The Dreamer
It is safe to say that Hans Stolfus is a dreamer. The former AVP player whose career was cut short by a pinched nerve in his neck has huge dreams about the future of beach volleyball. Some would call them impossible dreams.
The ultimate? A true beach volleyball world tour, outside of the reaches of the FIVB, run by individual promoters and open to any player anywhere who wants to enter. Every tournament with prize money would be worth points that players could cumulate though a global scoring system. The end of the season purse: one million dollars.
“Imagine if we had a global market of volleyball fans,” Stolfus says. “The markets we could hit and the money we could generate would be staggering. Imagine players saying that they won’t play in tournaments unless they are a part of this. The entire sport shoots through the sky.”
Imagination is one thing Stolfus has coming out of his ears. Anyone who read his AVP blog could see that. His column entitled “The Hot Stove,” filled with obscure and sometimes random but always colorful and humorous references, kept fans up to date on the juicy partner break-ups of the tour.
Stolfus was writing a blog before he joined the AVP staff as well. In it he did not mince words, often slamming the Tour for what he believed was bad decision-making and horrendous treatment of the players. In a “keep-your-enemies-closer” kind of move, the AVP hired Stolfus in part to silence that voice of dissent.
“It was what fans and friends referred to as propaganda,” Hans says of his time writing for the AVP. “Most thought I was just churning out propaganda for the AVP by saying everything is brilliant. And that they paid me off, or I sold out. But the real reason I took the job was because I needed to pay rent. So yeah, in a way I did sell out. It sucks, I’ll be the first to admit it. But there is a breaking point for everybody. And I tried my best to use the opportunity to bring more spotlight to the players in whatever way I could.”
When the league closed its doors in August, he and all the other AVP employees and players found themselves unemployed. Stolfus called up his old friend and doubles partner Jason Ring with an idea.
More on Stolfus and the PBVA
The Idea
The Back Story
The Obstacles
The Next Steps
