’ll play in more than just one weekend.

Which, brings me to another hot topic, why are the players that already make enough money to survive, the only players invited to the Hot Winter Nights Tour stops in January and February? Granted, I was invited last year to play in Minneapolis and Columbus, so I can’t complain, but that’s only because I was living in Minneapolis at the time and provided AEG with some pub for the local media. And, I was coming off a Silver Medal at the Pan American Games in Rio, but don’t kid yourself, those kind of results were irrelevant in my selection and not a single sole in the Target Center was aware of the fact that I even went. The fact of the matter is; there are only four men and four women on tour that can alter the decision making of a fan debating whether or not they should attend a Hot Winter Nights Event, and that’s our Olympic representatives from Beijing. Everyone else is just a name, and just a player. Todd, Phil, Jake, Rosie, Misty, Kerri, Nicole and Elaine are the only names that kids from club teams across the country are going to use their iPhones to buy tickets online to see. So why not use one spot in every event to fill with a young up and comer, or middle of the road guy, that people can start to follow and become a fan of when all the golden oldies retire? Seriously. Doesn’t this make a ton of sense? Three guys, or gals - sorry I’m always referring to just the guy’s side of the tour - from the top of the money list, and one guy that isn’t.

For example: Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah
Men – Jake Gibb, Todd Rogers, Matt Fuerbringer and Braidy Halverson
Women – Kerri Walsh, April Ross, Tyra Turner and Ashley Ivy.

Three established tour vets with at least one huge Olympic name, and a 4th that will be playing for years to come. Seems like a no-brainer. The NG gets a chance to make a little extra scrill and the “names” pad their bank accounts, just like always. Best of both worlds.

This seems almost overly essential on the ladies side of the tour. All the top women want to start families at the same time, and none of them are getting any younger. Wait, that came off wrong. Just think, what if Rachel Wacholder (already prego), Jen Boss, Tyra Turner, Kerri Walsh and Misty May all sat out next season because they had little, future, superstar athletes to mind over? Who does the AVP market then? They’ve put all their eggs in one basket for so long, rightfully so, Misty and Kerri deserve every ounce of recognition they’ve ever received and have single handedly carried the AVP since 2004, but where does that leave the rest of the women once they take a break, or hang it up for good? This is the perfect opportunity to make some of those unknowns more, well, known.

Don’t think for a second that the guys side doesn’t need a youth marketing blitz almost as much as the ladies; Holdren, Fonoi, Blanton, Ceman and Kiraly have all retired in the last two years, and those are some huge names with Olympic accolades and medals to their credit. What happens when Fuerbs, Sean Scott, Lambo, Hyden, Steino, Kevin Wong, Loiola, Souza and Nygaard all retire within two years as well? The youngest guy in that whole group will be 35 by the time the 2009 Summer Season begins, and none of them are Karch, if you know what I’m saying. Nor do they have a bazillion dollar Speedo endorsement deal to hold on to and carry them through the rough patches. E.g., Dax has got more than a couple good years left in him, as seen in his epic battle for the finals against Jake and Rosie in Long Beach, but he’s phoning it in because his primary sponsor, Nautica, is out.

Either way, guys are retiring and the tour only has a handful of male athletes that will start the 2009 campaign under the magic age of 30 that finished ’08 ranked in the top 20 players, Nick Lucena, Phil Dalhausser, Sean Rosenthal, Brad Keenan and Matt Olson. Granted, those are some pretty heady names, particularly Phil and Rosie, but that doesn’t leave much as far as a future is concerned does it, especially in regards to marketing, or more specifically, those they have neglected to market and will soon be left with. Sounds like a good time to get into the game for all those kids out of college if you ask me. Unless, of course, they’re already playing indoor in Russia or Korea making half a million; if that’s the case, how fun is the sand, really?

On a side note - In regards to the Hot Winter Nights Tour that starts January 15 in Albany, NY. If you’re from either Minnesota or Iowa and read my blog, contact me in regards to tickets for Minneapolis on January 29th or Cedar Falls on January 31st. I can acquire a group rate that isn’t available at the box office and I am more than willing to help out all of my good friends, or anyone who volleys in the grand old Midwest.

hansstolfus@yahoo.com

Hopefully I can finagle a way to do AVP Radio and attend both stops and see all of those I was able to help obtain tickets. If so, see you there!

Posted by Hans Stolfus at 9:47 AM

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