‘New’ AVP Tackles Some Old Problems

To know the “new” AVP is to know this: Karch Kiraly and Sinjin Smith, longtime adversaries, are actually making nice. They will co-host a weekly radio show this summer ... without a glass partition separating them.

With the glory days of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals fading, its players and relatively new management are aware that a turnaround is needed for the tour to survive, taking whatever means necessary, even if it means burying the hatchet in the sand.

The AVP lost more than $1 million last year but it appears to be heading toward better days, certainly an improvement over the downcast years of the late 1990s, when AVP management made poor decisions, overpaid its players and ultimately filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 1998.

Commissioner Leonard Armato, a beach player in the mid-1970s and the former agent for Shaquille O’Neal, plucked the tour last May from Spencer Trask Ventures Inc., a venture-capital firm in New York City that gladly ditched the foundering enterprise.

“We picked it up [in the] ER last year,” Armato said. “We had to resuscitate a dying body. It was survival.”

It remains to be seen whether the AVP recovery is complete. The AVP kicks off its seven-stop tour Friday with the Huntington Beach Open.

On the plus side, the AVP is back on NBC for the first time since 1997, with live coverage of the Manhattan Beach and Chicago tournaments in August.

However, the AVP is not being paid broadcast rights fees by NBC, which will lose the NBA after this season and this summer is conducting an audition of sorts for lesser-known sports, including arena football.

Regardless, Armato hopes that the national exposure will pay off. Last year, AVP tournaments were shown solely tape-delayed on Fox Sports Net, usually three or four weeks after actual tournament dates.

“Once we set ourselves and our credibility, we have a place at NBC where we can grow,” Armato said. “There’s certainly the opportunity for us if we perform well.”

But who will step forward and grow with the AVP?

Smith retired last year at 44. Kiraly, 41, was sidelined most of last season because of shoulder and Achilles’ tendon injuries, and is a year or two away from retirement.

The Magic Johnson and Larry Bird of the sand, Smith and Kiraly popularized beach volleyball with their rivalry in the late 1980s and much of the 1990s. It is unclear who will ultimately replace them: Parity was a trend last year, with few teams winning consistently.

“I don’t know if it’s clear right now who the next guys are,” said Kiraly, who has won a record 142 tournaments, three more than Smith. “It’s hard to catch peoples’ attention if there are different teams winning every time.”

Stein Metzger and Kevin Wong, former teammates at UCLA, appear to have an edge on the rest of the field. The duo won the final two tournaments last season--Santa Barbara and Manhattan Beach--and could become the next dominant team.

“That’s what we’re out to battle for,” Wong said. “Who are the next kings of the beach? Who are the next stars of our sport? There’s a vacuum there.”

There is also some lingering disharmony over which rules to play by.

One of Armato’s first acts was to conform to the rules set by the sport’s international governing body, the FIVB, an action that irritated some old-school players.

For a second consecutive season, AVP matches will be rally-scored, with a point awarded on every serve. The court will again be smaller (about 700 square feet compared to 900 square feet) and the ball will remain slightly larger.

Though the format better prepares players for Olympic rules, it’s not exactly the side-out, play-until-the-sun-goes-down fun preferred by older players.

“We’re not always sure these changes are for the better, but we’re doing it so we can all be on the same page,” Kiraly said.

On the women’s side, Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs have formed what many expect to be a dominant team.

McPeak and Youngs, two of the top players, were almost teammates at UCLA--McPeak transferred from California for her senior season in 1990, but Youngs, a junior at the time, sat out the season because of a knee injury.

They’ll finally get a chance to play together, the result of a phone call from Youngs to McPeak during the off-season.

“It’s nice to be on the same side of the net with her after competing against her all these years,” McPeak said.

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*--* The Facts Who: The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals What: The Huntington Beach Open When: Friday-Sunday Where: South side of the Huntington Beach pier

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