A year after Donald Sun acquired the rights to the AVP, he is "resurrecting the tour with five stops featuring some of the top athletes in beach volleyball," according to Tripp Mickle of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The tour will "visit Salt Lake City; Cincinnati; St. Petersburg, Fla.; and Santa Barbara and Huntington Beach, Calif., between August and October." Sun has hired Wasserman Media Group to "manage event operations and sponsorship sales and to do strategic consulting." Volleyball maker Wilson is the tour’s "only existing sponsor." But sources said that the agency is "looking for sponsors in several categories and asking for $200,000 to $400,000 a year." In addition, sources said that AVP organizers "have been in discussions with CBS Sports Network about broadcasts." However, AVP Chair Dick Carle "declined to comment on the AVP’s media plans." The five-stop AVP tour is the "most concerted effort yet to bring beach volleyball back to the U.S." The tour previously folded in '10 and "filed for bankruptcy protection." Sun hosted an event in Santa Barbara last year "after the Olympics and promised to hold six events this year." Carle said that instead they will "start with five and look to double and possibly triple that ahead of" the '16 Rio Olympics. Carle added that the tour will be "offering sponsors 'branded content' opportunities that weren’t available for sponsors of the previous iteration of the AVP" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/22 issue).
