The best beach volleyball teams in the world played against each other early and often at a thrilling Elite 16 tournament in Rosarito, Mexico last week. There were no easy matches for even the top ranked teams and that is exactly what fans want. It is also what Volleyball World envisioned for the highest teir of the new Beach Pro Tour.
The ingredients for success
Some of the goals laid out for the Elite 16s last winter by Volleyball World CEO, Finn Taylor, included building stars, creating rivalries and making every match a great one. The first taste of that recipe in Rosarito last week was pretty delicious.
Let the stars shine
You don’t have to look any further than Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan to see how star power can build this sport. These two have always matched their phenomenal energy and skill on the sand with megawatt smiles, but outside of the small beach volleyball community, too few know about them. The fans that went to the tournament in Rosarito fell in love with them instantly, but more importantly, the fringe fans that Volleyball World so desperately needs to attract will love the highlight packages of them on YouTube and Instagram. Hopefully the Volleyball World team in Switzerland has hired some savvy marketers that can get Cherif and Ahmed repping big brands in sporting goods stores in malls across the world. Their gold medal in the first tournament is a gift. I don’t think any other team is better positioned to be the poster boys of the sport.
The gold medal for Katja Stam and Raisa Schoon also highlighted the combination of joyfulness and hard nosed tenacity that the sport can highlight as star players become role models for kids that play the game.
Build the plot through rivalries
On the men’s side we saw the heavily favored Beachvolley Vikings, Anders Mol & Christian Sorum battle Dutchies, Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen twice in two days. And Brouwer & Meeuwsen won twice. Who else can’t wait to see them play again soon? This is exactly the kind of rivalry the sport needs. The ex-world champs striking back against the young team that has overtaken their European dominance. In the old world tour format we may have gone the rest of the season without them matching up again. This year we are almost certain to see this battle again and again.
Pool B of the women’s tournament brought together three American women’s teams that are all trying to position themselves at the top of their country. Terese Cannon & Sarah Sponcil entered with the highest ranking, but didn’t make it out of the pool. Emily Day & April Ross won pool B and qualifiers Sara Hughes & Kelley Kolinske finished second. I wouldn’t say there was any bad blood between them, but they definitely dug extra deep to beat teams they train against on a regular basis.
Three American women’s pairs in the same pool may be raising alarm bells about the end of country quota limits. Brazil and the USA definitely had the most teams in the field, but gold and silver went to young European teams Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam of The Netherlands and Anastasija Kravcenoka & Tina Graudina from Latvia. Time will tell, but the rest of the world seems up to the challenge of facing multiple teams from the sports powerhouse countries.
Make every match count
The fact that every pool was loaded with teams that had won medals on the world tour before, made for great action from the start. Cherif & Ahmed opened their Elite 16 journey against Evandro and Alvaro. That is a matchup worthy of a final and it happened in early pool play action. That story was repeated again and again across the schedule.
Focus the Attention
Elite 16 tournaments only feature two courts. That means people watching on Volleyball World TV from home and fans that made it to the venue in person could easily follow the action. Focusing the attention on two courts helps the next stars to be discovered and the rivalries to take shape in front of more eyes than is possible when the action is spread across four courts.
Late addition to the formula
One additional ingredient to the Elite 16 formula that wasn’t part of the original plan was a 16 team qualification round. Players fought for this over the winter in order to get more teams access to the highest level, and I am glad they did. The top women’s teams probably wish they’d kept their mouths shut, however, because it was a qualifier team that took home the top prize. Raisa Schoon and Katja Stam would not even have been in Baja last week if Volleyball World’s original plan had stood.
Room for improvement
This was the first Elite 16 tournament ever and with everything I loved about it, there are certainly a few things that could be better.
Put it where the people are
One week before Rosarito, we saw the spectacle of the Tlexcala Challenge tournament. Tlexcala was held in the heart of a Spanish colonial town with center court sand poured over an old bull fighting ring. Placing the tournament in the center of a mountain town doesn’t make any sense to a beach traditionalist, but we saw how well it worked. Locals that were out for an evening stroll saw the crowds forming and followed along. Soon the whole city was taken up in the action.
Contrast that with Rosarito. It was a beautiful beach setting and the beautiful Pacific ocean made a great backdrop for the video feed, but the stands were empty for the first two days. This is not a good look for a sport that wants to sell itself as a constant party. Even for the finals there were plenty of empty seats in the stadium. Tijuana, Mexico has a very large population to draw on, but locals don’t care about what is happening down at the tourist resorts that cater to Gringos.
The fact that Elite 16 events only need two courts opens up a world of possibilities for host cities. I’d like to see more at downtown beaches or in urban city centers where the people are.
You’ve got a great product, just get the word out
They need to do a better job if they want to fill the stadiums. Rosarito is only three hours away from the greater Los Angeles area, a hotbed of volleyball enthusiasm in America. I am on volleyball internet and Instagram sites all the time, and I never once saw an add targeted at me, a beach volleyball fan within driving distance of the first ever Elite 16 event. I didn’t hear anything on the radio or see any billboards as I was driving in the city either. Maybe return on investment for this kind of advertising is limited, but there was a huge, untapped market for this tournament that Volleyball World completely missed and we got way to many hours of empty stands on Volleyball TV.
Why not pull some strings to put April Ross or Tri Borne in an evening news sports segment in Los Angeles the week before the tournament? America loves their Olympians and a few more people might have driven down to see them in person.
Give sports bars and restaurants free subscriptions to Volleyball TV so people will see it and become intrigued. During the Rosarito tournament last week, I walked by a restaurant in Huntington Beach, California that was showing a replay of an AVP tournament from last summer. Obviously the owner of the restaurant was happy to show beach volleyball on the big screens visible from the street. Don’t you think they would have been even happier to show a live match? And many, many more people would have become aware of the Beach Pro Tour.
Get the colors right
I have been complaining about team colors here at the Beach Volley Blog for years. Give teams consistent colors that match their country in every tournament. The Dutch should wear orange, Brazil green and yellow, Latvia and Qatar maroon, Poland red and white…
If casual fans come across a match with Smedins and Samoilovs wearing black and decide they are the team they want to support, they will remember the colors. But with the FIVB, the next day they won’t even recognize them because the Latvians will be wearing red. Ok, Samoilovs was a bad example because everyone recognizes his hair, but you get the point. Instant recognition for fans is part of building brand loyalty and connection to the stars they are promoting.
It is also a great way to sell merch. A volleyball top with the pattern of the Norwegian flag and Mol printed on the back would fly out of an online store. If I saw someone wearing a blue and yellow David Åhman shirt in the checkout line at the grocery store I would definitely start a conversation. Connecting fans with one another is a very important part of building a community around the sport and putting teams in colors that make sense is a very simple way to start down that path.
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Up the broadcast quality
Volleyball World TV gave away free 30 day subscriptions to thousands of fans. The goal was undoubtably to tourn them all into paying customers, but they didn’t exactly put their best foot forward. Doing a TV broadcast solo is very difficult in any sport for even the most experienced commentators. Volleyball World took a bunch of talented people, who will no doubt turn into excellent voices for the game in years to come, and threw them into the deep end. The dynamic was improved so much for the matches that featured two commentators.
Players in the booth provide wonderful insights, but they need to be paired with experienced broadcasters who know how to keep the flow moving. Add Lewie Lett to the team covering one of the two courts at these Elite 16 tournaments. The knowledge base, commitment to research and passion that he brings to the game was really missed in Rosarito.
The production value, as far as camera angles and replays, was very good. I’d love to see more graphics introduced this year. Heat maps of where defenders are positioning themselves and serve or attack preferences in graphical format would be great. What percentage of options did Kelly Claes hit vs setting to Betsi Flint? Those types of stats and graphics to back them up would add to the view experience immensely and make a subscription to VolleyballWorld.TV worth it for more fans. CVC Capital invested enough money to create this type of content.
The Beach Volley Blog gives two thumbs up
Two tournaments into the new tour and I am very happy with how it is going. There are some things that can get better, but overall I think it is a big step in the right direction. What do you think? Please leave a comment below to let us know if you love it or hate it.