By NATE CROSSMAN
For The Patriot Ledger

Sinjin Smith doesn’t compete in AVP events anymore, but he remains one of the most revered figures in volleyball history. He’s a member of UCLA’s Hall of Fame, played on the U.S. national team from 1979-1982, and is currently president of the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Council.

So his opinion still carries plenty of weight.

Smith’s opinion on AVP founder and CEO Leonard Armato is this: without him, beach volleyball in the U.S. would not exist today.

“The group that was managing it (AVP) throughout the 90s messed it up, to put it mildly,” said Smith, alluding to the fact that the AVP filed for bankruptcy in 1998, only three years after it featured 25 events and over $3 million in prize money. “Leonard came back and started to rebuild the tour in 2001 and ever since it’s been right on track. I’m sure with him at the helm it will continue to grow bigger.”

Those searching for evidence of the AVP’s growth need look no further than Marina Bay, site of this weekend’s Bob’s Stores Boston Open, the first AVP event in Massachusetts since 1995. The event is part of an expansion that not only includes two more events than last year, bringing the total to 18, but also five new cities outside of beach volleyball’s primary demographic: Boston, Miami, Dallas, Louisville and San Francisco.

“We want to touch every market,” Armato said. “It’s been a big effort to do it, but we’re building.”

Roller-coaster ride

The history of the AVP reads like the script of an afternoon soap opera. When Armato founded the Association of Volleyball Professionals in 1983, beach volleyball was still a national curiosity, confined mostly to southern California. The casual sports fan would probably have had a better chance naming William G. Morgan, the Holyoke (Mass.) YMCA instructor who in 1895 invented the game as a less-physical alternative for businessmen, than the beach volleyball stars of the day.

That, however, changed in the late 1980s. After the U.S. men’s Olympic team won gold at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games, players such as Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons became household names.

Smith began to see the potential for beach volleyball.

“I played in an exhibition in Brazil in 1986 and it was a huge success,” Smith said. “It was such a new deal for me to see the sport’s potential, it blew me away.”

It was a potential that Armato would never be allowed to personally realize. In 1989, the AVP severed ties with him, deciding it had outgrown his leadership.

Neither AVP nor Armato suffered in the short term.

While Armato continued to be a successful sports agent, representing, among others, Shaquille O’Neal, and founded Management Plus, a sports representation and marketing company, the AVP thrived.

In 1993, NBC sports broadcast 10 AVP Tour events, prize money reached $3.7 million and attendance rose above 600,000.

In 1995 the AVP expanded to 29 events and in 1996 it became an Olympic sport.

In the end, however, the AVP became a victim of its own growth.

In-fighting over purse amounts and the direction of the tour led to unpaid bills and a general sense of uneasiness, and companies pulled their sponsorships. The AVP filed for bankruptcy in 1998, and operated on a very limited basis the following year.

Even at its lowest point, however, Armato saw the potential that Smith had seen 10 years earlier in Brazil.

“It had grown all over the world,” Armato said. “It was the hottest sport at the (2000 Sydney) Olympics. So I was sitting at Bondi Beach (in Australia) and I thought, ‘I have to resurrect this thing.’ We were the ones who started it, in the U.S. It’s not right that it’s popular around the world and there’s nothing in the place it started.”

The resurrection

One of Armato’s first moves after Management Plus purchased the AVP in 2001, and one of his most important ones, was combining the AVP men’s tour with the women’s tour, which had been run by another organization. The reason for combining the two entities was twofold: to simplify the fan experience, making it easier for them to find the players they had once rooted for but might have forgotten about because of lack of exposure; and it gave the AVP more marketing clout.

“We needed to create a national platform that was relevant enough for advertisers to embrace,” Armato said. “We didn’t want to limp along with a regional presence. We wanted to have a national presence that advertisers could use as a marketing platform.”

NBC Sports helped them create that platform by offering them four hours of coverage in 2002. That ballooned to seven the next year and suddenly the AVP was a viable marketing tool.

Armato’s business sense can be seen throughout the AVP today. The tour is sponsored by Crocs, which makes sandal-type footwear. In addition to Bob’s Stores, title sponsors include Cuervo, Bud Light, Toyota and McDonald’s. The AVP has also partnered with Major League Baseball, and is receiving help in running this week’s event from the Fenway Sports Group.

The commercialism isn’t confined to the marquis, either. Beach volleyball is as much about the experience as it is about the actual volleyball and that is the vibe around the stadium, where vendor booths offer everything from footwear to the opportunity to play video games.

“We tried to make it more engaging, have a lot of interactivity,” Armato said. “We take some of the world’s best athletes and wrap it around the beach lifestyle. I think fans enjoy the engaging feel, which is why the sport is growing so rapidly.”

Future

There’s no denying that beach volleyball is growing. When Armato resurrected the AVP it had only seven events and prize money totaled $750,000. Now it’s up to 18 events and over $4 million. American swept the men’s and women’s FIVB World Championships for the first time ever early this summer

But it remains to be seen how far it can grow. Competition for TV viewers is fierce, with golf more popular than ever and more traditional sports showing now signs of giving up their share. And while this weekend’s event at Marina Bay will be popular because it’s something new and different, will it have staying power?

One thing, however, is certain: Under Armato, the AVP will be steady.

“The future looks bright,” Smith said.