Hermosa Man May Be Beach Volleyball's Ace

The man sitting in the position to resurrect professional beach volleyball sums up the state of the game in one sentence: "The sport has never been healthier and the business of the sport has never been sicker."

Where the pundits may see the as proof of the sport's impending doom, Dave Williams, managing director of beach programs for USA Volleyball, sees divine opportunity. 

USA Volleyball, the country's national governing body for the sport of volleyball, hired the Hermosa resident in April, just months before the AVP abruptly canceled its 2010 tour due to a lack of funding.

Now the only professional domestic tour—AVP—is buried. The opportunities for American athletes to play domestically have dwindled, and the 2012 Olympic games are soon-to-be one year away.

But living in the beating heart of a beach volleyball mecca, Williams' determination to save the sport remains.

"It's just a mess," Williams told Patch. "But we can't walk away. We [USA Volleyball] are the national governing body. That'd be like USA Track and Field walking away from track. It feels like starting over but there's no other choice."

Once upon a time, Williams held several senior management positions within the AVP before moving to his current position with USA Volleyball. 

Williams has partnered USA Volleyball with IMG action sports, the largest sports marketing producer in the world, to create the Beach Championship Series.  

Early projections for the series are for four events in the 2011 season in Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Chicago, and Belmar, N.J. 

"These four sites are historic and the epitome of classic in the sport of beach volleyball," Williams said. "Hermosa in particular is at the top of the list. The city has always been a big supporter of beach volleyball and it just makes sense that we submit to hold an event there."

Beach volleyball needs a makeover, Williams told Patch, and it starts with a tournament business model that he's helping to create.

"We have to be profitable the whole way," he said. "Every time someone tried to package the AVP and blow it up, they bankrupted it. We're not looking to sell it. We're looking to stabilize the sport and create classy events around the game."

Beach volleyball received about as much prime-time coverage as any other sport during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. The U.S. men's and women's teams both captured gold medals, and the sport's visibility soared.

When Misty May and Kerri Walsh were riding a wave of global popularity in 2004, winning every tournament they played, beach volleyball had eight events that garnered high viewership ratings worldwide, Williams said. 

But the sport's Olympic appeal is both blessing and a curse, he said.

"The problem we've faced in the past, and we face it now, is that we were always afraid of becoming a once every four years sport," Williams told Patch. "We wanted to be an NBA and it was a difficult task to make that happen. But Leonard Armato [the AVP owner and commissioner who resigned as the head of the pro beach volleyball tour last year] did it. He took a business that was literally worth nothing, bankrupt in 2000, and in seven years it was worth $37 million. So it can be done."

The solution? Williams  about hosting the USA Volleyball collegiate tournament and USA Volleyball beach championship series here in Hermosa.

"We've got a clean slate right now," Williams said. "There's still opportunity here for the sport to be taken to a whole new level."