Association of Volleyball Professionals
| Sport | Beach volleyball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 |
| CEO | Donald Sun |
| Country | United States |
| TV partner(s) |
NBC NBCSN |
| Official website | www.avp.com |
The Association of Volleyball Professionals, or AVP, is the United States' premier beach volleyball tour, headquartered in Newport Beach, California. Every U.S. beach volleyball Olympic medalist has toured with the AVP throughout their career, including gold medalists Karch Kiraly, Kent Steffes, Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser. The 2016 season, the AVP's 33rd, will run from April through September. The season will consist of tour stops in eight cities across the United States, including an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Olympic-qualifying event.
After a 2010 reorganization overseen by the investment group RJSM Partners, the tour resumed operations on October 22, 2011 in Huntington Beach for its inaugural AVP Championships event. RJSM Partners, which was originally a minority investor in AVP, had a controlling interest starting April 2009 until 100% of AVP's assets were purchased by AOS Group, LP. in 2012. Additional events under a new operational model were held in 2012, including the AVP Cincinnati Open, held Aug. 30 - Sept. 2 in Cincinnati, Ohio and the AVP Championships, held Sept. 7 - 9 in Santa Barbara, Calif.
The Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) began on July 21, 1983, as an official players association to negotiate with private tournament promoters.The first AVP logo was designed by Ken Jencks and Steve Fisher of the Manhattan Beach Recreation Department. A few years later, a revised logo was designed by Rick Jurk. The current AVP logo includes a black and yellow jump man and volleyball.
One of the earliest tour sponsors was Miller Lite beer and play involved a double-elimination format, with select tournaments sponsored by Jose Cuervo tequila offering additional prize money and a unique format that narrowed the field to the top 8 teams, which then played in a round-robin to determine the top two teams for the championship match. Only men were allowed to compete on the tour in the early years. The AVP added women's events in 1993 and '94 while the main women's tour, the Women's Professional Volleyball Association struggled. The WPVA, which had a separate sponsorship with Coors, ceased operations in 1997, and the AVP included women from 1999 on.
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