Kerri Walsh Jennings, after breaking with AVP, serves up new beach volleyball league

Imagine if LeBron James, instead of “taking his talents to South Beach,” started an entirely new professional basketball league. Or, what if Serena Williams said, that instead of competing in Wimbledon, she would be forming her own professional tennis association?

Well, that’s exactly what Kerri Walsh Jennings is doing.

The most successful female volleyball player of all-time recently announced she is officially parting ways with the Association of Volleyball Professionals and creating a new beach volleyball league coupled with an entertainment and wellness event called p1440.

The name comes from the fact there are 1,440 minutes in every day with the goal being not to waste a single one of them. Walsh Jennings is certainly not wasting much time these days.

By spearheading this new league together with husband Casey Jennings and partners Dave and Kasia Mays, Walsh Jennings has grand plans. She wants to not only improve the prize money offered to professional beach volleyball players, providing them with greater opportunities to earn a living, but also to create an experience for event goers that can change lives.

Improving the financial side

Eight events are planned so far beginning September 2018 with the first stops in Chicago, San Jose Bay Area, San Diego and Huntington Beach. The next four events in the series will take place at the beginning of 2019. In addition to events, the organization plans to launch an internet and mobile platform with content related to health and wellness.

“Beach volleyball is within all of our hearts deeply and truly,” Walsh Jennings said. “Our first objective is to up the game and really improve the financial side of professional beach volleyball. The grassroots are booming. The sport is so healthy and so vibrant except at the top.”

The organization is banking on volleyball as a booming sport. New fans are out there, they say. And with festivals succeeding around the country, they hope to tap into both markets for a mutually beneficial experience.

Along with a volleyball tournament, a p1440 event will also include live music not as an add-on but integrated as part of the event, Walsh Jennings said. The cost to attend will be about $40.

“Our goal, which I don’t think has been done successfully before in our sport, is to really make the event integrated,” she said during a phone interview on the way to the gym. “Before it was kind of just an add on. They would have this great activation, but it’s just an add-on. It’s not part of the DNA of the actual event. I think that’s where the p1440 events will really differentiate themselves. Everything we have on-site is going to be part of our bloodline.”

AVP and exclusivity

The idea to break free of the AVP and start her own league came out of a contract disagreement in 2016 and subsequent lawsuit with the professional organization that Walsh Jennings had been a part of since she was 23 years old.

“To part ways was really hard and was not an easy decision, but out of the challenging times come beautiful blessings and this is exactly what this is,” she said.

Her dispute with the AVP centered around exclusivity, a provision in the player’s agreement that prohibits them from competing in another U.S. tournament professionally. Ironically, it’s this provision that players will be faced with considering if they want to join the p1440 tour. With just eight tournaments per year offered by the AVP, Walsh Jennings felt this was unreasonable, so she would not sign. Her own league will require no such exclusive rights to any athlete, she said.

“At some point, if I’m going to be complaining for years about something, I need to do something about it,” she said.

That “something” she hopes is not putting players in a difficult situation. Her league is open to whoever wants to play, no matter their contracts with another league. Whether the AVP will allow a player to compete in p1440 is another question, which was not determined by press time.

Based on previous player’s agreements, if you play in a competing league you cannot come back to the AVP, said Eric Fonoimoana, a former pro who now coaches at Mira Costa High School. Fonoimoana said when he was playing there were 20 tournaments per year so it really wasn’t an issue.

“In a perfect world, they would be able to work together,” he said. “The bottom line is players want an opportunity. The players will just have to decide whether signing with Kerr is worth it.”

More pro opportunities

So far, p1440 has not announced how much prize money will be offered per tournament, something that obviously will play the largest part in attracting talent. An ideal situation for players would be to play in both leagues, which schedules will allow.

“Until it’s up and running and you see who comes to it and plays in the event it’s hard to tell,” said Fonoimoana. “If she doesn’t get anybody but Kerri and a few others I don’t see it making it very far.”

Walsh Jennings said she realized the importance of what she was doing at a recent collegiate tournament. Looking out on the field of young talented players she felt badly they had so few options to pursue volleyball as a professional career.

“It’s not about me or my situation with the AVP. This is about the future of the sport,” she said. “These athletes need a home.”

The goal, first and foremost, she said is to give athletes greater control over their futures.

“In order to do that, if we have to allow them more choices and let them stand on their two feet and direct their destiny more instead of being beholden to certain powers that be.”