Beach volleyball: DIYers put tour back on track

Tauranga's Ben O'Dea in action during last year's final. Photo / Mark McKeown

A scaled-down, no-frills version of the New Zealand beach volleyball tour begins in Auckland today, but North Harbour Open tournament director Richard Casutt believes the sport's recent troubles present a huge opportunity to rebuild the summer game.

The national pro tour, a regular feature of the summer sporting scene for more than a decade, was in jeopardy after Volleyball New Zealand terminated the long-running contract of event promoters SMC group last month over a financial dispute.

With no sponsors and no organisational body, Volleyball New Zealand put it out to friends of the beach volleyball community to try and put together a summer programme.

"They basically said to us, there's no time, no money, good luck," said Casutt.

But the sport rallied together at a community level to pull together a circuit of sorts, with events scheduled in Mairangi Bay, Hamilton, Karapiro and Mt Maunganui in the coming weeks.

It will be a no-frills roadshow. Without the backing and media contacts of a professional promotional body, there has been a distinct lack of hype around this year's tour.

Athletes will have to pay their own travel and accommodation costs and there is very little in the way of prizemoney on offer.

While the loss of a naming rights sponsor and tour promoters is undoubtedly a step backwards for the sport, Casutt believes there are some positives to come out of last month's bust-up.

He hopes it will be the catalyst to revamping the tour in the coming years, creating a longer schedule running in to February that will attract more international stars.

"Previously the tour was run by a promoter completely separate from the sport, and they did a great job, but as time went on we went further away from the community.

"Now we have this opportunity to take the sport back to the volleyball community and reconnect with our key stakeholders."

Despite having less than a month to put this weekend's tournament together, Casutt, who will also act as tournament director for the New Zealand Open in Mt Maunganui this month, is confident they will pull together a successful event.

Among the North Harbour volleyball community they rustled up dozens of volunteers, using their skills and outside contacts to deliver the event on a restricted budget.

"It really is the people that have made it happen," said Casutt.

"The support we've been able to drum up locally in such a short period of time really puts the acid on Volleyball New Zealand to keep these ties to the community strong. "We've shown we can make it happen ourselves."

Casutt would like to see the tour regain a national sponsor but keep the regional associations involved in the organisation of the events. He said there were also strong opportunities for the New Zealand tour to align itself with the Asian Tour, an extremely competitive circuit which is growing every year.

Whatever the future of the national tour, Casutt said his board have already approved plans to hold an annual beach volleyball open in North Harbour each February. This weekend's tournament will be held at the purpose-built Beach Volleyball Centre in Mairangi Bay.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL TOUR

* Mairangi Bay, today-Sunday

* Hamilton, January 14-16

* Karapiro, January 18-20

* Mt Maunganui (NZ Open), January 21-23