Provisional 2017 beach volleyball schedule announced

Lausanne, Switzerland, October 25, 2016 – Highlighted by World Championships, four five-star Swatch Major Series events and the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals, the provisional 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball Calendar features 23 events starting in the United States in February on Fort Lauderdale Beach in south Florida and featuring $6.5 million in prize money.Eighteen of the events will be double gender tournaments with three stops being women’s only tournaments and two competitions featuring men’s only play. The signature event will be staged July 28 through August 6 in Austria when Vienna hosts the $1-million FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships for men and women on Danube Island. In addition to the opening event in Fort Lauderdale, United States (February 7-12), other Swatch FIVB World Tour Major Series stops will be in Poreč, Croatia (June 27-July 2), Gstaad, Switzerland (July 4-9), and Hamburg, Germany (August 8-13). The season will close with the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour finals from August 22 to 27 at a location to be announced.The FIVB is working with promoters to organise two additional five-star events in Italy and the United States.  The upcoming international beach volleyball schedule also features the introduction of the FIVB’s new five-star structure announced June 9 for the FIVB World Tour between 2017 and 2020 which will see all events on the tour assigned a star rating between one and five. Five and four star will be the highest level elite events while three, two and one star events are designed to develop the sport in as many regions as possible. The five-star structure is one of the many steps taken by the FIVB to modernise and streamline its competitions in a golden period for beach volleyball on the back of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and on the road to Tokyo 2020. FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F°  said: “The aim of the new structure is to provide a platform and formation of events that increase the number of competitions in a growing number of hosting countries and create a sustainable business model while providing additional commercial flexibility and opportunities.” In addition to Austria and the United States, 16 other countries will host …

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