Update: LA28 has moved the beach volleyball events to Long Beach’s Alamatos Beach, which is its downtown beach. This site has previously hosted the FIBV beach volleyball events. The sand there is thinner more “dusty” than the deep sand of Manhattan Beach.
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Sports Editor
Santa Monica’s loss could – and should – be Manhattan Beach’s gain.
Beach volleyball, one of the most popular sports in the Summer Olympic Games, will not be held in Santa Monica for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games.
“Despite good-faith efforts to reach a deal that would benefit both the Santa Monica community and work for LA28, ultimately the two parties were not able to agree to terms around community benefits, operational details and financial guarantees,” Santa Monic posted in this statement.
It was a bad choice to begin with, for Santa Monica has no connection to beach volleyball, an iconic Southern Californa sport. It should have been placed in the birthplace of beach volleyball about 20 miles to the south, Manhattan Beach. There, and in neighboring Hermosa Beach, a big part of the culture revolves around beach volleyball, there are courts lined up for miles along the beach and the city hosts the annual Manhattan Beach Open AVP tournament, an event so historic and significant it is known as the Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball.
The residents there would eat it up the way they do the burgers at Ercoles. The buzz through the South Bay Beach Cities would be incredible. The Manhattan Beach Pier, which has a Walk of Fame for winners of the Manhattan Open, and the downtown area would be one of THE places to be during the Olympics. It’s a no-brainer.
Santa Monica turned it down because it feels it doessn’t need it, that it will have tourism dollars regardless of whether it hosts the event or not. A financial analysis commissioned by the city found it would bring in $14.09 million but cost $15.54 million, resulting in a $1.45 million loss. Without hosting the event, the city’s analysis showed it would get $11.3 million in tourism revenue with just $650,000 in related expenses.
The plan included a temporary 12,000-seat stadium north of the pier, plus warm-up and practice courts together with operational and broadcast stations set up in Beach Lot 1 North. Well, Manhattan Beach has all the warmup courts and the Manhattan Beach Open is already under contract to have its grandstands built by the Grand Prix Assocation of Long Beach. (The GPALB also builds the grandstands for the Huntington Beach Open.)
Huntington Beach and Long Beach are being now considered for beach volleyball but LA28 should have it in Manhattan Beach.
Leave a Reply