Long Island Event Press Release:
Beach Volleyball comes to L.I.
One sport you won't find listed above is the Extreme Volleyball Professionals (EVP) Tour (EVPtour.com), which will make its first stop ever on Long Island in August 2007. According to Ross Balling, EVP commissioner, the EVP Tour's primary aim is to support beach volleyball events that result in sponsors, participants, spectators and host communities feeling good about the event, while enhancing media exposure for the tour and its sponsors. The result? An increase participation at all levels, as both professional and local amateur volleyballers compete during an EVP event.
The EVP Tour Long Island stop for 2007, which will take place at Nickerson Beach in Nassau County, will, like other EVP stops, be a one-day event that unfolds in the blistering heat of the summer, when the temperature is typically between 85 to 100 degrees.
“We have been primarily West Coast-based tour, but our goal is to become a national tour,” says Balling. “Long Island was excited to host an event, and that excitement caught our attention. Like any business or project, when people are really energized to host an event, it's a very important success factor.”
Balling says the organizations like the Sports Commission and Nassau County displayed a real willingness to make the EVP stop special, and that, along with Long Island's history as a sporting event host, convinced him that the EVP Tour would make Long Island its first East Coast stop.
“It's on the ocean and at a beach, as are 90 percent of our events,” Balling says.
Balling explains that each EVP event features 50 male athletes and an average of 24-35 female athletes on the professional level. The EVP also has an amateur division, which is filled with local teams. A typical EVP Tour event draws between 5,000-10,000 people during the course of the day. “And Long Island not only has facilities,” Balling says. “They really will roll out the red carpet, and make our event more than just us renting the beach.”