BEACH VOLLEYBALL: ANOTHER POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY FOR JAMAICA

Over the past few years there have been many discussions about how Jamaica can benefit from the prowess demonstrated by its athletes. Those discussions have included proposals for building new stadia, more facilities in general, to accommodate the development of sport. Just recently President of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Captain Horace Burrell called on Government to borrow money to build mini-stadia across the country.

Personally, that’s not a bad idea but for me those stadia would be built through a private/public partnership rather than asking a government to take that on by itself. That being said, I do not believe we have to wait on stadia to be constructed to spur the development of football or volleyball, a sport that I believe has so much potential for growth in Jamaica it could easily outstrip track and field and football.

Beach volleyball is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. What was once a diversion for families while visiting the beach has become one of the most entertaining sports. At the recent Olympic Games in London, the 15,000-seater facilities was filled daily during the competition.

Beach volleyball doesn’t require that much infrastructure to thrive; some sun, sand, a net and seats. Jamaica possesses all those things so why aren’t we using them? The Jamaica Volleyball Association recently launched a beach volleyball tournament that will be staged at the Barbican ‘beach facility here in Kingston, miles away from any beach. Now, imagine of  they took that league and morphed it into a monthly endeavour along the island’s north coast, invited some of the world’s best players here to play exhibition matches for the sole purpose of exposing more people to the sport here in Jamaica.

Over time, if Jamaica played its cards right, we would have world class players here on a frequent enough basis where the local association could convince the regional organisations that Jamaica possesses the wherewithal to host a global beach volleyball tournament or two or three each year. If we made the prize money something like US$250,000 for each of those tourneys I am certain we could sustain a series of tournaments of such a high quality I am sure over time we could raise money from global sponsors to cover the purse while at the same time branding Jamaica as one of the best beach volleyball destinations.

Yes, there would be details like scheduling to be ironed out, regional bodies to convince and getting the hotels to buy in so there beaches could be used to host these tournaments but all in all, such a project is very possible and with a little bit of creativity Jamaica could stamp its brand as not just a country where people run really fast, but a place that the world’s best beach volleyball players can call home too.