OMAHA, Neb.: Volleyball has been the No. 1 sport in women participation within the United States for nearly a decade.
More than 90,000 followers confirmed up for an outside match in Nebraska’s soccer stadium final summer season, and the NCAA semifinal and championship matches set attendance and tv viewership information.
The subsequent signal of the game’s evolution on this nation was on show Wednesday night time when the Atlanta Vibe performed the Omaha Supernovas within the debut of the Pro Volleyball Federation.
The PVF is one in every of three U.S. girls’s skilled leagues now working or deliberate for gamers who beforehand had no selection however to go abroad to proceed their careers. League One Volleyball is on monitor to launch in November. The 5-week Athletes Unlimited league lately wrapped up its third season.
Tori Dixon, the 31-12 months-previous center blocker for the Supernovas, has performed in Azerbaijan, Japan, Italy and China over seven professional seasons. She mentioned there’s worldwide buzz in regards to the PVF, and former teammates have requested her to assist them get a contract.
“Maybe it’s a little less money, but you get to stay home and be comfortable,” Dixon mentioned. “Overseas is a grind. It’s really, really difficult. I think a lot of top players are choosing to stay home in the States.”
Besides Atlanta and Omaha, the PVF has groups in Columbus, Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego and Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Opening night time was all the things PVF officers might have needed. A crowd of 11,624 turned out on the CHI Health Center, and it was handled to a 5-set thriller received by the Vibe. Fans have been enthusiastic till the top with encouragement from an enviornment emcee, music between factors and excessive-stage play.
“This was breaking ground for a professional volleyball league, and there could have been 800 people and a poorly played match,” Omaha coach Shelton Collier mentioned. “It was an incredible match with an incredible crowd, an incredible atmosphere, incredible support staff. Whoever put on this production for the fans, it was amazing. It was epic.”
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Orlando Magic chairman Dan DeVos, three-time Olympic seashore volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings and multi-platinum recording artist Jason Derulo are amongst PVF workforce house owners.
Big-name traders in League One Volleyball, referred to as LOVB, embody basketball stars Candace Parker, Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant, tennis icon Billie Jean King, snowboarding star Lindsey Vonn and entertainers Amy Schumer and Chelsea Handler.
LOVB’s franchises are owned by the league and have been introduced in Atlanta, Houston, Omaha, Salt Lake City and Madison, Wisconsin.
The Athletes Unlimited league, co-based by Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros, performs a 5-week season at one web site with 44 gamers who rotate weekly amongst 4 groups and are paid a minimal of $10,000.
PVF gamers are underneath contract for a 24-match common season and playoffs working by way of May and are to be paid $60,000 with bonuses for particular person and workforce efficiency. There is also income sharing. The league champion is promised $1 million to divide amongst gamers and employees. Housing is supplied together with different advantages. Two gamers on every roster will stay 12 months-spherical of their market and be paid a further $40,000 as ambassadors for his or her workforce.
LOVB has not introduced its pay construction or schedule.
It’s potential to earn six figures abroad, with the easiest gamers making into the tens of millions. But many extra receives a commission far much less, and a few don’t obtain paychecks constantly.
PVF co-founder Dave Whinham mentioned of some 300 American girls who performed in different nations final 12 months, a minimum of 120 have been in PVF coaching camps this winter.
“That’s impactful,” Whinham mentioned. (*3*)
PVF held its school draft in December and league officers have been happy, if not a bit shocked, 30 of the 35 chosen gamers signed contracts, together with No. 1 total choose Asjia O’Neal of Texas (Columbus). Including veterans, a minimum of 35 gamers within the league have been members of nationwide or Olympic groups.
PVF officers mentioned their league’s aggressive stage this season most likely received’t match that of the highest leagues in Europe and Asia, however they predict it’s going to inside 5 years.
Whinham and PVF co-founder Stephen Evans have labored collectively on a number of sports activities and leisure tasks over 25 years and commenced planning for a girls’s professional league because the volleyball growth began about 10 years in the past.
League administration is headed by CEO Jen Spicher, a longtime enterprise government and former school participant and membership coach. Former Florida State coach Cecile Reynaud is vp of operations and former Texas A&M coach Laurie Corbelli is operations advisor. Four-time U.S. Olympian Logan Tom is director of worldwide growth and participant technique.
The begin is effectively-timed. The sport drew international consideration in August when the most important documented crowd for a girls’s sporting occasion (92,003) confirmed as much as see perennial school energy Nebraska play Omaha at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. More than 19,000 attended every of the 2 nights of the NCAA remaining 4 in Tampa, Florida. The championship match was televised on ABC for the primary time and attracted 1.7 million viewers.
CBS Sports Network will televise a minimum of 10 PVF common-season matches along with the playoffs. The PVF additionally has streaming agreements with Bally Sports and Stadium.
While the PVF has a extra conventional construction, every LOVB workforce is related to a junior volleyball membership in its market the place the professionals practice alongside membership gamers and be part of them in different actions.
“Most leagues start kind of top down, if you will,” CEO Katlyn Gao mentioned. “They start with pro (team) and then do programs with local youth clubs. What we saw as an opportunity was how vibrant and expansive the network of youth volleyball there already is at the club level, so we’ve asked these clubs to join us.”
The most important earlier try to ascertain a U.S. professional league was Major League Volleyball. MLV happened following a mini volleyball growth after the United States received the silver medal on the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Most gamers earned $5,000 and had day jobs as coaches or within the 9-to-5 world. The league folded for monetary causes a month into its third season in 1989.
The PVF’s Corbelli, one of many ‘84 Olympians who played in MLV, said she’s assured it’s the best time for a girls’s professional league on this nation. Athletes Unlimited is in a special orbit with its construction and quick season. As for the PVF and LOVB, the questions are whether or not one or each can survive lengthy-time period even when they play completely different occasions of 12 months or whether or not they’ll merge.
“The hardest part for me is all these volleyball people are a family. We all know each other. There’s no animosity. It’s just hard because we’re going to go head-to-head for players and cities. It’s going to have to happen until one league …” Corbelli mentioned, her voice trailing off.
“As I look ahead,” she mentioned, “I don’t know if it can sustain that way. It might. I’m no palm reader, but I just kind of think it would be nice to have one strong, great league. Both of these leagues really want to do it and make it work.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
