Lausanne, Switzerland, April 20, 2016 — Agreeing to the request from the promoter of the upcoming FIVB Cincinnati Open in Ohio, USA, the internationally-televised gold medal finals for both genders will be played on Saturday, May 21.
The AVP, which organizes, sanctions and produces the largest domestic tour in the United States and is the designated promoter of this year’s tournament in Cincinnati, requested the one-day shift to accommodate the live national telecasts of the gold medal matches that are being finalized.
The tournament will start with the qualification tournaments for both genders on Tuesday, May 17. The first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour stop in the USA in 2016 will be held at the Linder Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio.
Heading back to the United States for the fourth straight year after a decade absence, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour will be in Ohio for the double-gender FIVB Cincinnati Open. The first of two U.S. events currently confirmed on the FIVB World Tour schedule, will be held on May 17-22. The tournament will be the 15th men’s and 15th women’s FIVB World Tour event held in the United States and the first event in Cincinnati.
USA OVERALL HISTORYWith the first USA visit being held in Miami, Florida in 1994, the 1997 event was the inaugural FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, held in the Tennis Center stadium at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). Other US events included Atlanta hosting the 1996 Olympics and in 2015 Fort Lauderdale, Fla. hosted the inaugural Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals. The other scheduled stop in the United States in 2016 will be the FIVB Long Beach Grand Slam in Southern California.
In all, 11 cities in the USA have hosted an FIVB event—Atlanta, Carson, Calif., Chicago, Clearwater, Fla., Fort Lauderdale, Hermosa Beach, Calif., Long Beach, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and St. Petersburg, Fla.
GROWING HISTORYThe FIVB Fuzhou Open in China going on this week (April 18-24) is the 339th men’s tournament since the FIVB began play in 1987 and the 300th FIVB women’s tournament since their competition started in 1992.
FIVB 2016Based in Lausanne, Switzerland as the international governing body for the Olympic sports of Beach Volleyball and Volleyball, the 2016 FIVB Beach Volleyball calendar featured a purse of US$8.8 million with a season that extended from last October to this October, competing at 23 venues in 13 countries. The schedule includes five FIVB Grand Slams, three Swatch FIVB Major Series events, 14 FIVB Opens and the special Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals in the United States. The showcase event will be the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil (Aug. 6-18).
The 2015 portion of the 2016 FIVB World Tour calendar started in October in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and included two more open events prior to the remainder of the schedule resuming at the FIVB Kish Island Open in Iran in February.
ROAD TO RIOThe Olympic qualification process began in 2015 with all FIVB World Tour events (except the Swatch FIVB World Tour Finals) in 2015 up until June 13, 2016 counting towards the Olympic Ranking in order to determine 15 spots for each gender that will take part in each 24-team field in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Copacabana Beach in Brazil in August. Counting the FIVB Xiamen Open, nine men’s and eight women’s events remain on the Olympic qualifying calendar for the FIVB World Tour.
FIVB WORLD TOUR PURSESThe five FIVB Grand Slam and three Swatch FIVB Major Series competitions in 2016, all double-gender, each have $800,000 in total purses. The total of $500,000 will be the purse for the Swatch FIVB World Tour Season Final which will feature the top eight teams in each gender and two wild card teams.
The 14 FIVB Open tournaments on 2016 calendar, 11 double-gender, and three men’s only, have $150,000 total purses for the double gender events and $75,000 for the single-gender competitions.
The gold medal teams in each gender at FIVB Grand Slam and Swatch FIVB Major Series events split $57,000, the silver $43,000, the bronze $32,000 and fourth place $24,000. The gold medal teams in each gender at FIVB Open tournaments each split $11,000, the silver $8,000, the bronze $6,000 and fourth place $4,500.
FIVB EVENT FORMATImplemented in 2013, the format of all the FIVB Beach Volleyball international tournaments – whether FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, FIVB Beach Volleyball Grand Slam or FIVB Beach Volleyball Open – are the same, featuring pool play followed by single elimination knockout rounds. Country Quota playoffs returned as needed in 2015 to determine the final teams for the qualification tournament.