Beach Volleyball News

2007 AVP Charleston Open: The Price of a Wildcard

June 16th , 2007

As part of my daily reading, I came across a post in the new AVP.com forum that was pretty interesting.  The posts below are focused around an exemption into the main draw for the 2007 AVP Charleston Open.  The wildcard spot was given to Coley Kyman and Mark Presho.

 

Here's what I found on the AVP.com forum yesterday:

 

"Coley Kyman is a 36 year old player that played indoor for Northridge. He is a pretty good guy, but has had no success on the beach. His best finish on the AVP was a 33rd in 14 tries over six years and hasn't played in a qualifier in two years. Mark Presho is also 36 years old. He first played an AVP qualifier in 1993 and had his top finish (25th), but hasn't played on the AVP for 6 years. Neither one is fresh out of college, neither one is an indoor legend and both have tried without success to compete on the beach."  - CoGlave

 

I was puzzled after reading this, why would the AVP do such a thing?

 

"Coley explained that the AVP granted one of the event sponsors the opportunity to enter a team into the event, and somehow it was them."  - CoGlave

 

The following excerpt really explains the real issue with the wildcard and the lack of professionalism shown by the decision makers.

 

"There is some misguided belief that this will help the AVP solicit more sponsors and that everyone on tour benefits from this, as sponsors are the one's paying the players' winnings. There is also the misguided belief that the granting of the exemption/wildcard only directly affects the team that was knocked into the qualifier (and chose not to travel because of it) Doble and Mariano. The truth is that selling spots in the main draw does not help legitimize the sport and it affects everyone on the men's side of the tournament. It drops a top team into the qualifier, messes up seeding, the main draw players that will either have an easier or harder time because this team is allowed in the main draw, and they are guaranteed prize money that should be given to the teams that are busting their asses to compete on tour." - CoGlave

 

In what appeared to be a mock email, CoGlave posted again on the subject and it truly gave me a chuckle, enjoy this one:

 

Dear AVP,

I think it's great you are giving wildcards out to certain teams who would not otherwise be able to participate in an AVP event. It gives everyone a chance to compete at the highest level of the sport they love.

I personally have been discouraged by my success so far on the AVP. I have played in three qualifiers over the last two seasons and have yet to make it past the first round. I once viewed this as a problem and nearly put my professional volleyball career on hold, until I learned of the possibility of a wild card. Now I realize a player like me can play at the level they've always dreamed of, and an automatic 17th finish will help me avoid those deadly "pig-tail" games in the qualifiers from now on.

Though I'm not exactly sure how the wildcard was given in Charleston, my father is the head of a large Sand Shipping company in Bakersfield California and is willing to make a large contribution to the AVP. Whether monetarily or in sand buckets.

I am excited and look forward to playing in the Bud Light AVP Long Beach Open in July.

Thank You,
Wally West

 

This particular user on the AVP.com forum always has great insight to AVP screw-ups and other interesting tour developments.

 

Will the AVP continue to offer up paid spots to the main draw? If so, I'm sure I could pull a few strings and main myself.  After all, it's all about selling out right? No pun intended.