Beached: AVP Crocs Tour's San Diego Event Being Played Indoors

This weekend's AVP Crocs Tour event in San Diego will be held indoors at Harrah's Rincon Casino despite there being "nearly 70 miles of beaches" in the region, according to Don Norcross of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. The tour "takes it product to landlocked locations frequently, with stops this year in Houston, Las Vegas and Riverside," but it "seldom passes on a natural beach setting." Beach volleyball player Nicole Branagh: "We play beach volleyball, we train on the beach. Of course you'd like to be in that environment. It's the nature of the sport." AVP CEO Jason Hodell added, "Our preference is to be on the beach." However, the AVP's business practices are being "influenced by the recession." Hodell noted that it "normally costs 'upward of $400,000' to stage a tournament on a public beach." But Norcross reports those costs "have been more than cut in half this weekend" due to the one-year deal with Harrah's and "not having to pay beach-use fees." Meanwhile, the AVP has "lost national sponsorships from Jose Cuervo, McDonald's, Hilton Hotels and Nautica" since the end of the '08 season, and new partners Malibu Rum and KFC have "offset some but not all of those losses." Hodell said that the "financial fallout hit seven figures" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 5/1).