Adelaide has enhanced its sporting pedigree by winning the hosting rights for the prestigious 14th FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in 2025.
This will be Australia’s inaugural hosting of beach volleyball’s biggest global tournaments for both men and women, which will further put the South Australian state in the elite sporting limelight.
There will be home-court advantage for Aussie athletes at not just the 2025 World Championships, but the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Victoria and the 2032 Olympics in Queensland.
As a sport, beach volleyball was first developed on the exotic beaches of California and Hawaii in the early 20th century but was not played in an organised format until the 1970s.
A decade later, after proving particularly popular on the beaches in Brazil, kicked off the start of making the sport commercially viable.
Since being accepted as a trial sport at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, beach volleyball has been cherished with its longevity accountable for a plethora of reasons.
With just two players per team for the beach format, the marginally bigger and lighter ball than indoor volleyball allows players to close distances and often ends up with eye-catching diving plays.
Format and Competition
Around 1,000 cubic metres of sand will be required to transform the iconic Memorial Drive Tennis Club, home to the annual Adelaide International tennis tournament, into a world-class beach volleyball venue for the 2025 events.
With the world’s leading 48 men’s and women’s teams each vying for top honours, the tournaments each divide four teams into a dozen groups in a round-robin format.
The top two teams from each group, along with the eight best third-placed-sided parties advance to the knockout phase.
Digital Fanbase
When Brazil scooped the women’s crown at last year’s Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rome there were 16 million fans online. The Brazilian men had to settle for the runner-up spot to Norway at the Foro Italico Complex in Italy.
So far the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is leading this year’s best-performing international federation on social media through Volleyball World’s digital platforms.
Major Interest
There’s been a shift in the sport’s global appeal with particular growth of interest in female athletes, both in terms of fan engagement and through betting.
Beach volleyball, thanks to the interest in the Pro Tour as well as major competitions, has been enjoying an increase in…
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