Todd Rogers is one half of the top U.S. men's beach volleyball duo, an Olympic gold medalist and the recently crowned winner of the FIVB World Tour with partner Phil Dalhausser. This week, I had a one-on-one interview with Todd and got to ask him about his thoughts on the collapse of the AVP, what he thinks needs to happen next, what the future looks like and the pro boycott of the Manhattan Beach tournament. Here is the interview in Todd's own words. For more on Todd Rogers, check out his website and his blog.
Do you and Phil consider your priority to be the AVP Tour? How do you think the absence of the AVP will impact American beach volleyball?
Our main priority is definitely the domestic tour. I recognize several things. One, it has provided a place to play for not only the top players but also middle ranked players that can still make a living playing domestically as they have in the past. And it gives an opportunity for the younger players to not only have a place to play but also to see people and say OK I want to be like this girl or this guy. It gives them role models to look up to and people to try and emulate. It’s done a lot of good things. I think that’s why the U.S. on both the men’s and women’s side has done so well. It is because we had a good domestic tour. Without one, I think that you will probably see USA Volleyball slowly fade away aon the beach side. Obviously it won’t happen right away because you still have a lot of good teams out there playing internationally but I could see by 2016 it certainly having an effect and certainly by 2020.
Do you think there will be any type of professional beach volleyball tour in 2011?
I’m really positive that something is going to happen. Whether that will be called AVP I don’t know. I think there are so many interested parties right now of wealthy individuals, wealthy corporations, financial people, that have a lot of money and the ability to put something on. I would be surprised if something is not there. I’m thinking it is in the 90 percentile that there will be some sort of tour. Will it be a 20 stop tour? Highly unlikely. I think it is more likely a 6-8 stop tour, we grow those events and then add events each year to 10 or 12 events. I think that is the best thing that could happen. Make great events, don’t necessarily make more events than that, just make them into bigger events. More prize money, bigger stadiums, more fans. I’m really optimistic actually that there will be something next year and Phil and I look forward to hopefully being a part of that.
Was the AVP ownership and management open with you and the other players about what was going on at the end?
I kept hearing them say, hey we’re under the gun. We need some investors. I was hearing that and thinking OK they are kind of keeping us in the loop as far as what is going on. A lot of players seemed shocked when Hermosa and Long Beach came around, that we were in this state. But to me I wasn’t shocked at all because I heard them say these things several times in meetings. Maybe players weren’t listening, maybe they didn’t want to hear it. That’s pretty common. This is what they want to do and they just ignore the bad stuff thinking that the AVP has always made it before. But I’m one of the older players and I was there when it went down in ’97, that was my first year and it had some doldrums there for the next four or five years until Leonard (Armato) actually built it back up to a respectable size in prize money and what not. So I remember that a lot of people stick their head in the sand. You know, the ostrich, they don’t want to hear it. So I think they were pretty open about what was going on. Obviously there was a lot of things they can’t share because it’s business. But the general ideas and thoughts about what’s going on was there in my opinion.
Did you hear the interview with owner Nick Lewin of RJSM on The Net Live this week and what are your thoughts on his role in the AVP's demise?
I didn’t hear the interview but I did hear about the interview. I can’t comment on it because I didn't hear it but I heard he was detached. Nick stepped in and RJSM Partners stepped in and basically saved the tour in 2008. Basically the same thing could have happened in 2008 that happened in 2010. They stepped in and brought two million dollars to make the tour run for the rest of the year. And I believe that RJSM put in another million or two over the course of 2009 to keep things running. Obviously he and the partners got to a point where they said hey we can’t keep sticking in money here. It was a larger amount of debt this time around and according to them they couldn’t justify that this time around. And in terms of him being involved in the tour and stuff like that, I was very grateful for him in 2008.
Did he do some things that I don’t agree with? Yes. There were a couple of incidences that I didn’t agree with him and I actually spoke with him about the things. To me he was always very honest and forthright and truthful. I think he’s probably been under a lot of stress the last few months, I’m guessing and that is causing him to be a little bit erratic in his phone calls, I don’t know. Obviously there were questions I asked that he couldn’t answer for whatever reason he just would not answer because of the fact that I am a player and it is business. Or that he didn’t know because it was management that would know something like that. I don’t know but I try to stay in the loop, and I would ask him some questions that he probably didn’t think I should be privy to. But he was always honest with me about it. He never lied to me, or at least I never caught him in a lie, let’s put it that way. He would just tell me I can’t answer that. As far as his relationships with players, he was always honest with me. There were some incidences with players that were not in a positive light, but as far as to me, he never bald face lied to me that I know of.
As far as you know, were all the players paid all of their tournament winnings?
Yes, they were. I was paid for all my events. I know they sent out checks for Hermosa and Long Beach and I cashed my checks and they went through. That was weeks ago so I believe all the checks were sent out at the same time. The only thing I can see is if someone didn’t cash their check for whatever reason and then three weeks later they go bankrupt, you know, obviously there may not be funds in the bank or maybe the funds have been frozen, I don’t know. But I would put that blame on the player for not realizing what is going on and not immediately going to the bank and cashing the check.
