The AVP has "reached an agreement with 'practically all the players' on a contract that will carry it through" the '20 Tokyo Games, even as a "holdout by five-time Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings threatens to deprive the domestic beach volleyball tour of its biggest name," according to Jimmy Golen of the AP. AVP Managing Partner Donald Sun said that each of the other seven Americans who went to the '16 Rio Games "has signed except for Brooke Sweat." Sun said that the four-year deal "includes a minimum of eight events per season and prize money minimums that will increase by at least" 50% over the term of the deal. Meanwhile, Sun said that the tour is "prepared to proceed without Walsh Jennings." Sun: "The AVP is not just one person or one athlete; if it was, it would be a very challenging business model" (AP, 4/29).
SORTING THINGS OUT: VOLLEYBALLMAG's Ed Chan noted as the midnight-Thursday entry deadline for the AVP Huntington Beach passed, the "remaining holdouts for the men are Casey Jennings, Bill Kolinske and Robbie Page," while the remaining women are Sweat, Summer Ross and Walsh Jennings. AVP player-committee member Sarah Day said, "This is not the first time that we've discussed the exclusivity clause and it's not the last time." Chan noted many of the pro players "took issue with the AVP's four-year contract and its exclusivity clause." In the past couple of weeks, many pros "had meetings about it on the heels of the announcement that Walsh Jennings ... was suing the AVP over a different issue." In addition, it "came at a time when a rival tour, the NVL, announced that it was joining forces with former AVP CEO Leonard Armato and his FIVB event, the World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach in July." Sun "purchased the AVP out of bankruptcy" in '12 and has "rebuilt the tour with steady increases in prize money." But the "rival NVL also upped its ante with its recent announcement" (VOLLEYBALLMAG.com, 4/29).
