LOVB got SPANX.
More on that later, but it’s a really big deal for the fledgling pro volleyball league that begins play in January.
League One Volleyball has franchises, six of them, in Austin, Atlanta, Houston, Madison, Omaha, and Salt Lake City, all — not coincidentally — tied in with at least one of its youth volleyball clubs.
LOVB has coaches and players, including nine of the 12 women on the USA Paris Olympics roster.
It’s full steam ahead for a venture that will offer America two competing women’s pro volleyball leagues positioned to go head to head in 2025.
No wonder chief operating officer Rosie Spaulding is excited.
Women’s sports, especially volleyball, are on an all-time high in every possible way, and LOVB is positioned to capitalize in a big way.
“We feel that now even more than four years ago when we thought that was the right time when there was a small handful of us working on the idea,” Spaulding said.
“I was excited about it then and even more so now that women’s sports — and one day I hope you don’t have to say women’s sports — are doing so well and that volleyball is the leading game.”
While the Pro Volleyball Federation got underway this past January, LOVB continued to methodically prepare for its launch.
“We’ve built this very intentionally, from the beginning in 2020 when we started, this idea of building a grass-roots community league,” Spaulding said. “The club community is thriving. We’ve got 54 clubs — the number is changing — across 22 states. As soon as we got into January 2024 I was so excited, because, yes! This year!”
Indeed. LOVB will have exhibitions in 2024 and start its 16-match season in January. In between, at the high-level, prestigious Triple Crown girls club tournament in Kansas City in February, the teams will convene for an in-season tournament.
We visited with Spaulding earlier this month in Arlington, Texas, at the Volleyball Nations League stop.
“The goal is to make this a sustainable league and we want to be around for the long haul,” Spaulding said. “There’s been a lot of intentionality around the way we built it.”
Spaulding said the 10-year LOVB plan was “to expand in year three with another two teams, and at that point go into a more traditional home and away match schedule.”
So six teams in 2025, the same…
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